“The Interna Collection team just love a challenge, have an acute sense of what the market demands and yet kowtow to no-one. They are in the process of bringing into being an elegant world made up of treasured objects where the banal has no place.”
Franco Poli was born in Padua in 1950. He completed his studies in Venice at the I.A.U.V. (University Institute of Architecture of Venice) and the U.I.A. (International University of Art) and in 1974 started working professionally as a designer. He was Professor of Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice until 1996, and he is visiting professor at Milan Polytechnic and at the U.I.A. of Florence. He has been responsible for many publications, and has been involved in numerous exhibitions for which he has received awards both in Italy and abroad: his “Flying” chair (Montina) is now on permanent display at the Denver Art Museum; in 2003 he received the Chicago Athenaeum’s Good Design Award for his Openside Sofa (Matteograssi); the “Fonds National d’Art Contemporaine” in Paris has ecently acquired Poli’s “Boogie Woogie” bookcase (Bernini). He designs for a number of companies, such as Bernini, Matteograssi, Poltrona Frau, and Tonon. He currently lives and works in Verona.