Illya Goldman Gubin of IGG Atelier isn’t here to be labeled or pigeonholed. This Ukrainian-born, Berlin-based artist and designer has found a unique niche in the art world by turning everyday materials into objects that challenge both our perception and our instincts. His pieces look familiar — crushed cardboard, dark-textured shoes, luggage turned into suitcases, seemingly raw foam arrangements —but they’re all carefully designed illusions, as Gubin’s work blurs the boundaries of function, material, and artistic intent. Each piece invites you to take a closer look, to touch it, and ultimately, to question it.
From Cardboard to Fashion to Foam: A Path of Unlikely Materials
Illya Goldman Gubin’s work with cardboard might be his most recognizable project, and it’s perhaps the perfect entry point into his artistic mind. These sculptures or objects look like ordinary crushed boxes, but touch them, and you’ll feel an unexpected strength and solidity. These “cardboard” creations tap into a theme Gubin returns to often: reprogramming our expectations. “We all know what happens if… your phone or your glass… falls on the ground,” he explains. “So, you basically have a programmed feeling or a certain scenario… We don’t need to drop another glass on the floor to understand if it’s going to break”. By transforming cardboard into something sturdier, through an almost readymade approach, he’s asking viewers to reimagine their expectations and engage with his work through touch.
Gubin doesn’t just stop at cardboard. His work with ECCO on the Metropole Seoul Derby shoe takes a familiar item and renders it almost alien. Here, his process is applied to a limited run of 100 pairs, each of which features a dark, volcanic texture creeping up the shoe; he originally developed this texture for his Struktur series. The collaboration, described by ECCO as “wearable art” transforms footwear into something mysterious, evoking a dark, minimalist sculpture rather than a daily accessory.
Another collaboration, this time with luxury luggage brand Rimowa, takes Gubin’s aesthetic in yet another direction. By draping a carbon-fiber sheet on the suitcase with its handle up, he is able to literalize an implicit function of it as a seat. These suitcases disrupt assumptions about both material and function. Rimowa may have started with luggage, but Gubin has transformed it into a statement on permanence and impermanence, touching on the way travel and, tellingly, on what we leave behind.
Art Through Performance: Crafting in Silence
For Gubin, creating these pieces isn’t just about the final form—it’s also about a physical process. “It’s very performative work,” he says, describing how he personally crushes, shapes, and molds the cardboard into its final, deceptively fragile-looking state. He explains his hands-on approach with an almost reverent appreciation for silence, choosing not to reveal too much about his methods. In an age where artists are pressured to “show the process” for social media clout, Gubin prefers to let the work speak for itself, saying, “It almost kills the magic” if too much is shown. His pieces embody this mystery, inviting people to come to their own conclusions and connect with the materials on a personal level.
The Art of Making Us Question
Gubin’s art is designed to blur lines, and it’s here that his background in fashion truly shines through. Fashion was his entry point to visual expression, and he values it for its accessibility. “All the kids can dive into fashion very quickly because you don’t need to study it…you can experiment,” he says. Fashion is open to anyone, and that’s a quality he wants to infuse into his art—a field that he believes is still bound by a sense of exclusivity, requiring “certain families or…universities to be acknowledged”. His collaborations with ECCO and Rimowa speak to this vision, taking functional, accessible objects and raising them to the level of high art: accessible and collectible at the same time.
Even his more abstract foam pieces carry this concept forward, taking an everyday material and giving it a shape that looks fragile, but feels unexpectedly solid. In these sculptures, Gubin confronts us with a new paradox of materiality: how can something appear soft, yet feel unyielding? It’s an extension of his goal to “heal a programmed mind” by challenging our assumptions and pushing us out of mental autopilot.
Embracing Doubt and Learning from “Trash”
For someone as confident in his work as Gubin, self-doubt is an ongoing companion. When asked about dealing with criticism, he advises, “You need to be your own fan,” a reminder that an artist’s first job is to make work that they themselves believe in. His process, he explains, is often inspired by misunderstandings—a misinterpreted image or a glimpse of something familiar seen from a different angle. This practice even extends to what he calls “trash aesthetics”—a fascination with discarded objects, with photographing garbage bags crumpled like they were arranged deliberately. “I like the idea of the singularity,” he says, pointing out that these are moments that can never be recreated, accidental art made from the flotsam of daily life.
What’s Next for IGG?
Gubin’s future may be open-ended, but his mission is as clear as ever. He’s out to create work that makes you see differently, not just once, but every time you encounter it. He calls his work “usable art,” an invitation to interact, question, and rethink what an object can be. And as for his next steps? He’s refreshingly grounded: “Just try to be here now”.
Whether it’s a cardboard sculpture, a foamy paradox, or a pitch-black Derby shoe, Gubin’s work is an invitation to pause, explore, and let yourself be surprised. In a world obsessed with explanations and “how it’s made” videos, Illya Goldman Gubin reminds us that sometimes, the mystery is half the magic. If you want to hear more from the creative, stay tuned to our YouTube channel – where you’ll be able to find the full interview.
