For his new exhibition at Friedman Benda (until 24 July 2026), Dutch designer Joris Laarman is offering two radical bodies of work that he cooked up in his laboratory in Amsterdam – a former munitions factory on the leafy ex-military peninsula of Zaandam, where he moved with his family three years ago.

His boulder-like 'Symbio' benches are 3D-printed in recycled and carbon-capturing concrete, with recessed patterns embedded with a bio-active substrate that supports the growth of mosses and lichens. These, in turn, will provide habitats for insects, attracting bird life to a garden. Meanwhile, his 'Ply Loop' series of furniture swaps the toxic glues typically used in engineered wood with a new 100 per cent biodegradable resin, while pushing the form and aesthetic possibilities of plywood to the limits.

Joris Laarman: designing for humans and nature

'Symbio' gives a nod to German eco-philosopher Glenn Albrecht’s notion of the Symbiocene – an imagined age after the Anthropocene, in which humans and nature coexist in a state of reciprocity.

‘It’s the only way forward,’ says Laarman. But aesthetics play a vital role in making the case to the consumer, he adds. ‘If you want to compete with all the fancy colours and material technologies from the industrial era, you have to show the expressive possibilities of bio alternatives and create desire so that, when faced with a choice, people choose the regenerative option.’

This, he does in spades. Laarman’s benches are a poetic ode to a symbiotic future, their seemingly primordial forms bearing a reaction/diffusion pattern first studied by Alan Turing that occurs in nature from the interaction of two chemicals: one that is active and the other inhibiting. These patterns – which appear on fish, zebras, leopards and many plants – encapsulate the meeting of nature and technology in Laarman’s work.

His 'Ply Loop' series is much more complex in form, featuring improbable, computer-generated curves made possible in real life thanks to his use of tiny, laser-cut strips of plywood and a bio-based resin from Plantics, an Arnhem-based company where the designer is a partner. It is a thermoset resin, meaning it doesn’t dry out while Laarman and his team of craftspeople assemble each strip by hand – an insane jigsaw puzzle that takes many hours to complete. 'The resin is like the syrup in [staple Dutch treat] stroopwafel,’ he says of the material, made with waste from the sugar beet industry. It can be separated from the timber and reused at the end of the furniture’s lifespan.

Designing with science

Both series involved many years of research and collaboration with scientists and material innovation companies, with Laarman seeing them as a proof of concept for larger pieces in future. 'The gallery is the only platform that enables us to really invest in research and experimentation,’ he says. 'Showing with [Friedman Benda] is the earliest stepping stone to getting these ideas out into the world.

One wall of the gallery will come to life with an animated projection of how Symbio could be applied to building façades, something Laarman is already exploring. He is particularly excited by the carbon-capturing concrete developments by companies such as Paebbl and Carstorcon.

‘For a long time, we’ve been talking about how we should build less, to protect the environment, but these could offer a 180-degree turn around,’ Laarman explains. ‘We could actually lock away more carbon than we emit as we build.’ If adopted at scale, such innovations would enable our cities to become carbon sinks. In the meantime, Laarman’s collections at Friedman Benda, which marry craft and computation to highly expressive effect, offer a tantalising glimpse of a regenerative future – one that we should all be striving to bring to fruition.

‘Joris Laarman: Symbio’, is at Friedman Benda in New York until 24 July 2026

British designer Faye Toogood chose a quote by Charlotte Perriand to introduce her latest project, a curation of Friedman Benda's booth at PAD London (until 19 October 2025).

'Pebbles, bits of shoes, lumps of wood riddled with holes, horsehair brushes – all smoothed and ennobled by the sea…' said the French master, listing a series of objects found on a beach and considered treasures by the inquisitive mind. The idea of finding beauty in mundane, even discarded objects lies at the heart of the British designer's work for the booth, which she describes as 'a tribute to curiosity, collecting and curating.'

The Magpie's Nest by Faye Toogood at PAD London

The installation includes works by Toogood, including pieces made for the occasion such as The Magpie Tapestries, featuring an ode to found objects, and the Maquette chairs in wire and paper, the latter also chosen as the winner of the PAD London Contemporary Design Prize. Alongside her work, she has curated a series of objects and furniture that offer different points of view on the natural world, created by the likes of Misha Kahn, Andrea Branzi and Fernando and Humberto Campana. 'The Magpie’s Nest is not a vitrine of trophies, it’s an uplifting and energetic choir of colliding collective voices,' she says.

The design curation is enriched by a series of found objects, foraged sticks, stones and broken bones from Toogood's own collections displayed amongst the artworks.

'My dad was a really big bird watcher, so we were always out walking and foraging. I didn't have a huge amount in the way of toys, instead I was encouraged to collect natural things,' she says. 'One day it might be sticks and so back to the house we would come with a bundle of sticks, tie them up, make something with them. Another day pebbles from the beach. It was this idea that you collect it, and then you do something with it.'

This habit of collecting found objects, arranging them and finding patterns in this collection has been a crucial influence on Toogood's work. 'Over the years lots has been given away, lost or sold, but the things that stay are those tiny treasures gathered from adventures in nature,' she reflects. 'I seem to have passed the obsession on to my daughter Indigo. Just like me she will know exactly what's important in there and what's not, where she got each piece. And then she'll endlessly rearrange it all into her own secret typologies.'

The Magpie's Nest by Faye Toogood for Friedman Benda is on view as part of PAD London until 19 October 2025

Berkeley Square, London W1

The Wallpaper* USA 400 celebrates Creative America in all its dazzling breadth and diversity. Our snapshot of the people who are shaping the country’s creative landscape in 2025 spans community builders, tastemakers, business leaders and more. It’s all a testament to the abundance of stellar talent that’s defining the discourse here in the United States – and the world more broadly.

Here are the names to know in America now.

Wallpaper* USA 400: a guide to Creative America in 2025

Creatives working in fashion, architecture, visual arts and more: the rising stars getting us excited for the future.

ADAM CHARLAP HYMAN AND ANDRE HERRERO
Principals, Charlap Hyman & Herrero

AIDEN BOWMAN AND JOSH METERSKY
Self-taught designers and founders of lighting studio Trueing, which takes inspiration from their art history and engineering backgrounds

ASTRAEUS CLARKE
Furniture and lighting designers, based in Brooklyn

AUGUSTA HOFFMAN
Interior designer

CASEY KENYON
Interior designer

CATHERINE HOLSTEIN
Founder of womenswear label Khaite, known for its balance of masculinity and femininity, strength and softness, structure and fluidity

CHASE HALL
Artist who applies coffee to cotton canvas (both inextricably linked to Africa and slavery) to explore ‘the impossible absolute of biracial identity’

CHRIS MAGGIO
Photographer, his work playfully reinvents the genre of Americana and subverts internet culture

CHRIS WOLSTON
Artist and designer who has collaborated with with the likes of Fendi, Phillip Lim and Dior

DANIEL PATRICK GILES
Founder of Perfumehead, an olfactory label that challenges traditional perceptions of fragrance

DAVID FARRUGIA
Founder, Uniform Object

DEAN LEVIN
Artist-designer and architect

DEVIN WILDE
Ceramic artist creating geometric works in clay

DONNI DAVY
Make-up artist, founder Half Magic

ENY LEE PARKER
Ceramic designer and artist

ETHAN HIDALGO
Furniture designer, founder of Studio Hidalgo

FREDERICK TANG
The founder of the eponymous architecture studio creates contemporary chic that’s not afraid of colour

HEATH WAGONER
Designer

IDO YOSHIMOTO
Artist and arborist whose work focuses on forms and objects from the natural world

ISABEL ROWER
Ceramic artist

JAYE KIM
Ceramic Artist

JEAN AND OLIVER PELLE
Founders of design studio Pelle, which merges art and engineering to create expressive lighting, furniture and design objects

JEREMY ANDERSON
Visionary ceramic artist, taking the material to unexplored creative expressions

JOHN MAY & ZEINA KOREITEM
Founders of architecture studio Millions

JOMO TARIKU
Ethiopian-American artist and industrial designer defining a new design language of modern African-themed furniture (featured in the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever movie set)

KATIE STOUT
Artist and designer who creates furniture and objects that use traditional craft techniques and materials, but which are shaped by an urge to subvert utilitarian forms with unexpected results

LEAH RING
Designer/founder of Another Human

LIAM LEE
Creates biophilic furniture using colour-saturated felt

MARQUEL RASHAAD WILLIAMS
Designer

MARTINE GUTIERREZ
Artist and performer

MAX WORRELL AND JEJON YEUNG
Founders of architecture studio Worrell Yeung, creating architecture that looks effortless and transforms the lives of its users (see Worrell Yeung’s refresh of a Charles Gwathmey home)

MILES GREENBERG
Performance artist

MINJAE KIM
Korean-born designer whose work explores ideas of identity and belonging (Kim has previously shown alongside his artist mother, at Matter Projects)

MISHA KAHN
Blurs boundaries between sculpture and design with a wildly imaginative approach (as seen in our interview ahead of Kahn’s 2020 Friedman Benda show)

NATALIE SHOOK
Designer

NICHOLAS OBEID
Furniture and lighting designer

NOAM DVIR AND DANIEL RAUCHWERGER
Partners, BOND

NOEL HERNANDEZ & VIKTORIA BARBO
Co-Founders, Ollin

OLALEKAN JEYIFOUS
Nigerian-born, New York-based visual artist and designer whose work reimagines social spaces that examine the relationships between architecture, community and the environment

PETER B STAPLES
Founder of lighting design studio Blue Green Works, known for its sensual yet masculine approach to form

RIFF STUDIO
Thoughtful, young, research-based architecture and design studio

RYAN LEIDNER
Founder of young and dynamic eponymous architecture office with a flair for creating residential spaces that commune with nature

RYAN TWARDZIK
Founder and designer of Unform Studio

SAM KLEMICK
Founder of Studio Sam Klemick, furniture design practice that utilises salvaged materials and deadstock/vintage textiles

SARAH BURNS
Furniture Designer and founder of Old Jewelry Store in New York City

SOPHIE LOU JACOBSEN
French-American designer whose focus is on simple objects and rituals that elevate the user experience

STUDIO S II
Erica Sellers & Jeremy Silberberg’s Brooklyn studio crafting interiors, furniture and lighting

TASKA CLEVELAND
Interior designer

UTHARAA ZACHARIAS AND PALAASH CHAUDHARY
Indian-born founders of studio Soft-Geometry

ZACK NESTEL-PATT
Founder, Ah Um Design Studio

Entrepreneurs and CEOs at the helm of the country’s leading design companies, from globally renowned furniture giants to small brands making waves in the design world.

