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What does it take to turn a dying craft into a global art movement? đ¨â¨
We're in New Delhi, inside the studio of one of the most extraordinary creative minds working today â a man who walked away from the world of finance to revive ancient Indian metalwork techniques, and ended up showing his pieces in the garden of Karl Lagerfeld's former home in Paris, on the cover of Vanity Fair, and at the world's most prestigious design fairs. We sit down with Vikram Goyal â Princeton-educated engineer, former Morgan Stanley banker, co-founder of Kama Ayurveda, Yiva and now India's most celebrated collectible design artist. đī¸đŋ
This isn't a conversation about design. It's a conversation about following what was always there â and what happens when you apply the rigour of Wall Street to the world's oldest craft traditions.
đŠ Vikram Goyal studied engineering and development economics at Princeton University before building a career in finance at Morgan Stanley across the US and Hong Kong. His return to India in 2000 marked everything changing â he co-founded Kama Ayurveda, one of India's most celebrated luxury wellness brands, later sold to a Spanish conglomerate, before pivoting fully into his true calling: design. Today, Vikram Goyal Studio is internationally recognised for its mastery of ancient metalwork techniques â particularly repoussÊ and pietra dura â creating large-scale handcrafted brass objects that blur the line between furniture, sculpture and fine art. He is represented by the prestigious Nilufar Gallery in Milan, collaborates with De Gournay, and has exhibited at Design Miami, PAD Londonand the India Art Fair. He is a recipient of the Elle Decor India Designer of the Year award and features in Architectural Digest India's list of the 100 most influential designers. Design critic Glenn Adamson described his work as offering "a truly global vision, in which diverse traditions of craft and belief are combined into a single harmonious whole."
We cover:
đ¨ How a Princeton engineer and Morgan Stanley banker followed what was always inside him â and built one of India's most celebrated design studios without a single day of formal art training
đī¸ Ancient techniques meeting global galleries â from chiselling repoussÊ brass in a New Delhi workshop to showing life-sized Panchatantra animals in Karl Lagerfeld's Paris garden and a Ramayana-inspired salon at Frieze London
đ What inspires Vikram's work â flea markets, unexpected art deco palaces in Tokyo, conversations over dinner, India's visual heritage, and a lifelong belief that water always finds its level
đ§ The philosophy of creating without needing validation â why the most confident work comes when you stop making for others, and what it means to be the storyteller of a civilisation's craft rather than just a designer
đĢ Listeners get 10% off using the code thekollective10 at audreyschocolates.co.ukÂ
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Mentions: Vikram Goyal ¡ Rameshji ¡ Glenn Adamson ¡ Karl Lagerfeld ¡ Lucio Fontana ¡ ¡ Princeton University ¡ Morgan Stanley ¡ Kama Ayurveda ¡ Nilufar Gallery ¡ De Gournay ¡ ¡ Viya ¡ Elephant Family ¡ Design Miami ¡ PAD London ¡ India Art Fair ¡¡ Rome ¡ London ¡ Milan ¡ Tokyo ¡ Noida ¡ Panchatantra ¡ Ramayana ¡ Financial Times ¡ Architectural Digest ¡ Wallpaper ¡ Vogue ¡ Harper's Bazaar ¡ Elle Decor ¡ Robb Report ¡ Vanity Fair ¡ WWD ¡ Designboom ¡ Mint Lounge ¡ The Economic Times ¡ Conde Nast Traveller ¡ The Hindu ¡ ICON ¡ Cabana ¡ Yatzer ¡ First Post ¡ Commercial Interior Design ¡ Good Homes ¡ Outlook Luxe ¡ Platform ¡ a+ Magazine ¡ Stir Pad ¡ Lifestyle Asia ¡ The Voice of Fashion ¡ New Indian Express ¡
