About
About Anastasia Nysten
"Every object has a story to tell, whether it is invented or inspired. It combines the surprise of the unknown and the expectation of the familiar."
Becoming Anastasia Nysten
Born in Ottawa to a Lebanese mother — an art magazine editor — and a Finnish father, a diplomat. They met in Beirut.
Anastasia Nysten grew up between Helsinki, Paris and Lebanon: cities that each imposed a different logic on daily life.
She describes herself as profoundly Lebanese. What she means is the Mediterranean instinct to communicate, to exchange a few words with a stranger — something that never left her regardless of latitude.
Services
At the music conservatory in Beirut, she was told to choose between the cello and design. She was already studying at ALBA, already interning at Karen Chekerdjian's studio, already practising daily. She chose design because it gave her the openness to others she always needed. Music, she says, still inhabits her completely.
Sharpening The Tools
After ALBA she moved to London, where she spent three years in the studio of lighting designer Michael Anastassiades — a formation in economy of form and the particular intelligence of restraint.
Alongside the studio, she has served since 2015 as Editor-in-Chief of Selections, an arts and culture magazine based in the levant and the gulf — a role that has kept one foot permanently in the critical conversation around art and design in the Arab world.
In 2015 she founded her own studio: objects, furniture, interiors and exhibition spaces for a practice that began in Beirut, operated from Dubai, and is now based in Madrid.
Services
In 2023, her work entered the institutional record of Lebanese design: selected for Beirut. The Eras of Design at mudac in Lausanne — the first-ever historical survey of design in Lebanon, curated by Marco Costantini.
She is part of a generation, alongside Carla Baz, Carlo Massoud, Marc Dibeh and Paola Sakr, recognised by Maison & Objet as defining.
A generation that built international practices with no rigid design ideology. The jury called it "a great liberty, which is very exciting." That liberty is visible in her work: it borrows from everywhere and belongs to nowhere in particular.
Recognition
Exhibitions & Awards
2024
Past Echoes — Villa Audi
Group exhibition, Middle Eastern Product Design. Beirut. With Karim Choueiri, Iwan Maktabi.
2023
Beirut. The Eras of Design — mudac ★
First institutional survey of Lebanese design history. Plateforme 10, Lausanne. Curated by Marco Costantini. Also shown at CID Grand-Hornu, Belgium (2022).
2019
Spazio Rossana Orlandi — Fuorisalone ★
Personal selection by Rossana Orlandi. One of 6 global Maison & Objet Rising Talent winners. Milan Design Week.
2019
Beacon — Pharaon Group ★
Open competition winner. Permanent public bench, Nejmeh Square, Downtown Beirut. Inaugurated September 28, 2019.
2019
Athr Gallery × Wehe
Group show, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
2018
Maison & Objet Rising Talent Award ★
One of 6 Lebanese designers. One of 6 globally. Paris, September 2018.
2018
Galerie Bensimon
Group exhibition, Paris Design Week.
2018
Kaldewei Future Award
Nominee. International.
2017
Beirut Design Fair Talent Award ★
Troll Chair. Beirut, Lebanon.
2016
House of Today — 3rd Biennial
Jungle Protocol theme. Beirut.
Designing Success