BEN SOLEIMANI
Founder, Ben Soleimani

BEN WATSON
Chief creative officer, MillerKnoll

DAVID CALLIGEROS
Founder, Remains Lighting Company

GABRIEL HENDIFAR
Artistic director and CEO, Apparatus

GARY FRIEDMAN
CEO and chairman, RH

GREGG BUCHBINDER
Owner and CEO, Emeco

HOLLY HUNT
Founder, House of Hunt

JANICE FELDMAN
Founder, Janus et Cie

JERRY HELLING
President and creative director, Bernhardt Design

JON SHERMAN
Founder, Flavor Paper

LINDSEY ADELMAN
Founder, Lindsey Adelman Studio

NARGIS AND NASIR KASSAMALI
Founders, Luminaire

NICK AND RACHEL COPE
Co-Founders, Calico Wallpaper

SIAMAK HAKAKIAN
Partner, DDC

TONY MANZARI
President, Edelman, Knoll Textiles and Maharam

TYLER HAYS
Founder, BDDW

The creatives who have infiltrated the world of show business: architects and designers contributing to the aesthetics of popular culture, from cinema and theatre to museums.

DAVID ROCKWELL
Architect and designer, creator of sets for Oscars ceremonies and Broadway shows

FRANK OCEAN
Artist, founder of Homer

HERON PRESTON
Artist, fashion designer, DJ

RAMISHA SATTAR
Chappell Roan's creative director

TERRENCE O'CONNOR
Photographer and creative director

VICTORIA BRYNNER
Founder, Stardust Brands

WILLO PERRON
Canada-born designer known for his collaborations with Rihanna

Hailing from the realms of music and cinema, these stars’ creative excellence and entrepreneurship capably stretches to jewellery, fashion, art and more.

COLE ESCOLA
Comedian, actor and playwright

DONALD GLOVER
Actor, comedian, rapper, singer, writer, director, and producer known as Childish Gambino

MARY-KATE AND ASHLEY OLSEN
Founders of fashion label The Row

MEGAN STALTER
Comedian and actor

PALOMA ELSESSER
Model

PHARRELL WILLIAMS
Record producer, rapper, singer, with fashion and design collaborations with Louis Vuitton, Moncler, Adidas and Pentatonic

RYAN MURPHY
Television writer, director, producer, design enthusiast, owner of many architectural gems

SETH ROGEN
Actor, ceramicist, co-founder of cannabis lifestyle brand Houseplant

SOFIA COPPOLA
Film director and screenwriter, serial creative collaborator, including a collection with knitwear brand Barrie and a range of lip balms with Augustinus Bader

TYLER THE CREATOR
Rapper, singer, record producer, and fashion designer

The curators preserving and promoting creative culture, from heirs enthusiastically promoting the family’s artistic legacy to new-generation curators of the country’s leading institutions.

ALEISHALL GIRARD MAXON AND KORI GIRARD
Co-directors, Girard Studio

ALEXANDER MAY
Creative consultant and curator, founder of Sized

ALEXANDRA CUNNINGHAM CAMERON
Curator of contemporary design, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

AMANDA HUNT
Head of Public Engagement, Walker Art Center

ANDREA GLIMCHER
Art advisor

ANDREW BOLTON
Head curator, Anna Wintour Costume Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

ANTWAUN SARGENT
Director, Gagosian New York

BEATRICE GALILEE
Co-founder and executive director, The World Around

CARLOS VALLADARES
Filmmaker and critic

EAMES DEMETRIOS
Board chairman, Charles & Ray Eames Foundation

FLORENCIA RODRIGUEZ
Curator, Chicago Architecture Biennal

HOLLAND DENVIR
Founder of LA Design Weekend

JEFFREY DEITCH
Art dealer and curator

JOE SHEFTEL
Art advisor

JOHN MCILWEE
Architectural preservationist; founder, J McILwee & Associates, Inc

JONATHAN OLIVARES
SVP of design, Knoll

MARIAH NIELSON
Director, JB Blunk Estate and Blunk Space

NICOLA LEES
CEO and artistic director, Aspen Art Museum

PAOLA ANTONELLI
Senior curator of architecture and design, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, and a Wallpaper* October 2020 Guest Editor

RICHARD VILLANI
Creative director, Tom of Finland Foundation

SONYA TAMADDON
Curator

SUZANNE DEMISCH
Gallerist

THELMA GOLDEN
Ford Foundation director and chief curator, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York

WAVA CARPENTER AND ANNA CARNICK
Co-founders of Anava Projects, a creative agency driven by a strong belief that good design can and should make a positive social impact

The ‘no introduction needed’ of creative America: the artists, architects and designers who have helped shape the landscape.

ANNABELLE SELLDORF
Founder of Selldorf Architects

ELIZABETH DILLER AND CHARLES RENFRO
Architects, partners at Diller Scofidio + Renfro

FRANK GEHRY
Architect

FRITZ HAEG
Artist, owner of Salmon Creek Farm

INEZ & VINOODH
Photographers, behind Wallpaper’s portfolio of 50 of America's top creatives driving the current discourse on American culture and its dynamic evolution

JASPER JOHNS
Artist

JENNY HOLZER
Artist

JIM OLSON AND TOM KUNDIG
Founders of architecture firm Olson Kundig

JOHN WATERS
Filmmaker, writer, actor, artist

JOHNNY ROZSA
Photographer and artist

JUDY CHICAGO
Artist, feminist icon

JULIE BARGMANN
Landscape architect, educator, founder of DIRT (Dump It Right There)

KEN LEWIS
Managing Partner, SOM

MARC JACOBS
Fashion designer

MARILYN MINTER
Artist

MURRAY MOSS
Founder of design gallery Moss and design consultancy Moss Bureau

NICK CAVE
Artist known for his fantastical Soundsuits and works that create space for the marginalised

PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON
Filmmaker

RALPH LAUREN
Fashion designer

RALPH PUCCI
Founder of Ralph Pucci

RICK OWENS
Fashion designer

ROBIN STANDEFER AND STEPHEN ALESCH
Founders of interior design studio Roman and Williams

SHEILA BRIDGES
Interior designer, founder of Sheila Bridges Design Inc

SHOHEI SHIGEMATSU
Partner, OMA New York

SONIA ERAM
Owner, Mameg

STEVEN HOLL
Architect

THOM BROWNE
Fashion designer, founder of Thom Browne

THOM MAYNE
Architect, founder of Morphosis

TOD WILLIAMS AND BILLIE TSIEN
Architects

TOM FORD
Fashion designer

TORY BURCH
Fashion designer

Setting the creative agenda, from interior design and architecture to fashion and jewellery, these are the influencers behind some of the country’s most noteworthy projects, from buildings to jewellery.

ADA TOLLA AND GIUSEPPE LIGNANO
Founders of architecture studio Lot-Ek, whose client list includes the Guggenheim and Google

ADAM SILVERMAN
Sculptor

ALEX PROBA
Founder, Studio Proba

ALEXANDRA AND MICHAEL MISCZYNSKI
Founders of interior design studio Atelier

ALEXIS TOMPKINS AND LEANN CONQUER
Partners, Chroma

ANDRE MELLONE
Founder of Studio Mellone, whose work includes interiors for the likes of Jason Wu and Thom Browne

ANNA KARLIN
Designer

ATHENA CALDERONE
Founder, EyeSwoon and Studio Athena Calderone

BEN MEDANSKY
Ceramic artist

BENJAMIN BLOOMSTEIN AND AARON AUJLA
Artists, designers, founders of design studio Green River Project, whose work includes meticulously crafted furniture and interiors for fashion label Bode

BRETT WOODS AND JOSEPH DANGARAN
Founders of architecture firm Woods + Dangaran and devotees of midcentury modernism (their Desert Palisades house won Best Private House in the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2023)

BRIAN SAWYER AND JOHN BERSON
Founders of interdisciplinary firm Sawyer Berson

BRIGETTE ROMANEK
Interior designer

BROOKS WALKER
Principal, Walker Warner Architects

CATHERINE BAILEY & ROBIN PETRAVIC
Owners of Heath Ceramics, the tableware and tile company

CHARLIE FERRER
Interior designer

CHRISTIE WARD AND STAVER GRAY
Founders, Ward & Gray

CHRISTINE & JOHN GACHOT
Interior designers behind projects such as Jac's on Bond and Pebble Bar in New York, and high-profile residential projects, like this stunning Montana retreat.

CLIVE LONSTEIN
Interior designer

COLIN KING
Stylist, Artistic Director at Beni Rugs

CRAIG BASSAM AND SCOTT FELLOWS
Founders of lifestyle brand Bassam Fellows

DAVID BERS
Architect

DAVID BUCOVY
Architect

DAVID CAFIERO
Interior designer

DAVID SETH MOLTZ AND KAVI AHUJA MOLTZ
Founders, DS & Durga

DAVID, SUZIE AND RACHEL LUCAS
Co-founders, Lucas Design

DENISE WILLIAMSON
Founder, 180 the Store

DOUGLAS FRIEDMAN
Photographer

DYLAN DAVIS & JEAN LEE
Designers, founders L&G Studio

ELENI PETALOTI AND LEONIDAS TRAMPOUKIS
Founders of design studio Objects of Common Interest (former Wallpaper* Design Awards winners and judges)

ELIZABETH ROBERTS
Architect

ELLIOTT BARNES
Interior designer who honed his craft with Andrée Putman before setting up on his own

ENRICO BONETTI AND DOMINIC KOZERSKI
Co-Founders, Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture

ERIC HOFFMAN
Founder of Hoffman Creative, creating designs for Pamela Shamshiri, Steven Volpe and more

FERNANDA DOVIGI
Interior designer, founder FMD Design

FERNANDO SANTANGELO
Uruguayan-born, New York-based designer; contributed to the design of NYC’s Nine Orchard hotel

GABRIEL ABRAHAM
Founder, Atelier de Troupe

GABRIELLE SHELTON
Sculptor and designer, co-founder of Shelton Studios metal fabrication studio

GIANCARLO VALLE & JANE KELTNER DE VALLE
Founders Studio Valle de Valle

HARRY NURIEV
Founder of Crosby Studios, creating immersive design installations

HUMBERTO LEON
Fashion designer and restaurateur

INI ARCHIBONG
American-Nigerian designer whose furniture and lighting work is guided by heritage and spirituality

JACQUELINE AND DAMIEN HARRISON
Founders of landscape design studio Harrison Green

JAMES CHERRY
Sculptor, lighting designer

JANE MAYLE
Fashion designer, founder of Maison Mayle

JOHN DERIAN
Designer, founder of Decoupage

JOHN SHARP
Landscape designer

JONATHAN CROSS
Ceramicist whose work is created using ancient wood-firing techniques

KELLEY PERUMBETI & MICHAEL YARINSKY
Founders of Office of Tangible Space

KELLY BEHUN
Interior designer behind California home of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz

KELLY WEARSTLER
Interior designer for the hotel industry, residential, commercial, retail and hospitality spaces

KIMBERLY VON KOONTZ
Landscape designer

KULAPAT YANTRASAST
Founder and creative director of Why Architects, the go-to design studio for museums

