"The problem are not ideas, ideas are out there, the real problem is to know which ideas you invest in and which ideas you give time to." - Ron Arad

Among the most respected and influential designers working today, Ron Arad is celebrated for his versatility and his consistently inventive and challenging designs. Originally trained as an architect, he made his name in London in the early 1980s as a designer and maker of sculptural furniture. Since then, he has defied categorization by curators and critics, working in both design and architecture and producing an array of innovative objects. He is noted for his curiosity about technology and his sense of freedom, ignoring the boundaries between traditional disciplines of industrial design, architecture and sculpture.

Ron Arad was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1951 to artist parents. After studying at the Jerusalem Academy of art from 1971 to 1973, he moved to London to study at the Architectural Association from 1974 to 1979. In 1981 he set up One Off Ltd, a design studio, workshops and showroom in Covent Garden with Caroline Thorman. Then in 1989 he founded Ron Arad Associates, an architecture and design practice in Chalk Farm, north London, where he has remained ever since.

In his studio, Arad developed all kinds of materials and processes, from ready-mades and welded metal to Lucite, Corian, bronze or stainless steel, to plastics and rapid-prototyping. He made limited edition pieces, and also worked with manufacturers to develop mass produced designs. In 1993 he made the tempered-steel "Bookworm" bookshelf for Kartell, which can loop and coil on the wall in any configuration, and in 1997 the "Tom Vac" aluminum stacking chair for the Swiss furniture manufacturer Vitra. Arad re-invents everyday objects, retaining their original function but at the same time transforming them into witty and provocative abstract sculptural forms.

Since 1997, Ron Arad has been Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art in London, where he created a Department of Design Products, merging the original furniture and industrial design departments for a more interdisciplinary approach. His work has been exhibited at many major museums and galleries throughout the world and is in many public collections including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Vitra Design Museum, Germany. "Ron Arad: No Discipline" was staged at the Centre Pompidou, Paris from November 2008 to March 2009, transferring to the Museum of Modern Art, New York from August to October 2009.

Today there is a notable trend among major players in the art market towards design as a highly collectible genre of contemporary art. Arad's beautiful and idiosyncratic designs are particularly sought after. Bodyguard, a unique sculpture and Blo-Void 3, one of an edition of 6, date from 2006. Both are typically fluid and sensuous chair sculptures made of painted aluminum in Arad's characteristically free, curvaceous style. Arad developed a technique from the car and aeronautic industry to create blown aluminum pieces at very high temperatures. The objects are then polished to achieve a brilliant mirror polished finish. These pieces show Arad's ability to innovate with cutting-edge technology while perfecting hands-on craftsmanship.

Ron Arad is a British-Israeli industrial designer, artist, and architect whose work spans furniture, sculpture, and large-scale public commissions. He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and later at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. Arad began his career with the “Rover Chair,” constructed from a repurposed car seat mounted on a steel frame, and in 1981 he co-founded the One Off studio with Caroline Thorman. He later established Ron Arad Associates in 1989 and Ron Arad Architects in 2008.

Arad’s practice is defined by experimentation with unconventional materials, advanced technologies, and fluid, sculptural forms. He created widely recognized designs such as the Tom Vac chair, the Well Tempered Chair, and the Bookworm bookshelf produced by Kartell. His projects also include the Windwand in London and LED-based lighting works for Swarovski capable of displaying text.

Arad has held teaching positions in Vienna and at the Royal College of Art in London, where he served as head of the Department of Product Design until 2009. He was named a Royal Designer for Industry in 2002, received the London Design Medal in 2011, and was appointed Emeritus Professor and elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts in 2013.

His work is represented in major institutions including:

Museum of Modern Art in New York

Victoria and Albert Museum in London

Centre Pompidou in Paris.