KARINE ARABIAN
Trained at ESMOD and Studio Berçot, Karine Arabian made her mark in 1994 by winning the International Festival of Fashion in Hyères in the accessories category. For six years, she collaborated with prestigious houses such as Swarovski and Chanel, crafting a unique and elegant universe. In 2000, she launched her own brand of shoes and leather goods, quickly gaining recognition in France and internationally. Her success was celebrated in 2007 with an exhibition at the Musée de la Mode in Marseille. Over fourteen years, her iconic creations captivated Parisian women as well as international stars, including Audrey Tautou, Vanessa Paradis, Scarlett Johansson, Madonna, and Beth Ditto, leaving a lasting impression on the fashion world.

FRANCK BLAIS
A graduate of the Beaux-Arts, Franck Blais began his career as a set and costume designer, moving between the Parisian music scene and emerging French choreographic productions. In 1999, he designed the visual identity for FIAC (Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain), merging his passion for art and graphic design. He later collaborated with cultural institutions as well as luxury brands including Gucci, Rochas, Givenchy, Fendi, and Cartier, working as an independent artistic director. In 2008, he founded Warmgrey, a visual communication agency, and L’Espace d’en bas, a contemporary art gallery.

JN.MELLOR CLUB
In 2019, the artist duo Karine Arabian and Franck Blais launched JN.Mellor Club, a creative platform for crafting radical and iconoclastic objects. Building on a rich and multifaceted background, they initiated a deliberate evolution—shifting their practice from accessory to object, from object to a fluid, undefinable output at the intersection of design, art, and the poetics of the everyday.

Karine Arabian and Franck Blais navigate the porous boundary between the functional and the futile, mining the overlooked spaces of daily life and transmuting residue into fetishized artifacts. A fragment of rubble becomes their raw material—wrapped, sheathed in leather, meticulously hand-stitched using saddlery techniques. This intervention transforms what was discarded and anonymous into a relic, preserving its mystery and narrative. It is an act of care and elevation, an alchemical shift that alters the object’s status and compels a reimagining of its meaning.

By working with forms shaped by chance and natural volumes, the duo rejects the production of new shapes, opting instead to engage with what already exists. Their approach is a process of assemblage, a curation of fragments that coalesce into what Pascale Ancel in Arte Povera Monument contre-monument et Histoire might call “the sensitive material of an imaginary narrative.”

Today, their transdisciplinary practice finds its place in contemporary art galleries, design fairs, and luxury houses, while also intersecting with live performance. Through these collaborations, their object-sculptures invite engagement and reinterpretation. Each piece becomes an open-ended proposition—an opportunity to rethink the role of objects in shaping human experiences and the mythologies they carry.