LEO MARMOL AND RON RADZINER
Founders of architecture firm Marmol Radziner

LEONG LEONG
Architect brothers Dominic and Chris Leong

LISA EISNER
Photographer-turned-jewellery designer

LITTLE WING LEE
Interior designer, founder of Studio & Projects

LUCIEN REES ROBERTS
Interior and landscape designer

MALLERY ROBERTS MORGAN
Interior designer

MATT MURPHY
Designer

MATTHEW FISHER
Stone artist

MATTHEW LEVERONE
Interior designer

MICHAEL MALTZAN
Architect whose work spans everything from housing for the homeless to glitzy museums

MIRANDA BROOKS
Landscape designer

NANCY PEARCE
Designer

NICOLE HOLLIS
Interior designer behind Hawaii’s Kailua-Kona resort

OLIVER HASLEGRAVE
Founder of interior architecture and design firm Home Studios

OLIVER M FURTH
Interior designer

PALI AND JEJO CORNELSEN
Designers

PAMELA SHAMSHIRI
Founder of Studio Shamshiri, has designed homes for musician Paul McCartney and actor Anne Hathaway, and was a Wallpaper* Design Awards 2023 judge

PETER MARINO
Interior designer for high-end fashion boutiques

RAFAEL DE CÁRDENAS
Designer who has concocted visions of modern elegance for clients such as Cartier, Nike and Glossier

ROBERT HIGHSMITH, RYAN MAHONEY AND STEFANIE BRECHBUEHLER
Founders of design studio Workstead

ROBERT STILIN
Interior designer who mixes contemporary architecture with textured materials and vintage furniture

ROGAN GREGORY
Designer of sculptural pieces, represented by R & Company

ROMAN ALONSO AND STEVEN JOHANKNECHT
Founders of multidisciplinary studio Commune Design

RUBEN CALDWELL, JOU-YIE CHOU AND LEIGH SALEM
Founders of interior design studio Post Company, whose projects include Catskills wellness resort Inness and New York restaurant Raf’s

SANDRA NUNNERLEY
Interior designer

SARAH ZAMES AND COLIN STIEF
Founders, General Assembly Studio

SCOTT NEWLIN
Designer

SEAN ANDERSON
Interior designer

SHARON JOHNSTON AND MARK LEE
Founders of architecture firm Johnston Marklee

SONIA BOYAJIAN
Jewellery designer

STEFAN BECKMAN
The fashion industry’s favourite set designer

STEPHANIE BEAMER, CRYSTAL ELLIS AND HILLARY PETRIE
Founders of furniture design studio Egg Collective

STEPHEN BURKS MAN MADE
A global practice uniting craft, community and industry through its hands-on workshop-based approach while always advocating for greater diversity in design

STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON
Photographer

STEVEN HARRIS
Architect

STEVEN VOLPE
Founder of Studio Volpe, whose work includes elegant residences from Manhattan to LA, as well as Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Mrkt in San Francisco

SUCHI REDDY
Founder of architecture and design firm Reddymade

TED MUEHLING
Industrial designer who creates jewellery and decorative objects inspired by organic forms

TESSA WATSON
Creative director and stylist

THOMAS WRIGHT AND JOSEPH FRATESI
Founders of multidisciplinary design and manufacturing firm Atlas Industries

TODD NICKEY AND AMY KEHOE
Co-Founders, Nickey Kehoe

VANESSA ALEXANDER
Founder, Alexander Design

VICTORIA SAMBUNARIS
Landscape photographer

VICTORIA SASS
Interior Designer; Design Director, Prospect Refuge

VIRGINIA SIN
Founder, SIN ceramics

Leaders of design research, start-uppers and business leaders whose creative brilliance is paired with a strong focus on technology and sustainability.

ANDREW KUDLESS
Principal, Matsys Design

BRADLEY BOWERS
Designer using technology and advanced material research to create furniture, lighting and objects

GERMANE BARNES
Architect researching architecture’s social and political influence

GIORGIA LUPI
Data designer, Pentagram partner

JEANNE GANG
Architect, founding partner of Studio Gang, behind the American Museum of Natural History extension

JONY IVE
Former chief design officer at Apple, founder of design studio LoveFrom

JULIA WATSON
Designer, activist, academic, leading expert of Lo–TEK (nature-based technologies for climate resilience)

KATE ORFF
Founder of landscape architecture and urban design practice Scape

MARIE VERONIQUE
Beauty entrepreneur

RJ SCARINGE
Founder and CEO of electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian

TYLER HOBBS
Generative artist, creative coder, painter

VANESSA BARBONI HALLIK
Founder, Co-CEO, and Executive Chair of sustainable fashion brand Another Tomorrow

YVES BEHAR
Founder and principal designer of Fuseproject, a brand development firm working across industrial design, transport and technology

Owners of small boutique hotels and behemoths whose properties stretch beyond the US: the names to know in American hospitality today.

ANDRÉ BALAZS
Properties include Chateau Marmont in LA, The Chiltern Firehouse in London and Sunset Beach on Shelter Island

ARI S HECKMAN
CEO and Co-Founder, Ash

BARRY STERNLICHT
Chairman of Starwood Hotels, which has 1 Hotels, Baccarat and Treehouse Hotels in its portfolio

BRAD KORZEN
Founder and CEO, The Kor Group and Proper Hotels

BRAD WILSON
Managing Partner, Ace Hotel Group

HOMI VAZIFDAR
Founder of Canyon Equity, whose portfolio includes Amangiri and Six Senses Costa Rica

IAN SCHRAGER
Properties include Public New York, Edition hotels in New York and Miami

LIZ LAMBERT
McGuire Moorman Lambert Hospitality (Partner); Lambert McGuire Design (Partner); and Bunkhouse (Founder)

NADIM ASHI
Properties include the Four Seasons at The Surf Club in Florida

Musicians, filmmakers and sound artists, multidisciplinary creatives telling stories and working beyond objects and places.

CHRISTINE SUN KIM
Deaf sound artist working predominantly in drawing, performance and video, using musical notation, written language, American Sign Language, and the body

DAVID BYRNE
Musician, artist and filmmaker

DOECHII
Rapper and singer

ERYKAH BADU
Singer, songwriter, record producer, actor

HONEY DIJON
DJ and Producer

KIM GORDON
Visual artist, bassist, guitarist, songwriter, vocalist, now as a solo artist and formerly for alternative rock band Sonic Youth.

LORI SCACCO
Musician and composer

MOSES SUMNEY
Musician

PATTI SMITH
Singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author

SOLANGE
Musician; Founder, Saint Heron

ST. VINCENT
Grammy award winning artist, musician, songwriter with signature guitar line

STEVE LACY
Musician

SWIZZ BEATZ
Producer and collector

Personalities working in a variety of fields, using art and design as a tool to raise awareness and amplify the voices of the oppressed.

ADAM ELI
Activist

ALEXIS BITTAR
Jewellery designer, filmmaker

CATHERINE OPIE
Fine-art photographer, educator

CHEROKEE JACK
Model, Indigenous activist

DANIEL CHEW, TEN IZU, KIRSTEN KILPONEN AND TIN NGUYEN
Members of Concept Foreign Garments New York (CFGNY), a fashion and art collective exploring what it means to be ‘vaguely Asian’

DEANNA VAN BUREN
Co-founder and design director of nonprofit architecture and real estate development firm Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, working to end mass incarceration through place-based solutions

DERRICK ADAMS
Visual and performance artist, curator, work focuses on themes of Black identity and culture

EMILY BARKER
Multidisciplinary artist, activist, work focuses on topics relating to disability, discrimination and capitalism

INDYA MOORE
Actor, model and social activist

JOSH KLINE
Artist, curator, explores how emergent technologies are changing our lives

LEILAH BABIRYE
NYC-based sculptor Babirye uses her work to respond to the anti-homosexuality legislation in her home country, Uganda

MICKALENE THOMAS
Visual artist, studies the Black female body as a vehicle of power, eroticism, agency and inspiration

NAN GOLDIN
Photographer, activist

NANCY KRICORIAN
Writer, humanitarian and activist

QUANNAH ROSE CHASINGHORSE-POTTS
Model, Indigenous activist

ROBERTO LUGO
Potter and activist

DEVONN FRANCIS
Queer first-generation Jamaican-American artist exploring his heritage and culture through art and food

Artists, collectives and restaurateurs who have brought global flavours to the US, using food as a creative medium to connect people.

DONNA LENNARD
Restaurateur

IGNACIO MATTOS
Founder/chef of Mattos Hospitality, comprising restaurants Estela, Altro Paradiso and Lodi

JON GRAY
CEO and co-founder of Ghetto Gastro, culinary collective from the South Bronx, and a Wallpaper* Design Awards 2022 judge

JORDAN KAHN
Chef and creative director, with a penchant for expressionist desserts, and three Culver City restaurants (Destroyer, Meteora and Vespertine) offering deliciously avant-garde dining experiences

KEITH MCNALLY
Restaurateur, owner of several New York restaurants including Balthazar

KWAME ONWUACHI
James Beard award-winning chef

LAILA GOHAR
Artist working with food as a creative medium

RITA SODI AND JODY WILLIAMS
Founders/chefs of The Commerce Inn

SEAN SHERMAN
Chef

SIMON KIM
Restaurateur, owner of COTE Korean Steakhouse and COQODAQ

Designers and artists whose practice has become the basis for a larger scope, serving local networks and connecting people.

ALEX SCHATZBERG
Yoga instructor and entrepreneur

ANN STEPHENSON
Poet

BEN GREENE
Speaker and inclusion consultant

CATOR SPARKS
Life coach

DARRELL THORNE
Performance artist

DAVID GODSHALL
Co-Founder, Terremoto

ELIZABETH BAUDOUIN AND NATALIE SHIRINIAN
Filmmakers, founders of Not All Films and NES Creative

ERIN BESLER
Co-founder, Besler & Sons

JAY EZRA
Founder, Del Vaz Projects

JENNY NGUYEN
Founder, Hello Human

JONATHAN LYNDON CHASE
Artist

KAZEM NADERI
Founder, NAD Projects Inc.

LAUREN HALSEY
Artist, employs architecture and installation art to reveal the realities of urban neighbourhoods

MALI AND ALAN BACON
Founders, Butter art fair

MAXWELL L ANDERSON
President, Souls Grow Deep

MICHAEL FORD
Architect; Founder, Hip Hop x Design

MICHAEL K CHEN
Architect

NORMAN TEAGUE
Designer, maker, educator, focuses on connecting with local communities

PETER DO
Fashion designer, brand is rooted in community and dedicated to supporting New York’s garment district

RAUL LOPEZ
Founder of fashion brand Luar

RICK LOWE
Artist, champions people and communities through social practice-based art projects

RITESH GUPTA
Founder of Useful School, a virtual learning platform that puts people of colour front and centre

ROB AQUINO
Community builder and nightlife producer

SARA ZEWDE
Founding principal of design firm Studio Zewde, which focuses on landscape architecture, urbanism and public art

SEAN YASHAR
Founder, The Culture Creative

SHANE DAVIS
Co-founder and creative director of Public Records, a multi-faceted music, social and exhibition space for the community, and co-founder of new design studio for worldwide hospitality/residential projects, Public Service

SHEENA ZADEH-DALY
Founder of beauty brand Kosas, which offers inclusive shades in its make-up ranges

TAMARA HOUSTON
Author, entertainment producer, founder of heritage development enterprise Icon Mann, managing partner of a mobile design and educational installation, the Pavilion of the African Diaspora (PoAD), which she curated alongside Ini Archibong

WILLY CHAVARRIA
Fashion designer, explores and amplifies the Latino voice

Gallerists and collectors putting great design under the spotlight, bringing historical design, contemporary makers and emerging talent to the world.

