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From significant business changes to noteworthy product launches, there’s always something new happening in the world of design. In this biweekly roundup, AD PRO has everything you need to know.
Exhibitions
Roman and Williams meditates on the emotional power of light
Lighting has always played a crucial role in Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer’s architecture and design work, a point made evidently clear in AD100 designers’ entrancing new exhibition, “A Certain Slant of Light” (on view through December 1). Within it, the duo has hand-selected 100 of their poetic creations hatched over the last two decades and suspended them in grand fashion at the former New York Mercantile Exchange in Tribeca. The luminaires, descending from the 30-foot-high ceiling at various heights, include the scalloped Rotonde, cask-like Woodrum, and hand-spun brass Oscar fixtures. Look out for the firm’s dozen new designs flaunting rippled glass, fluted alabaster, intricate chains, and Brutalist cast-bronze frames.
Botanical splendor awaits at LA’s Night Gallery
Landscape artist Lily Kwong has enlivened downtown LA’s Night Gallery with Subterrestrial, a towering installation in the north courtyard. On view through next summer, the showcase marks Kwong’s first installation in LA since 2017. The imposing mound soars almost 6 feet high and 18 feet in diameter, incorporating trees, grasses, and flowers native to Southern California that speak to Hügelkultur, a European permaculture technique. The self-irrigating garden, which will evolve through the shifting seasons, is bolstered by Kwong’s Solis series of solar photogram prints, on view in the gallery’s Chapel Room through December 7. The works depict plants culled from the Santa Monica Mountains and Kwong’s using expired photographic paper and alkalizing salt and gold.
A can’t-miss exploration of archival Swedish design, now on view in New York
A group of historically important furnishings from the Swedish Grace Movement—the Scandinavian nation’s 1920s and ’30s answer to Art Deco—are now on view at AD100 Hall of Fame Honoree Lee Mindel’s Manhattan Galerie56 in a collaboration with Stockholm’s Jackson Design. In “Swedish Grace,” pieces like Anna Petrus’s monumental cast iron and granite table, originally shown at The Met’s 1927 survey, “Swedish Contemporary Decorative Arts,” and Gunnar Asplund’s Senna Lounge Chair, designed for the 1925 Paris World Fair, shine light on the post–World War I style, which blended streamlined forms with neoclassical motifs. The exhibition is on view through January 31, and takes place as Galerie56 celebrates its two-year anniversary; in the new year, the gallery anticipates a robust programming lineup, including collaborations with Ralph Pucci and Friedman Benda, the latter of which will include rarely seen Ettore Sottsass designs. “It’s been a pleasure to collaborate for the third time with Stockholm-based Jackson Design, the world’s leading expert in Scandinavian decorative arts,” says Mindel. “The iconic Swedish Pavilion at the 1925 World’s Fair and the exhibit at The Met in 1927 were hallmarks of Swedish Grace, and many of those artifacts are now on view at Galerie56 nearly 100 years later.”
R & Company gives Abask’s artisan objet the gallery treatment
Synergy is the theme of R & Company’s newest exhibition, on view in its Tribeca space through December 21. A collaboration with retail destination Abask, the showcase presents chromatic works by Roberto Lugo, Jolie Ngo, Katie Stout, William Guillon, and more within an enveloping lucky-charm-green showroom. Meticulously crafted pieces from Iida Woodturning, Ri Sanpei, Lee Song-am, Huh Myoung Wook, and others. Consider Nancy Pearce’s delicate bronze pill bottles or Richard Marquis’s vessels, which come together beautifully with Lee Song-am’s sculptural oxidized black clay vases, Huh Myoung Woo’s copper teapot with the undulating spout, and studio Szklo’s blobby hand-blown glassware.
AD PRO Hears…
…for the 20-year anniversary of Hervé Van der Straeten’s representation at Ralph Pucci, the gallery has curated a menagerie of diverse works by the prolific French artist in its New York space. Silver gelatin prints from Christopher Makos pair nicely with Straeten’s new furniture, wherein geometric bronze forms dot consoles and cage chandeliers.
…Pierre Paulin has unveiled Action House, a retrospective furniture showcase at Judd Foundation in New York. Cocurated by Flavin Judd and Benjamin Paulin, the show is a powerhouse composition of seven designs, on view through February 15. The exhibition continues the historical use of the Judd Foundation house on Spring Street as a public exhibition space.
