Rose Uniacke, Galerie Gosserez and Galerie Le Beau prevail at the 2017 PAD Awards

Rose Uniacke's Best Stand at this year’s PAD Awards
Rose Uniacke was awarded Best Stand at this year’s PAD Awards
(Image credit: TBC)

The 11th London edition of the Pavilion of Art & Design (PAD) opened yesterday, celebrating the pinnacle in contemporary design, collectables, art, sculpture and jewellery. The highlights from the fair are recognised annually in the PAD Awards, a significant aspect of the showcase.

Yesterday, a jury led by Jasper Morisson, and including our very own brand and content director Tony Chambers, designer Tom Dixon, curator Jane Withers, and Serpentine Galleries CEO Yana Peel among others gathered to explore the array of booths on offer in Mayfair’s Berkeley Square, before announcing the winners at the prestigious collectors lunch, co-hosted by Wallpaper*. Just three accolades are up for grabs at the PAD Awards, with 68 booths from this year’s event competing for the Best Stand, Best Contemporary Design Piece and Best 20th-Century Design Piece.

British interior designer and art dealer Rose Uniacke scooped top honours for her booth, where her vintage and modern pieces (our favourite, a 1930s antique games table) were presented against a fresh yellow backdrop that she describes as ‘uplifting yet soothing’. This is not the first time she has won the award – back in 2015 the judges awarded Uniacke for her booth’s striking use of blue, a departure from traditional stand design.

Jose Zanine Caldas’ lounge chair

The sleek Cavunia plywood skeleton of Jose Zanine Caldas’ lounge chair (1949)

(Image credit: TBC)

Paris-based Galerie Gosserez, meanwhile, won the prize for Best Contemporary Design with Valentin Loellmann’s ‘Copper Corner’ bench, which was found hugging a tree inside the French gallery’s booth. Notable for its dynamic, boomerang shape, the bench reveals its most impressive aspect upon closer inspection: a deft use of materials. Loellmann seamlessly melded copper and charred oak to appear as one material in the thin benchtop that is elegantly bent in each corner. ‘The appearance is present but remains light and timeless,’ explained the designer.

The Best 20th Century Design prize went to Brussels’ Galerie Le Beau for its 1949 lounge chair by the late José Zanine Caldas. Comprising a charming base of Cavunia plywood, rope and fabric, the modernist piece exudes the Brazilian designer’s affinity for forest materials and craft carving.

Valentin Loellmann’s ‘Copper Corner’ bench

Paris-based Galerie Gosserez won the Best Contemporary Design award for Valentin Loellmann’s ‘Copper Corner’ bench

(Image credit: TBC)

The ‘Copper Corner’ bench has an intriguing boomerang shape

The ‘Copper Corner’ bench has an intriguing boomerang shape

(Image credit: TBC)

Galerie Le Beau's 1949 lounge chair by the late José Zanine Caldas

Winning Best 20th-Century Design was Brussels-based Galerie Le Beau with a 1949 lounge chair by the late José Zanine Caldas

(Image credit: TBC)

INFORMATION
PAD London is on view until 8 October. For more information, visit the website

ADDRESS

PAD London
Berkeley Square
London W1

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Sujata Burman is a writer and editor based in London, specialising in design and culture. She was Digital Design Editor at Wallpaper* before moving to her current role of Head of Content at London Design Festival and London Design Biennale where she is expanding the content offering of the showcases. Over the past decade, Sujata has written for global design and culture publications, and has been a speaker, moderator and judge for institutions and brands including RIBA, D&AD, Design Museum and Design Miami/. In 2019, she co-authored her first book, An Opinionated Guide to London Architecture, published by Hoxton Mini Press, which was driven by her aim to make the fields of design and architecture accessible to wider audiences.