ADAM BLACKMAN AND DAVID CRUZ
Founders of Blackman Cruz

ALEX TIEGHI-WALKER
Founder of Tiwa Select, a curatorial platform dedicated to craft and self-taught makers, with a New York gallery space (across the pond, Tieghi-Walker will curate the 2025 Brompton Design District in London this September)

AMAURI AGUIAR & BRYAN YOUNG
Founders of Verso

BENJAMIN CRITTON AND HEIDI KORSAVONG
Founders of gallery Marta, which champions emerging creatives from a diverse background

BENOIST DRUT
Head of design gallery Maison Gerard, which specialises in fine French art deco furniture

BIANCA CHEN & JOEL CHEN
Art and design curator (Bianca), and her antiques dealer father (Joel), who founded JF Chen Antiques

CHARLES CONSTANTINE AND CHRIS HELD
Co-founders, Dudd Haus

CLAIRE WARNER AND SAM VINZ
Co-Founders, Volume Gallery Chicago

DAVID ALHADEFF
Founder of Casa Perfect and The Future Perfect

DEIRDRE MALONEY AND MINYA QUIRK
Co-Founders, Shoppe Object and Afternoon Light

DOBRINKA SALZMAN
Gallerist

ED BE AND JARED BLAKE
Co-Founders, Lichen NYC, a design incubator and store

EMMA SCULLY
Founder of Emma Scully Gallery, which promotes applied arts through a curated exhibition programme

MARC BENDA & JENNIFER OLSHIN
Co-founders, Friedman Benda

GLENN LAWSON AND GRANT FENNING
Co-Founders, Lawson-Fenning

JEAN LIN
Founder, Colony

JEANNE GREENBERG ROHATYN
Founder of Salon 94 Design

JOHN RADTKE
Owner, Somewhere Someplace

KIM HOSTLER AND JULIET BURROWS
Founders of gallery Hostler Burrows

LIN AND MAGDALENA TYRPIEN
Co-Founders, Lyle Gallery

MASON VINCENT AND JACK REDPATH
Founders, Darling Studios

PAUL DONZELLA
Furniture dealer

REYES AND LILLIAN HARDY
Co-founders, Landdd

RODMAN PRIMACK AND RUDY F. WEISSENBERG
Co-founders of design gallery Ago Projects

STEPHEN MARKOS
Superhouse

TARIQ DIXON
Co-Founder, TRNK

YANCEY RICHARDSON
Gallerist

ZESTY MEYERS AND EVAN SNYDERMAN
Founders of R & Company, champions of collectible design from contemporary and modern names

The names defining American fashion right now, both on and off the runway.

ANN CARUSO
Fashion brand advisor and consultant

BRANDON MAXWELL
Fashion designer

CHRISTOPHER JOHN ROGERS
Fashion designer behind Vice President Kamala Harris’ inauguration outfit

DYLAN CAO AND JIN KAY
Founders of fashion brand Commission, inspired by memories of their mothers when they were women at work in Vietnam and Korea

EMILY BODE
Founder of fashion brand Bode, creating handcrafted clothing cut from antique fabrics, Victorian quilts, grain sacks and bed linens

FERNANDO GARCIA AND LAURA KIM
Creative Directors, Oscar de la Renta; Co-Founders, Monse

FRANCES HOWIE
Creative director, Fforme

HENRY ZANKOV
Fashion designer

JACK MCCOLLOUGH AND LAZARO HERNANDEZ
Creative Directors, Loewe

JOSEPH ALTUZARRA
Fashion designer

MICHAEL KORS
Fashion Designer

MICHAEL RIDER
Creative director, Celine

RACHEL SCOTT
Founder, Diotima

STUART VEVERS
Creative director, Coach

VERONICA LEONI
Creative director, Calvin Klein Collection

When these groundbreaking talents have a show, seek it out.

ADAM PUTNAM
Multimedia artist whose work puts the human body in dialogue with the spaces we inhabit

AMBERA WELLMANN
Artist

AMY SHERALD
Painter

ANNIE SCHLECHTER
Photographer

CINDY JI HYE KIM
Artist

CLARE CRESPO
Artist

DAHLIA ELSAYED
Artist

DOUG AITKEN
Artist

DYANI WHITE HAWK
Award-winning Native American artist

FIN SIMONETTI
Artist

IVANA BAŠIĆ
Artist

JACK PIERSON
Photographer and artist

JASON SCHMIDT
Photographer

JEFFREY GIBSON
Artist. His US Pavilion at the 60th Venice Art Biennale was the country’s first solo presentation by an Indigenous artist at the event

JULIAN WATTS
Artist, woodworker

LOUISE BONNET
Painter whose large-scale works in oil touch on multiple themes ranging from sex and beauty to tension and humour

MAMALI SHAFAHI
Artist

MARIA MOYER
Artist

MATTHEW PLACEK
Photographer and film director

PIA RIVEROLA
Photographer and artist

RACHEL ROSSIN
Artist

RASHID JOHNSON
Artist

RICHARD STAPLETON
Photographer

ROKSANA PIROUZMAND
Artist

SASHA MASLOV
Ukrainian-American portrait and documentary photographer

SHUO HAO
Artist

SHUYI CAO
Artist

SIMONE LEIGH
Multi-media artist from Chicago

THOMAS LOOF
Photographer

WENDY RED STAR
Apsáalooke contemporary multimedia artist

Formafantasma has been everywhere lately – including on Wallpaper*'s 2025 Design Awards roster. But the Milan-based design duo has never staged a gallery exhibition in the United States. This month, though, Formafantasma has unveiled 'Formation,' a showcase of fresh work and ideas at New York's Friedman Benda gallery. The exhibition, on view until 1 August 2025, is the result of the studio's deep exploration of the relationship between the history of furniture making and its more domestic, intimate qualities.

Formation: Formafantasma's debut exhibition at Friedman Benda, New York

'Formation' includes a table, a desk, an armchair and several lamps . Each design is deliberately restrained and imagined as a dialogue between the materials, which encompass cherry wood, a reference to classic American furniture making; textiles, for their domestic qualities; and aluminium, a material that evokes contemporary technology.

Also at play is Formafantasma's interest in the work of the Shakers, Frank Lloyd Wright, and George Nakashima, whose work attracted founders Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi for their combination of aesthetics and philosophical approach to making.

'The Shakers’ approach to utility and transcendence is mirrored in the collection’s essential forms,' reads a note from the studio, while 'Wright’s synthesis of craft and technology, and Nakashima’s reverence for timber as a living entity, find echoes in the collection’s interplay of warm wood and brushed aluminium.'

The pieces in the collection are the result of an in-depth exploration of archetypes in domestic interiors. Each object's construction starts from a simple plank, 'the most elementary unit of cabinetmaking,' the studio notes.

The lighting, meanwhile, features rectangular LED panels that evoke 'the ubiquitous screens of mobile devices and portable laptops' while draped linen shades seek to soften and 'recall the quiet craftsmanship historically associated with women’s labour.'

Taken as a whole, 'Formation' feels like a natural progression of Formafantasma's work, one that melds the studio's ongoing fascination with design history and the ways in which shifting technology impacts the way we live.

According to the designers, it's all part of an effort to 'not to mimic nor reject history, but instead to expand upon it.'

'Formation' is on view until 1 August 2025.

Friedman Benda
515 W 26th St 1st Floor
New York, NY 10001

People often talk about having second or even third winds these days; career shifts that respond to the ever-changing demands of an increasingly volatile economy and job market. Turin-born entrepreneur, financier, and artist Enrico Marone Cinzano has had many and is the wiser for it. From time spent in advertising, banking, and real estate, he went on to help establish pioneering eco-friendly fashion label Project Alabama and, more recently, the slow but assured cultivation of an art furniture practice rooted in his undying commitment to sustainability, but more importantly his understanding of nature’s inherent truth, beauty, and logic.

Enrico Marone Cinzano presents 'Obsessed by Nature'

On view at New York collectible design gallery Friedman Benda, from 14 November to 14 December 2024, his first solo show – entitled 'Obsessed by Nature' – will debut 11 distinct works: cohesively collaged-together luminaires, chairs, and tables that cohere the innate functionality of forms found in nature, with repurposed industrial components. This cumulative but by no means conclusive capsule collection is very much the sum of its parts; the result of the self-taught designer’s atypical career path and agile skill set. Ahead of the exhibition, which is set to be immersive and have multisensorial elements, such as the diffusion of a bespoke scent, Marone Cinzano spoke to Wallpaper* about his background, design philosophy, and what this first retrospective incorporates.

Wallpaper*: How did you develop an appreciation for sustainability?

Enrico Marone Cinzano: I got involved in an art project 20 years ago in which we turned old jerseys into T-shirts. The plan was to produce 200 but many more orders came in and so it became a company that lasted seven years. I really got into sustainability because we were using recycled material and natural dyes. When you delve deep, it opens up a portal and it’s hard to shake. Even though my partners and I had folded Project Alabama, I kept the resourceful mindset we had fostered and became quite self-sufficient; creating my own clothes and even a few furniture pieces out of natural and discarded elements I found around me.

W*: Talk more about how you transitioned in making furniture.

EMC: I started showing the work to people I knew and eventually started collaborating with a gallery in China that stipulated that I produce everything there. At the time, sustainability wasn’t a big thing in China yet. It was a learning process and I made mistakes along the way.

With time, I found out about Friedman Benda and how the gallery’s co-founder and principal Marc Benda really nurtured his artists rather than only being concerned with the commercial side of things. I reached out to him and he gave me good advice and told me to come back with more ideas. We’ve worked together closely for the past six years and I’ve shown work a few times as part of group displays at fairs like Design Miami. During that time, I delved even further into sustainability and how it started to emerge as a topic even in the investment sector. I expanded my appreciation and understanding and came to the realisation: we live in such a chaotic world but nature seems to have all the answers.

W*: You’ve previously mentioned that you’re fascinated by the natural logic of the golden ratio. What are some other overarching qualities from nature that you are most drawn to?

EMC: I went through quite a tumultuous youth, pushing the metal to the pedal, and got to a point where it wasn’t working anymore. Going to India to train as a certified yoga instructor led me to Buddhism and other teachings but what I ultimately uncovered is that there’s order in nature. It’s scientific, whether it's physics or chemistry or biology, it's mathematical, it's ethical. Everything we’re looking for is right in front of us. This goes for aesthetics and function too. There are already shapes in nature that can serve a purpose, even as elements of furniture.

