A breathtaking exhibition celebrating modernism’s transatlantic ties soars above Manhattan

In the years following the second world war, a significant group of creatives criss-crossed the globe in search of fresh horizons and inspiration. The resulting dialogue and shared appreciation for modernist ideas that developed between Europe and Latin America during this era is explored in an exhibition of more than 100 works—spanning furniture, lighting, and painting—inside Galerie Gabriel’s penthouse space in New York.

To curate the show, titled 'Crossed Trajectories: Jean Royère, Roberto Platé, and the Global Journey of Designers and Artists,' gallery founder Nancy Gabriel enlisted New York-based interior designer Andre Mellone, who himself relocated from Brazil, to lend his eye for modernism and present art and design on equal footing.

‘It's not often that you get to play with this level of design,’ said Mellone, who admitted to feeling like ‘a kid in a candy store’ while selecting and arranging the works. With the Manhattan skyline as a dazzling backdrop, pieces by French designer Jean Royère and Argentine artist Roberto Platé take centre stage, joined by works from peers who similarly crossed the Atlantic in both directions.

Rather than furnishing the rooms as domestic spaces, where pieces are typically read together, Mellone looked to the layouts and styling of mid-century hotel lobbies and office waiting rooms, allowing each work to stand alone. With almost no accessories, minimal floral arrangements and playful moments such as chairs facing away from one another, the result resembles what Mellone describes as a ‘’50s hotel in Casablanca.’

Royère, ‘a true nomad,’ moved from his native Paris to Beirut, Tehran, and later Lima and São Paulo, absorbing influences for his furniture along the way. After studying the designer’s highly stylised, colour-blocked sketches, Mellone translated them into vignettes anchored by flat, single-hue wool carpets from Nordic Knots that give each space its own identity.

Encouraged by Gabriel, he continued this bold approach to colour through the furniture selection, including a baby-blue upholstered sofa and club chair set by Royère that he says is unlike anything he has ever seen. ‘If I even thought about using these colours in my own work, my clients would go crazy,’ he joked. Mellone also favours a Jorge Zalszupin bookshelf in the green room, and a Joaquim Tenreiro credenza topped with two small raw-iron lamps.

The apartment’s soaring ceilings easily accommodate Platé’s large-scale paintings. Having fled Argentina’s dictatorship for Paris, Platé worked as a set designer before turning to abstract art—a background Mellone immediately recognised in the ‘scale and theatricality’ of the works, which he fell in love with. He positioned them in dialogue with furniture and lighting by Martin Eisler, Carlo Hauner, Giuseppe Scapinelli, Zanine Caldas and many others.

Importantly, 'Crossed Trajectories' underscores the vital role of cross-cultural exchange in developing and disseminating new ideas. The exhibition also affirms that the movement of people can lead to extraordinary creative output, and therefore should be encouraged rather than impeded.

'Crossed Trajectories: Jean Royère, Roberto Platé, and the Global Journey of Designers and Artists' is on view through 17 April 2026 at Galerie Gabriel Sutton Tower.