Loren Kreiss

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Loren Kreiss
Born February 12, 1981 (1981-02-12) (age 43)
Los Angeles, California, United States
Nationality American
Occupation Businessperson, interior designer
Known for CEO & Creative Director of Kreiss, artwork
Spouse Kate Kreiss (m. 2010)
Children 2


Loren Kreiss (born February 12, 1981) is an American businessman and artist. He serves as the CEO & Creative Director of Kreiss, an American furniture manufacturer and retailer based in Los Angeles, California.

Early life

As a teenager, Loren started a punk music zine and record label entitled Lurid. After high school, he entered University of California at Los Angeles where he founded another small recording company Mister Mystery.[1]

Professional career

At 21, he began his career with his family’s business Kreiss in the company’s Miami, Florida location. In 2006, he moved to New York City where he was the director of East Coast Operations. In 2009, he became the company’s president and lead product designer.[1][2]

After the deaths of his Grandfather and Father in 2011 and 2012, the company briefly ceased operations. In 2014, Loren acquired and relaunched the brand out of his condominium in Los Angeles. He opened the company’s current flagship showroom in West Hollywood in 2016. In the ensuing years, Kreiss has gained a dedicated following of interior designers and celebrities including Janet Jackson, Magic Johnson, DJ Khaled, Michael Jordan, Eva Longoria and many others.[3]

Art career

Moving to New York in 2005 spawned the first of a series of custom art installations, conceived as collaborations with established comic illustrators.  Executed in 2005, The Artifact and the Manipulated Living is an 11 panel graphic novelette developed in conjunction with former Batman illustrator Mike Lilly which was installed in Loren’s first New York apartment and showcased in an April 2006 New York Times article.[1]

Loren’s second project, Ash, is a 15 panel installation executed in collaboration with Japanese illustrator Aya Kakeda; a graphic art approach to a modern children’s story, this was commissioned and installed in a client’s West Chelsea apartment.[4][1]

In 2007, Loren ventured into photography with Hey Mister, a 15 panel photographic installation completed for the New York Foundling charitable organization. Loren gave a camera to each of ten boys in the South Bronx and encouraged them to document their lives in photos for one week, after which Loren carefully selected and titled each photograph in the installation based on extensive interviews and time spent assimilating in the boys’ environment.  Loren subsequently earned “The Heart of Gold” award from the New York Foundling Hospital for his artistic contributions to charity. Loren’s experience producing Hey Mister was detailed in a February 2007 New Yorker column, “Blending In.”[5]

Loren’s last project, Say Hello to my Little Friends is his first purely independent artistic endeavor.  Each work began with a personal sketch, reminiscent of Loren’s childhood doodles, and was developed in hand-painted studies which became the template for large format silkscreen works.  Although clearly still indebted to the comic genre, Say Hello to my Little Friends is Loren’s first marked departure from the narrative format.  Each character is depicted in a bold Pop aesthetic of bright colors and clear contours, and functions equally well as a singular image or as a narrative proposition when placed in conjunction with other “friends.” Loren's first solo gallery show featured eight paintings and five sketches and occurred May 28th-June 19th, 2009 at AFP Galleries in New York City.[6]

References

Additional footnotes