W*: What are some of the key highlights of the exhibition?

EMC: 'Obsessed with Nature’ will be my first solo show and it really embodies the full scope of what I’ve been developing for almost a decade. I pay close attention to the materials I use and the craft processes involved in their transformation. For several of the pieces – such as the ‘Piego’ chairs or the ‘Marmo’ table – I worked with stone off-cuts that already had the perfect forms. I interjected the roughness of the marble or agate within the compositions and juxtaposed these materials with extremely highly polished surfaces. With pieces like the standing ‘Verde’ lamp, there is this contrast between the roughness of nature – the reclaimed wood – and technology – recovered car lights.

friedmanbenda.com
enricomaronecinzano.com

Collectible design or – as noted curator, writer and historian Glenn Adamson has redefined it – vanguard design is often concerned with conveying and even embodying messages about production, materiality, identity, culture, and politics. Like fine art, it’s about much more than just function and form. 

From the late 1960s through the 1980s, radically inclined talents in Italy and elsewhere used furniture and other applied mediums to challenge social conventions. Subverting the composition of a table with unexpected shapes and materials allowed them to make bold statements about how we live and consume. Later in the 1990s, a group of Dutch designers began to take on a similar humoristic and experimental approach. Burning a widely respected classic armoire or making a chair out of knotted rope was all the rage, as was pushing the limitations of standard production. 

This tradition has carried through to today, spawning an ever-growing community of creatives and aficionados. Talents increasingly look to implement design as a means to comment on sustainability or express themselves in new ways. 

Glenn Adamson curates ‘The New Transcendence’ at Friedman Benda, New York

Increasingly, designers are imbuing their creations with spiritual significance. On view at New York’s Friedman Benda gallery (from 11 January until 24 February 2024), 'The New Transcendence' seeks to highlight this latest trend. The show is the last in a series of three curated by Adamson over the past three years, intending to pinpoint the zeitgeist. Drawing parallels between historical and contemporary designers, the survey presentation includes key works by the late Italian master Andrea Branzi alongside concept pieces by contemporary heavyweights Ini Archibong, Stephen Burks (whose 2023 solo show ‘Spirit Houses’ in Chicago also explored spirituality), Najla El Zein, Courtney Leonard, and Samuel Ross.

'Everyone's coming from a very different point of view, but what they all have in common is the idea that the object is a locus we can congregate around,' says Adamson. For him, this shared interest is less about religion and more about finding deeper meaning. 'It's a show about the big picture; mitigating what's happening around us and delving into the fundamentals of human capability and connection with things that are beyond ourselves.' All of the works on view somehow offer the user the chance to experience something beyond what's physically present.

'Transcendence. The word means, literally, “rising above”, and the feeling of it is just that: a certain interval, perhaps sustained, perhaps over in a mere flash, in which the everyday world falls away, and a higher connection prevails,' Adamson writes in his curatorial statement. 'Chairs, lamps, cabinets, and vessels are earthly things. They attend to our practical rather than our spiritual needs. They are often regarded as mere commodities, or otherwise cast in a cultural supporting role. What would it take for us to invert these expectations, and to see functional objects as the ultimate vehicle for transport?'

Meanwhile, Branzi’s ‘Roots’ series of chairs reflects his extensive exploration of the topic. For him, these combined sculptural pieces incorporate both natural elements that don’t necessarily have a reason for being in place but somehow appeared from the heavens. Forming the anchor of the exhibition, these seminal works evoke aspects of divine intervention, from ancient times or even the cosmos.

Archibong’s contribution stems from his investigation of the Bahá'í faith – a spiritual denomination promoting the idea that humanity needs to find a unifying vision of the future that links society, nature, and the purpose of life. While Burks continues to reinterpret the practice of mask-making throughout certain parts of Africa, Ross’ ‘Optimistic’ bench stems from his ongoing quest to coalesce specific, culturally charged materials, finishes, and forms in a bid to encourage hope. 

El Zein’s format-defying stone benches accomplish this type of translation by rendering a seamlessly inflexible material into something soft and otherworldly. Leonard – who hails from the Shinnecock Nation – crafts her ceramics by carefully selecting materials and forms that each carry their own meaning individually and convey new ones when combined.

‘New Transcendence’ is on view at Friedman Benda until 24 February 2024

Friedman Benda
515 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001

friedmanbenda.com

Friedman Benda has bridged the Atlantic and announced its third design gallery, set to open in Paris in early 2024. Right in the heart of the Marais, home to quirky boutiques and historic architecture, the new outpost will embrace its locality and expand engagement with Friedman Benda’s global community, joining the existing New York and Los Angeles locations.

Friedman Benda Paris, coming in 2024

Measuring over 500 sq m, the new Paris location is a perfect space to host what Friedman Benda is most known for: showcasing contemporary designs from prominent names or breakthrough designers in the industry, from Misha Kahn to Nendo and, currently exhibiting at Friedman Benda New York, Fernando Laposse.

The panelled skylights cast an open light onto the industrial skeleton of the space, creating openness within the gallery, and evoking the understated elegance of a Parisian ballet studio.

Astrid Malingreau has been appointed director of the Friedman Benda Paris, and is set to help deliver on the gallery’s mission of displaying an array of design, art and architecture, and exploring perspectives and voices that have previously been marginalised.

The opening of the Paris gallery holds more emotional value for co-founder Marc Benda (featured in the Wallpaper* USA 300 guide to creative America), who said: ‘It is every artist’s dream to exhibit in Paris, a heaven and inspiration for creatives for centuries. My personal journey in design started here almost 30 years ago.’

Partner Jennifer Olshin adds: ’We are looking forward to joining this thriving historic ecosystem and envision a new context, a unique dialogue with the Parisian public and studios we represent. We are excited as a team to contribute to the cross-cultural landscape of this vibrant city we all love.’

Friedman Benda Paris, opening 2024

38 Rue du Temple
75004 Paris 

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‘Ghosts of our Towns’ is Mexican designer Fernando Laposse’s first solo show with New York’s Friedman Benda gallery, on view until 14 October 2023. The exhibition is an overview of Laposse's research, an ongoing body of work shedding new light on the decline of biodiversity and the disruption of rural life in his native Mexico through new furniture and tapestry.

Fernando Laposse: from humble materials to refined objects

Fernando Laposse first grabbed headlines with his Totomoxtle project, his first foray into transforming humble natural materials into refined objects. Corn husk – a food by-product that is normally thrown away – was harnessed as a puzzle-like veneer inlaid into various limited-edition furnishings and accessories. 

The project revealed how the staple vegetable corn comes in a vast array of heirloom varieties based on different geographic conditions. This variety is at risk of disappearing due to the proliferation of a standard genetically modified all-yellow variant preferred by the mass farming industry. For many, this is the only type of corn they know. 

Collaborating with local farmers in Tonahuixtla, a small village in the Mexican state of Puebla, Laposse sought to reveal the potential application of these rare strains of corn and in doing so, re-employed and re-emboldened people who were otherwise out of work owing to the recent infiltration of mass production in the region.

Initiating a form of regenerative agriculture in the town to cultivate these near-extinct crops and find new applications for the use of their husks, he helped preserve a cultural tradition and spawn a new type of design. 

For Laposse, the effects of biodiversity loss are closely linked with social inequality. It’s a preoccupation that has led him to develop numerous material research projects; exhibit at major international exhibitions; participate in top-billed conferences; and impart his expertise at design schools around the world.  

Furniture and now textile design – as revealed in this latest exhibition – serve as the perfect mediums for him to document this correlation; the unavoidable links between environmental degradation and the negative social impacts of global trade on local agriculture and food culture. Through this practice, the designer had aimed to inspire fresh awareness but also celebrate the diversity of rural life and perhaps even revive the distinct farming and craft traditions that so rarely receive the attention they deserve. 

Fernando Laposse’s ‘Ghosts of our Towns’ at Friedman Benda, New York

‘Ghosts of our Towns’ builds on this trajectory and highlights Laposse’s mastery of fibre; age-old natural materials like sisal, and the continued refinement of the corn husk by-product he’s spearheaded. 

‘For him, “to get to the root, one must go to the soil”, and to work with fibres is to engage with all the complexities around them: environmental crisis, loss of biodiversity, community disintegration, and forced migration,’ curator Glenn Adamson writes in an accompanying exhibition catalogue. 

The show includes the ‘Totomoxtle Snake Coffee Table’ and ‘Corn Kumiko’ credenza, both deftly implementing Laposse’s signature corn husk material. The ‘Hair of the Dog’ cabinet, ‘Furry Mirror’, and ‘Pink Furry Armchair’ reveal his exploration of hand-knotted raw sisal and agave plant leaves. 

A series of wall-hung tapestries entitled ‘Resting Place’ depict the heroic farmers of Cherán, a self-governed town in another rural region that has fought hard to protect its land and community from crime and deforestation. In keeping with his unique approach, Laposse opted to dye the various pieces with the pits of avocado endemic to the area. 

'The avocado skins and pits we have been using were collected from a guacamole vendor in the local street market next to my studio in Mexico City,' he explains. 'This is the waste material from his small stand, from which we organised daily collections over the past year or so. The avocado pits give us all the pinks, peaches, and browns, while the yellows are made from Day of the Dead marigolds collected near my other studio in Tonahuixtla, the town where we’ve been growing corn since 2011. I see these portrait tapestries as a bridge between the Totomoxtle project, the start of my career, and the avocado exploration, the next chapter in my practice.'  

By remaining involved in every step of material development – from planting to extraction and application – Laposse gives new meaning to the idea of craft fabrication, a more considered and controlled alternative to mass production. His limited-edition designs serve as provocations, conceptual demonstrations of material generation and making processes that could be more widely adopted. For him, it's a means of uncovering new, innovative possibilities but also of giving back to the land and to the communities that have managed it so carefully for so long.  

Fernando Laposse, ‘Ghosts of our Towns’ is on view at Friedman Benda until 14 October 2023

515 W 26th St
1st Floor
New York

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There is a lazy, quick take on Samuel Ross that positions him as simply an acolyte of Virgil Abloh and a younger, British varietal. Both have had superficially similar career trajectories, building international fashion brands around streetwear staples – Off-White in Abloh’s case, A-Cold-Wall* in Ross’. Neither went to fashion school, but both have what Ross calls ‘hard skills’; Abloh studied architecture, Ross illustration and graphic design. They both have collaborated with major sportswear brands, Nike most notably, to mutually beneficial effect.

Both share a ferocious work ethic and what can look like imperial ambition; they can come off as calculating and hyper-smart engineers of contemporary desire and the machinery of influence and status. And they are both, of course, Black men in what is still largely a white man’s business. In truth, it is not that one has followed the other, but that both have understood and come to redefine luxury, the new possibilities of brand building, and a creative practice built around collaboration and transdisciplinary activity. Following in the footsteps of Kaws, Kanye, Takashi Murakami and Tom Sachs, they know that the distinctions between street art and fine art, streetwear and catwalk, commerce and activism have all but dissolved. Or rather, that the borderlands between these categories are the most interesting and transformative places to be. 

