Ceramic Base Oo Lamp

Eny Lee Parker is a contemporary New York City designer who makes forward-thinking creations via a thoughtful and traditional process. All of her floor lamps, stools, wall mirrors and other furniture and decorative items are made by hand, typically out of clay. Her work is often described as playful and organic, but Parker refuses to be relegated to just one style.

Parker was born in São Paulo. In high school, her mother recognized her knack for drawing and pushed her to pursue art. Parker moved to Georgia and studied at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she felt pulled toward interior design, launching her own design business while still in college.

Today, she works out of her Brooklyn studio. Among her most popular designs is the Oo lamp, a hybrid floor/table lamp with a double-pronged and curving shape. “The shape of the Oo lamp is supposed to resemble the curvature of our bodies," she explained to Introspective magazine, "while the texture is similar to the imperfections of our skin.”

Like many of Parker's creations, the Oo lamp is made from clay. However, she is constantly exploring new materials and mediums to continue growing as a designer, often using glass and textiles in her work.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Parker also undertook her first foray into rugs. The resulting floor coverings represent a collaboration between Parker and her best friend, print designer Spencer Malinski, with whom she was living at the time.

In 2022, Parker announced a collaboration with lighting brand Mitzi on a line of affordable lighting fixtures for the average consumer. "I loved the idea of designing something that has more of a democratic price point and is more accessible to the mass market," she told Architectural Digest. From avid collectors to everyday consumers looking to upgrade their home interiors, there are Eny Lee Parker designs for everyone.

On 1stDibs, find Eny Lee Parker lighting, seating, tables and more.

The modern floor lamp is an evolution of torchères — tall floor candelabras that originated in France as a revolutionary development in lighting homes toward the end of the 17th century. Owing to the advent of electricity and the introduction of new materials as a part of lighting design, floor lamps have taken on new forms and configurations over the years. 

In the early 1920s, Art Deco lighting artisans worked with dark woods and modern metals, introducing unique designs that still inspire the look of modern floor lamps developed by contemporary firms such as Luxxu. 

Popular mid-century floor lamps include everything from the enchanting fixtures by the Italian lighting artisans at Stilnovo to the distinctly functional Grasshopper floor lamp created by Scandinavian design pioneer Greta Magnusson-Grossman to the Paracarro floor lamp by the Venetian master glass workers at Mazzega. Among the more celebrated names in mid-century lighting design are Milanese innovators Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, who, along with their eldest brother, Livio, worked for their own firm as architects and designers. While Livio departed the practice in 1952, Achille and Pier Giacomo would go on to design the Arco floor lamp, the Toio floor lamp and more for legendary lighting brands such as FLOS. 

Today’s upscale interiors frequently integrate the otherworldly custom lighting solutions created by a wealth of contemporary firms and designers such as Spain’s Masquespacio, whose Wink floor lamps integrate gold as well as fabric fringes. 

Visual artists and industrial designers have a penchant for floor lamps, possibly because they’re so often a clever marriage of design and the functions of lighting. A good floor lamp can change the mood of any room while adding a touch of elegance to your entire space. Find yours now on 1stDibs.