Product
Using antique textiles, Charlap Hyman & Herrero crafts ravishing cushions
Figures in an Interior, an Édouard Vuillard painting, inspired the name of Charlap Hyman & Herrero’s new pillow collection for the Future Perfect. The New York– and Los Angeles–based architecture and design firm’s cushions, each crafted from recycled Japanese kimonos and French tapestries, are on display at the gallery’s West Village town house through December 24. Within the display, you’ll also find a new edition of the AD100 firm’s rice paper lantern hand painted by Pilar Almon, firm cofounder Adam Charlap Hyman’s mother. The mystical vignette, a profusion of pattern, color, and texture, is rounded out by a kimono-upholstered antique Thonet bench, Jérôme Massier’s majolica jardinière and pedestal, and ribbon decals pulled from Almon’s paintings.
Bottega Veneta x Flos reimagine an iconic leather lamp
On the tail of its smash-hit animal bean bag chair collection for SS25, Bottega Veneta is setting its sights on lighting. In collaboration with Italian fixture maker Flos, the fashion house has reimagined Gino Sarfatti’s iconic Model 600 table lamp in its signature Intrecciato weave. Sarfatti’s Model 600 was designed in 1966—the same year that Bottega Veneta was founded in Vicenza, Italy. The similarities don’t end there: Both Bottega’s earliest bag designs and the Model 600 reimagined leather forms to suggest new ways of malleability. Now available, the special edition lamp comes in black, gray, red, emerald green, or signature Bottega Veneta green.
AD PRO Hears…
…Canadian designer Willo Perron’s self-described “basket of pillows” is now available at Knoll. All the buzz in previews at Milan Design Week this spring, the sofa—formally dubbed the Perron Pillo sofa—is available in 36 colorways.
Project Spotlight
Kiko presents a sure-of-self culinary voyage—and tapped Studio Tre for interiors to match
Diners reveling in their sunchoke old fashioneds and Maine lobster crispy rice at New York’s Kiko do so amid sophisticated surroundings. The Hudson Square restaurant comes from sommelier Lina Goujjane, formerly of Sushi Noz and One If by Land, Two If by Sea, and chef Alex Chang, most recently of Il Buco Alimentari. The menu draws from the partner’s motley influences, including Chang’s Mexican and Chinese roots, and is reflected in New American Voice firm Studio Tre’s refined interiors. Exposed brick, fireplaces, and skylights are holdovers from the space’s days as the longtime Giorgione, though Studio Tre layered them with sleek leather, mohair, oak, red marble, metal, and tiles in dreamy maritime hues. Note the space’s thoughtful decor details, like the tapestry over the sofa in the entry’s window nook and the pottery perched between banquettes.
Design Happenings
Salone del Mobile travels to China
Earlier this month, Salone del Mobile partnered with West Bund Art & Design and headed to Shanghai for “The Orbit’s Orbit,” an enticing installation showcasing products from 36 premier Italian furniture brands. The presentation was conceived by Milan architect and artist Matilde Cassani, who joined Chinese designer Wu Bin and Feng Cao, the founder of Shanghai’s 20C Gallery, for an on-site discussion on the nuances between Italian and Chinese design. For its next stop, the design fair ventured to Hong Kong for the “SaloneSatellite Permanent Collection 1998-2024,” on view through November 21 at the Arts Pavilion in West Kowloon. Co-hosted with International Design Furniture Fair Hong Kong, it looks back at more than 100 projects from emerging designers.
AD PRO Hears…
…for its 90th anniversary, design institution Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler has a slew of celebrations up its sleeve. To celebrate, the decorating firm reproduced a number of pieces from John Fowler’s iconic Hunting Lodge residence, including a two-tiered hand-painted flower holder and a classic Berkeley Sprig motif.
…LA Modern Auctions (LAMA) has announced a selection of works in the upcoming Design auction on November 21will benefit Frank Lloyd Wright’s historic Hollyhock House. Curated by Dung Ngo, the lots include furnishings, artwork, and objects from Christopher Norman, Ali Tayar, Edwin Chan, and more.
…last month, the inaugural recipient of the Future Perfect Prize, one of the only awards dedicated to design in the United States offering unrestricted direct funding, was announced. Anina Major, a Black artist originally from the Bahamas, received $20,000 alongside offerings of professional development mentorship to support her artistic practice. Major will debut a new body of work at the gallery’s West Village town house in 2025.
…Aerin Lauder’s namesake lifestyle brand opened its first West Coast store, a dreamy beachscape cabin dotted with SoCal palms. Located in Los Angeles’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood, Aerin now offers beauty, home decor, fashion, and other accessories at its third retail location nationwide.
…AD100 firm Peter Pennoyer Architects has announced Arezoo Shafizadeh as their new director of interior design. With more than two decades of nationwide experience on notable commercial and residential projects, Shafizadeh will helm current and future interior concepts for the firm.