Both have also created sculptural objects and furniture. Ross and designer Jobe Burns formed Concrete Objects in 2017, to create ‘aesthetically inclined, functional objects’ inspired by the Bauhaus and brutalism. In 2019, he launched SR_A, ‘a studio operating within the fields of luxury industrial design, interior installation, architecture, furniture design, sound design and sculptural/visual communication’. He was awarded the Hublot Design Prize that year. And, as he says, his A-Cold-Wall* catwalk shows were, in effect, large-scale sculptural installations.

Furniture designs by Samuel Ross, and his Design Miami showcase

Earlier this year, under the SR_A umbrella, he created three chairs, ‘Recovery’, ‘Signal-3’ and ‘Trauma’, which were later acquired by Friedman Benda gallery in New York. Never short of conceptual ambition, Ross conceived the collection as tracking 300 years of Black experience, of wrenching dislocation, shattered and recovered identity, and class struggle. And, remarkably, they work as a fresh take on the most essential of design typologies. ‘Trauma’ chair, as the name would imply, is particularly powerful. Tall and imposing, like an African tribal throne, it is built in burned oriented strand board (OSB), lacquered with a mix containing molasses and peppered with die-cut holes. It talks of torture, slavery, wounding, scarring and healing, and has already been acquired by the Dallas Museum of Art.

At this year’s Design Miami, Ross and the gallery will present two new series of work. ‘Rupture’ includes a low table, stool and lounge chair, all in marble and steel, and ‘Amorphous Strand’, two benches in steel and fired OSB. These functional sculptures – a long time in the planning and signalling a new commitment to working in the ‘fine art’ space – seem to get at the specifics of Samuel Ross, the things that actually make him a singular designer and creative practitioner. ‘Putting those materials together felt quite significant,’ he says. ‘It signals the permanence of me moving into design objects, into fine arts. I was always focused on reconstituted materials, and I was interested in the way you can allude to the idea of propagation. And those materials were fibrous and malleable, a bit more elastic. This feels far more concrete.’

‘I’ve been working on this privately for the last five or six years. The pull of the art and design space is really having time to think, and time to iterate, to note and jot and sketch. The time to add to a cultural dialogue’ – Samuel Ross

If the harder materiality of the new pieces marks Ross’ new commitment to sculptural investigations, they are also part of a long-term conversation about craft, engineering and technology that began in his childhood. ‘I think a lot has to do with perspective and identity,’ he says. ‘I was raised by two artists. My mother is a painter, my father a stained-glass artist and a painter. Both went to art school and both dabbled in design. I’m the product of a highly educated household that values art and material, so there is this narrative of making and craft and experimentation. And in the early days of A-Cold-Wall*, I was really looking at ways to integrate the artisan touch and unique patinas.’

This matching of industrial processes and craft processes has been a long-term concern for Ross: ‘I’ve been working on this privately for the last five or six years. And there’s been a lot of learning; how to work materials, fabrications, layers of engineering that come into play.’ Now he has the confidence that he can say what he wants to say in these forms, materials and processes. And he wants to keep doing it. ‘There’s an emotion, a sensitivity, there’s an expression, but there’s also a want, need and desire to learn as much as physically possible about material,’ he says. ‘That physical process is so important. It’s not really just about what I feel like doing, it’s about what’s the most efficient way to convey something.’

The universe of Samuel Ross

Ross is always generous in crediting mentors, confidants and other influences. And he says conversations with the Black Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates have helped shape his thinking around the new design pieces. ‘He has a background in urban planning, in craft and engineering and woodwork, he understands the semantics of materials, the way they can deliver a message.’ 

Ross has always understood the potential of material as message. He had been working as an artist and a freelance designer and created a streetwear label 2wnt4 as a side project when, in 2013, Virgil Abloh messaged him on Instagram. Abloh was working on his Pyrex Vision project and was interested in Ross’ work. Ross interned with Abloh during the inception of Off-White, before advancing to become design assistant at both Off-White and Kanye West’s creative studio, Donda.

He launched A-Cold-Wall* – which he calls ‘a material study for social architecture’ – in 2015, when he was just 24. Backed with a 2,000-word dissertation, A-Cold-Wall* was designed to be a proper brand and not just a conceptual experiment, but it also encoded a particular take on race, class and the Black British experience. 

Commercial success came quickly, but it has perhaps come at a conceptual cost, or at least diverted Ross’ energies. Functional sculpture offers more space to talk about what he wants to talk about: ‘The pull of the art and design space is really having time to think, and time to iterate, to note and jot and sketch. The time to add to a cultural dialogue,’ he says. ‘It’s a completely different mindset to developing garments at the scale we now are. It’s just as fulfilling, but with garments I’m really looking for problems to solve, in the supply chain, material costs, how we communicate with our audience. With the design work, I feel like I can add to channels of thought. I want to ensure that there is balance in what I call the agnostic truth about what it is to be Black British; to move through the class system, to have this dislocated relationship with Africa and West Africa because I’m Caribbean.’

The new pieces also address Ross’ relationship with the promise of modernism and ideas around functionality, service and positive action in the public realm. He wants to leverage all he knows about design in the digital space and his street art and streetwear smarts to introduce the work, and the ideas behind them, to a different audience: ‘The democratisation of fine art and design objects has been something that I’ve been wracking my brain about because it is a closed space for the most part. And so every artwork kind of exists in AR and VR, and as a 3D object, to engage that wider and younger audience.’

Ross is famously hard to keep up with in conversation; he has an intense hunger for ideas, for concepts, theoretical systems. Inevitably, the lack of diversity in design, and ways of addressing it, also commands a lot of his energy and attention. He also understands that there is a model that he, Abloh and others have helped redefine. It’s a model centred around ‘plurality, meritocracy and design, disciplines and deliverables’. It’s about hard skills, hard work, clear intent and working across mediums, talking in a range of voices – much like his biggest influence, the Italian designer Massimo Vignelli. 

We talk about the wave of young architects and designers of colour launching their careers with that kind of energy and creativity, using film, print, theatre,  digital media and more to explain their work and practice. ‘It’s become the new norm and it feels highly optimistic,’ says Ross. ‘It is good to see people kind of stepping off the cliff and understanding there is a finite amount of time we all have and if we’re going to really go at this, we should be high-risk.’

INFORMATION
Friedman Benda presents a solo booth showcasing Ross’ latest works at Design Miami, 1 – 5 December 2021
Ross’ self-published book Object – Form. Form!, £250, is out now
samuel-ross.com
friedmanbenda.com

A version of this article appears in the December 2021 issue of Wallpaper* (W*272), on newsstands and available to subscribers.

The prolific multimedia artist Daniel Arsham may be synonymous with his Future Relic series, which casts ubiquitous objects, such as Pokémon, supercars and sneakers, as historical artefacts, calcified, eroded and unearthed a thousand years from now. But it’s his new additions to a line of furniture that are currently stealing the limelight. 

This follow-up effort was developed off the back of his debut furniture collection from 2019, Objects for Living, which the artist exhibited at Design Miami that year with New York design gallery Friedman Benda. It sees Arsham continue his exploration of structural, material and, of course, temporal contrasts in a truly functional form. The new pieces, which include lighting, a sofa, and a dining table and chair, are being presented as part of Arsham’s first solo show with Friedman Benda (until 25 September 2021).

Daniel Arsham furniture: Objects for Living

Arsham’s foray into furniture design is no surprise. He studied design and architecture in high school in Miami, but then pivoted to art at the Cooper Union in New York after he wasn’t accepted into its architecture programme. Arsham’s long-standing interest in design continues to be evident in his involvement in Snarkitecture, the multidisciplinary practice he co-founded with Alex Mustonen in 2007. The firm is known for its pioneering spatial interventions and immersive experiences for celebrities, brands such as Cos and Lexus, and real estate developers including Related Companies and Central Group, often realised in its signature greyscale palette.

Objects for Living emerged from Arsham’s desire to create pieces to fit his weekend home on Long Island, a modest yet distinctive bungalow designed by American architect Norman Jaffe in 1971, which the artist acquired in 2017. Inspired by Jaffe’s juxtaposition of curves and angles, Arsham designed several armchairs, a desk, a floor lamp and a rug for his personal use within the house. This inevitably caught the eye of gallerist Marc Benda, who saw the merit of revealing this other facet of the artist’s practice to the public.

Although some of the pieces from the inaugural series subscribed to Arsham’s distinctive fossilised aesthetic, others took on more organic, assemblage-like forms, which is the direction Arsham has expanded in for this second iteration, a reflection of the extensive time he spent at the house with his young family during the pandemic, along with the types of pieces he wants to live with.

‘Most of the design for this happened during the lockdown in New York,’ Arsham recalls. ‘I had gone out to the house in early March and I didn’t really have a lot of materials or things there with me. I started sculpting with Play-Doh, which my boys had loads of, and started modelling different types of forms. I wasn’t thinking that those would be the final forms, but I let them dry and when we came out of lockdown, I ended up just getting them 3D-scanned.’

Each piece’s hand-formed components retain all the idiosyncrasies of sculpting in Play-Doh, from the rough edges and indentations on the back of an armchair to the organically-shaped legs of the dining table. Realised in a combination of wood, resin and stone, each sculptural piece has a naive, almost primitive appearance that taps into Arsham’s fascination with blurring and warping time, albeit without the usual archaeological overtones.

Materials and manufacturing techniques

‘There’s a material difference between the two collections. Most of the first collection was [made from] resin and sculpted digitally,’ explains Arsham. The new pieces express ‘a material transformation. There are pieces that are solid stone, solid resin and then hollow resin, where you see the light push through it. There’s also this wood technique that we’ve been using in the studio that gives all of these amazing patterns.’ 

Deployed on the seat of a chair, for example, the technique produces a boisterous wood grain that mirrors the topography of the sculpted wood. ‘I achieve this variation by laminating the plywood, tilting the whole thing on an axis, then milling it as if it was flat,’ he says. ‘Once you start milling, you get these patterns that are impossible to predict because of the angle of the grain.’

Visual appeal aside, Arsham has also focused on the comfort and practicality of each piece, inspired by the balancing of form and function in Wendell Castle’s ‘Triad’ chair (2006), which sits in his studio. ‘I usually start with the chairs because they are the most generic form. Once I had everything sculpted, we milled it in foam and then I changed the scale and pitch of things for ergonomics so that it actually feels comfortable,’ he says. ‘When you sit in the armchair, your body fits in it correctly. I want these things to actually be used. They’re not sculptures that won’t be touched.’

A highlight of the new ten-piece collection is an ambitious bed frame, which Arsham conceived for the Brooklyn brownstone that he purchased last autumn. ‘I still just have a mattress on the floor because I’m waiting to finish this bed,’ he laughs. ‘Every single thing that I want in a bed is in this, from the storage underneath to the charging ports and reading lamps; it has underlight, it has backlight and a task light. The way the light feels is based on different conditions.’ Some details were inspired by Arsham’s stays at hotels in Asia: ‘There’s a small bench on the end of it that you can sit on if you’re putting your socks on. It’s a very whimsical design.’

With a headboard formed by individual organic shapes, the asymmetrical bed facilitates an interplay of light and shadow that transforms it into a sculptural art piece. ‘The wall that it will sit on doesn’t need anything else. I don’t have to put an artwork on the wall because the bed becomes that,’ Arsham adds. Completed with recessed drawers that are concealed from view, nightstands on either side that are integrated into the overall form, and reading lights that can be tucked away, the low bed frame cuts a strong yet seductive figure.

‘As abstract as some of the first designs were, I shaped the pieces to fit the body perfectly, even if they looked like the most uncomfortable things ever. There’s a counterintuitive thing you can have with furniture,’ Arsham explains. ‘With artwork, sometimes the visual quality of the thing is different from what it makes you feel or what it means. With furniture, or design objects that you actually touch, there’s a different level of possibility in the contrast between how it looks and feels. Even though this collection has things that are very playful, I really spent a lot of time on the ergonomics, to make sure they work for what they’re supposed to do. Every single thing that I’ve designed furniture-wise, I designed it with the intention of using it.’

INFORMATION

‘Daniel Arsham: Objects for Living: Collection II’ runs until 25 September 2021 at Friedman Benda, New York
friedmanbenda.com
danielarsham.com

ADDRESS

515 W 26th Street
New York
NY 10001
USA

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Sunset Park, nestled between the East River waterfront and Brooklyn’s Chinatown, has seen an influx of creatives, taking over the former Navy Yard buildings and industrial spaces. Among them is 30-year-old designer Misha Kahn, who has set up his new studio in the area. And on the cold, rainy December day that I visit, Kahn and his five studio assistants are bundled up. Tall and lean, Kahn is wearing long johns and sturdy outdoor attire, a strategic outfitting he probably picked up during the cold winters of Duluth, Minnesota, where he grew up.

He walks me through the studio, a former thread-dyeing factory, still industrial at its core. On one side is a loading dock, where that afternoon his team hoisted in a large crate containing a robot, typically used on car assembly lines. It had been shipped from Spain and the crate was waiting to be opened. (He later explained this would be part of his set-up for micro-manufacturing furniture.) 

Kahn graduated from Rhode Island School of Design’s furniture design programme in 2011. His sharp upward trajectory since then has been atypical, like the designer himself. He didn’t assist a designer or go to work for an established furniture brand; instead he worked for a prop stylist. ‘I learned an insane amount,’ he explains of the stint. ‘Like how to make everything in a room look good together.’ And it makes sense, given Kahn’s whimsical, borderline surreal installations. His uncommon combinations of materials – wood, resin, vinyl, fibreglass, woven basketry, glass, cement, aluminium, bronze, spun copper, grass, mohair – come together to create a singular universe that would be hard to imagine if not created by Kahn. 

But it’s this singularity that has also made Kahn an anomaly in contemporary design. ‘I’ve been very lucky in getting a lot of opportunities, but I also feel slightly excluded from so many things, because most of the work is not manufacturer-friendly,’ he says. ‘Bigger companies can’t license the designs, which is such a big part of most designers’ work. Then, on the flip side, there are a lot of art collectors buying my work. But it’s murky enough that people are never quite sure whether they can firmly validate that it’s art.’ 

Kahn is preparing for a show at Friedman Benda. Since his last solo show at the gallery in 2017, he has been in a whirlwind of group exhibitions and residencies, in Dallas, Seoul and LA, all showcasing pieces that defy right angles and have been described using such endearing adjectives as ‘squishy’ or ‘slouchy’, as if you were referring to a cartoon character or stuffed toy. As I walk through the studio I glimpse a bronze shelf, which was handcast on site. On its side, it looks like an abstract sculpture, but when stood up, shelves appear from its anthropomorphic figure. I, too, start to think of this structure as a lovable cartoon character. 

Across the studio, one of Kahn’s assistants is piecing together foam cross-sections of one of his Claymation sofas, created using a digital programme, and soon to be upholstered in cashmere. This marriage of digital and analogue is a throughline for the show, Kahn tells me. All the pieces have been touched by some digital process, but crafted by hand at the start or end of their production. The exhibition, which will feature individual works rather than a room-filling installation (a departure for the designer), also shows off a slew of materials and techniques as though the natural and unnatural, high and low, hard and soft are all part of one complex but beautiful language. 

That’s not to say there isn’t tension between these materials and techniques, but they create a beautiful kind of chaos. It’s liberating. ‘We have so much autonomy to be as creative as we want with whatever we do; people build houses that are totally lunatic. And there are so many people who want that. As soon as you give people the leeway to go there mentally, then they’ll happily wander into a new version of reality,’ says Kahn. 

‘I’ve always had a certain fascination with low-brow pop culture, I think because it felt so exotic,’ he adds. ‘And there is a Minnesotan craftiness that I am always drawn to, and those things have so much tension together but feel of a place.’ This, too, is how it feels talking to Kahn. He has both depth and seriousness but, simultaneously, light-heartedness and whimsy. We’re sitting in his small office that overlooks the studio. On the shelves, you can find books by illustrator Charley Harper, filmmaker Wes Anderson and sculptor Bruno Gironcoli. Kahn mentions a few more of his influences, from Isamu Noguchi to Ron Nagle. 

That evening, the designer is on his way to the Moschino runway show, invited by his friend Jeremy Scott, who is the brand’s creative director. As we’re finishing up our conversation, Kahn changes out of his workgear into a fabulously asymmetric silver suit and a pair of Space Odyssey-esque trainers. He’s ready for the night, a transformation that captures him perfectly. 

As featured in the March 2020 issue of Wallpaper*

INFORMATION

‘Misha Kahn: Soft Bodies, Hard Spaces’ on view 27 February – 4 April, Friedman Benda, New York

friedmanbenda.com

mishakahn.com

I think people were surprised when they saw that my house is not this totally all-white concrete box’, Daniel Arsham remarks. The New York-based multimedia artist lives with his family on Long Island, in a 1969 modernist home designed by Norman Jaffe. For the house that Arsham describes as ‘all cedar and stone,’ he developed pieces of furniture that he did not originally intend to show. ‘Marc Benda (co-founder of Friedman Benda) happened to see it,’ Arsham says, ‘and thought it might be interesting to show the public this other aspect of my practice.’

At this year’s Design Miami, Friedman Benda presents the result of these sculptural explorations in an installation that fictionalises a domestic setting partly conceived as a kunstkammer.

The works ‘often relate to shapes that would contrast with the rigidity of the house,’ explains Arsham. ‘Jaffe brought in curves in his later career and ran away from these early, more modernist right-angle approach. The furniture was made in contrast to that.’

Arsham’s Cleveland Chair I, Paris Chaise Lounge I and Shanghai Chair drive that idea home. The latter piece fits the artist’s recognisable achromatic aesthetic of fossilised future relics, while the former two introduce a new vocabulary of form and tonality.

‘A lot of it is made out of canvases that we used in the studio, which are dyed in various colors. Whenever we do sculptural works, I often draw notes onto the sculptures that define where the erosion will be placed on them,’ says Arsham. ‘I’ve appreciated separately some of these drawings and decided to place them onto the furniture objects, as if they will be turned into later sculptural cast works.’

Other aspects of the artist’s newfound Long Island setting seep into the objects on show at Friedman Benda’s Design Miami booth. Arsham’s Pasadena Sea Glass Lamp, for instance, merges his concept of fictional archeology with technological references informed by the artist’s on-going project at NASA JPL in Pasadena. ‘At the house where I live, there’s a beach,’ Arsham explains. ‘I found a lot of sea glass on the beach, fragments of text from a bottle and things like that. So, I combined this idea that glass shards and some giant piece of NASA machinery or spacecraft would land in the future and tumble into this object, almost like a tumbled piece of glass from the future.’ §

INFORMATION

Daniel Arsham for Friedman Benda will be on view at Design Miami from 3-8 December

friedmanbenda.com

Soon, New York’s Park Avenue Armory will again abound with pieces of design and works of fine art, curated by 56 international galleries this year for the eighth edition of Salon Art + Design. The fair offers a highly contextual premise of a considered mixing and matching of vintage, modern and contemporary objects with a thread between tradition and experimentation. Below, we select a handful of highlights that progress this aesthetic, including local talent, first time showcases and more.

Friedman Benda

Friedman Benda’s drawing room setting, designed by Leila Arruda, will reflect Salon’s mission of mirroring the way people approach the decorative aspects of their homes today: with attention to craft and a juxtaposition of textures. For this showcase, Israeli designer Raphael Navot has created an oak console of fluid, sober lines, titled Aleatoric (pictured). Jonathan Trayte’s playfully bronze painted corn, pear and lemon and Chris Schanck’s idiosyncratic upholstered shell chairs – amongst other pieces – add colour and drama to the scene.

Casati Gallery

Drawing from past exponents of Italian design, Casati Gallery was inspired by the 1994 Guggenheim Museum exhibition ‘The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943-1968’ for its exhibition. The Chicago-based gallery takes an architectural drawing of the exhibition by architect Gae Aulenti as a starting point, to paint a wider picture of the visual culture of Italy in the postwar era, showcasing furniture by Franco Albini, Carol Rama, Carlo Mollino and Studio BBPR.

Galerie BSL

Probing the blurred boundaries between design and sculpture into ever more whimsical territory, Paris-based Galerie BSL presents Pia Maria Raeder’s new STARDUST collection comprising of a four-seater bench, two-seater benches and a mirror. The German artist often borrows from nature’s organic forms to create her otherworldly yet functional pieces, and for this collection she utilises hand-carved beechwood elements coated with silver-based metal and waxed concrete.

Mathieu Lehanneur

Amid the bustle of the Salon, French designer Mathieu Lehanneur has created a place of refuge. His ‘Soldier’s Retreat’ installation within the historic Colonel’s Room, is ‘a space absolutely isolated from the turmoil of the world’, he says, ‘like peace found after the battlefields.’ Here, shown together with his new collection ‘Inverted Gravity,’ pieces that radiate stillness and lightness, like his cloud-shaped Familyscape couch and a green marble console anchored by wide column-like legs, merge human history with natural history in Lehanneur’s signature visually poetic style.

Apparatus – Library Room

Whether it’s throwing a decadent party or the ingenious lighting inside its showrooms, Manhattan-based design studio Apparatus turns heads with its opulent, detail-driven and narrative aesthetic. For Salon, the studio – founded by Gabriel Hendifar and Jeremy Anderson – presents its desirable world through the Interlude collection – furnishings that wouldn’t look out of place in a modernist music hall. The decorative yet measured approach of the studio will come to life through pieces like the hand-embroidered hanging lamp and a cabinet made of eel and brass.

Wonderglass

For WonderGlass’ Salon debut, the London-based gallery asked artistic duo J&PEG to create a site-specific installation. ‘Dark matter’ is composed of artificial spaces in which visitors can explore mankind’s relationship to the universe and unravel its mysteries. The glass pieces studiopluz, Gwenael Nicolas / Curiosity and photographic prints by J&PEG create a cosmic architecture that filters light and shadow, and blends together colours and geometries at the edge of the unexplored. 

INFORMATION

thesalonny.com

ADDRESS

447 W 24th St
New York, NY
10011

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Throughout its lifetime, the New York gallery Friedman Benda has made supporting both established and emerging design-focused artists its calling card. Its latest duo of exhibitions is no different. Opening this week, the gallery dedicates its ground floor space to the design pioneer Ron Arad. Focused on Arad’s early sculptural work, made between 1985-1994, ‘Fishes and Crows’ is the designer’s first solo exhibition at the gallery space since 2008.

In contrast, the young British artist Jonathan Trayte takes over Friedman Benda’s basement Project Space with a landscape of colourful and surreal works that reference familiar objects in your typical living, eating and sleeping quarters. Entitled ‘Fruiting Habits’, Trayte’s provocations towards these everyday shapes reveal his background in sculpture and metalwork, along with his sense of humour. Each refreshing interpretation of domesticity merges a wide range of materials like wood, bronze, leather and marble with flashes of glossy paint, bright colours and tubes of neon. Forms range from the functional to the gourmand, such as large melons, gourds, confections and slices of deli meats (Trayte was also previously a chef), imbuing the creations with a lighthearted touch.

‘The work that I tend to make comes together all at once, like a cast of characters,’ Trayte says. ‘There’s always some weird older brother, the “black sheep”, that doesn’t quite fit.’ While Trayte’s quirky world is a dramatic foil to Arad’s freely sculpted works, their shared flair for experimentation seamlessly bridges the gap between the two shows.

This particular decade in Arad’s career saw the designer eschew machine tooling for a more expressive approach to metal. Aided by tools such as a metal compactor, hand welder and a rubber-headed hammer, Arad created armchairs, tables and screens out of gestural pieces of wielded metal – all in opposition to the slick polish of the Memphis movement in Milan. Postmodern and infused with a subversive sense of humours, these pieces are the precursors to the more sophisticated forms that Arad began exploring in the late 1990s that ultimately evolved into how we know him today.

INFORMATION

‘Ron Arad: Fishes & Crows’ and ‘Jonathan Trayte: Fruiting Habits’ is on view at Friedman Benda until 27 July. For more information, visit the website

ADDRESS

515 W 26th St
New York
NY 10001|
USA

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For ‘Unhomely’, his first major solo exhibition at Friedman Benda in New York, American designer Chris Schanck has produced a series of 15 pieces where furniture enters in an otherworldly dialogue with art, punctuated by references to fantasy and science-fiction.

Initially trained in sculpture at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Schanck practiced as an artist before continuing his education in the early twenty-tens at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he transitioned to design. ‘In short, I wanted to make sculptures you could touch,’ recounts the 42-year old designer, who is known for his furniture of biomorphic lyricism and his unorthodox approach to materials.

It is probably his idiosyncratic, low-tech Alufoil technique — first developed while studying at Cranbrook — that propelled him to international attention. The now-signature method consists of sculpting pieces out of wood and industrial foam, sealed in a resin-based coating and covered with layers of confectioners foil, applied in small pieces.

‘Each piece is first conceived as a sculpture, then I work out how it can be engaged as a design object,’ explains the Detroit-based furniture maker of his meticulous process, which bears similarities to a medieval craft guild practice.

Upon graduation, it didn’t take long for industry veterans like William Sofield and Peter Marino to note Schanck’s talent, and commission Alufoil pieces for ambitious retail projects: respectively, the Tom Ford Madison Avenue flagship, and the Dior boutique in Manhasset, New York (which later expanded to 12 more stores, from Paris to Mexico City).

But for his new exhibition at Friedman Benda, Schanck indulged in a creative process at once introspective and mythical, drawing from a wide range of inspirations from brutalist and art deco architecture to ancient Egyptian, Anatolian and Aztec iconography.

Reviving a sense of figuration remindful of his formative years, the series includes a silver, head-shaped cabinet; a gold coffee table resting on a kneeling, contracted human figure, reminiscent of a Pompeii plaster cast; and a highly-sculptural, copper-coloured shelving structure evoking a dystopian, overgrown biotope — which, Schanck explains, was inspired by his neighbourhood of North East Detroit.

‘My neighbours have built gardens on their roofs, they’ve taken abandoned lots and made lot-sized gardens. Things are unregulated, I don’t know that you can get away with this anywhere,’ says Schanck, whose 3,200 sq ft studio is home to 25 employees, ranging from art students to members of the local Bangladeshi community. ‘To me, my neighbourhood very much feels like a living organism, the squash vines integrate and it’s cultural and it creates some kind of network or system of living.’

’Blush’ mirror, 2018 and ’Crustacea’ closet, 2017, both by Chris Schanck

Chris Schanck [American, b. 1975]

Crustacea

Chris Schanck [American, b. 1975]

Crustacea

INFORMATION

‘Chris Schanck: Unhomely’ is on view until 14 April. For more information, visit the Friedman Benda website

ADDRESS

Friedman Benda
515 W 26th Street
New York

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When Juan Garcia Mosqueda shut the doors of his New York design gallery, Chamber, last year, it was more for personal reasons than anything else. ‘I really wanted to go back to school,’ Mosqueda says candidly, ‘my undergraduate education was fine, but it didn’t really provide me with the knowledge that I wanted to seek. I thought getting back to reading and writing would influence my shows and allow me to contribute something to design in the way we talk about products and objects, but on a metaphysical level.’

Currently enrolled at Harvard Graduate School of Design and pursuing a masters degree in cultural studies, Mosqueda’s yearning for a more philosophical way of thinking clearly inspired his most recent endeavor: curating ‘No-Thing - an exploration into aporetic architectural furniture’ at Friedman Benda’s project space, just a few streets away from where Chamber once stood in Chelsea. Based on Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing’s notion of a state of ‘in betweenness’ of two entities, the exhibition encourages an ambiguity of self and intention towards the act of creating and design. 

‘Marc [Benda] asked me to curate a show in [this] space as soon as he knew that I was closing [Chamber] and working as an independent curator. We’d been talking before that for almost a year on ways to collaborate,’ Mosqueda adds.

The spirit of the exhibition clearly picks up where Chamber left off. Mosqueda has commissioned new works from nine emerging architectural practices that possess an academic bent, and challenged them to pursue a non-dogmatic approach to creating furniture.

‘I [initially] asked each practice to create something – either furniture or lighting – that would serve as a microcosm of their ethos, so that when you looked at one of the pieces, you would get a clear idea of what that practice was all about,’ he says.

‘[Laing] locates the “no thing” as between two people, where the individual’s background are put behind and that space between, subject to subject, is identified and we leave out all the social constructs that are put upon us. That space is something really interesting and where these objects really emerge. It’s not about what the architects say or the subjects’ judgment, but its the combination of both where a new kind of aesthetic emerges,’ Mosequeda explains.

The firms represented include Andy and Dave (Brooklyn, USA), Ania Jaworska (Chicago, USA), architecten de vylder vinck taillieu (Gent, Belgium), Leong Leong (New York, USA), MILLIØNS (Los Angeles, USA), MOS (New York, USA), Norman Kelley (New York, Chicago, USA), SO – IL (Brooklyn, USA), and Pezo von Ellrichshausen (Concepcion, Chile). With creations appearing to use seemingly ordinary construction and materials, users and viewers alike are forced to form their own ideas about how the object should be used. 

INFORMATION

’No Thing: an exploration into aporetic architectural furniture’ is on view until 17 February. For more information visit the Friedman Benda website

ADDRESS

Friedman Benda
515 W 26th St
New York
NY 10001
USA

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‘Brazilians are a hybrid people – since the Portuguese arrived and colonised Brazi, our DNA is mixed. We combined materials and objects, animal parts and human parts to reflect this hybridism,’ Humberto Campana says of his and his brother Fernando’s approach to ‘Hybridism’, Estudio Campana’s latest – and highly personal – exhibition at New York gallery Friedman Benda.

The collection of furniture, objects and sculptures borders on surrealism with its anthropomorphic and botanical shapes and dizzying piles of cast aluminium animals. Everything is derived from the Campana brothers’ lives, from their childhood in the Brazilian countryside to global politics. ‘The objects are playful, but they are very heavy, a reaction to what is happening to the planet: immigration, the Brazilian political situation, Trump. All these bad things are happening and I needed show my abomination,’ Campana says.

Collaborating with Brazilian craftspeople across the country, the Campana brothers worked a lot in collage, ‘playing God’ and expressing their mixed emotions through endemic materials and a mix of new and traditional processes. Many of the animals represented come from the brothers’ memories of growing up on a farm.

‘The forest in Brazil is becoming devastated and there is an apparent lack of interest from the president to take care of it,’ Humberto says. ‘The animals cannot speak for themselves so I try to represent them as begging for salvation. The story of Noah’s Ark is about this asking and requesting of salvation and being the chosen people.’

A key piece is the ‘Noah Bench’ with a frame comprising animals leaping out and a seat covered in bright green woven fabric. Humberto was inspired to make the piece as a type of catharsis after having a benign (but nonetheless alarming) tumour removed. As a whole, ‘Hybridism’ oscillates from these deeply intimate moments to broader concerns, questioning whether anything is really whole, or if we are all, in fact, merely a composition of our experiences, cultures and situations.

INFORMATION

‘Fernando and Humberto Campana: Hybridism’ is on view until 14 October. For more information visit the Friedman Benda website

ADDRESS

Friedman Benda
515 West 26th Street
New York

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New York gallery Friedman Benda presents a new exhibition of furniture by London-based designer Faye Toogood, opening tonight. Entitled ‘Assemblage 5’, the 23-piece collection is, as its name might suggest, the fifth chapter of the designer’s oeuvre, and her largest collection to date.

‘The very first time I did a collection of furniture, I didn’t feel brave enough to call it a collection,’ says Toogood, who began her career as an interior stylist, working for magazines, ‘I wanted to find a word that could sum up what I felt that was doing, which was assembling materials and shapes into narratives.’ The word assemblage, she notes, felt more appropriate to her way of working, and she has christened her collections as such since 2010.

The new show is based around three elements – water, earth and the moon. Here, Toogood’s recurring sinuous shapes are rendered in materials she has never used before, and which she has developed especially for this collection. ‘Everything I have done with furniture always starts with materials,’ she says, ‘I wanted to communicate that this was going to be very elemental, very primitive, getting back to the essence.’
 
For the tribute to water, the designer worked with a Czech artisan glassmaker to achieve an impressive pure crystal glass, which she applied to large-scale pieces such as chairs and tables. The process involved melting glass in a special mould, then waiting five months for it to cool down before extracting the piece inside.

Elsewhere, nodding to the moon, she used cast bronze patinated with a silver nitrate finish, ‘to give a dull quality to it that has the sort of alchemy of the moon’. Toogood herself developed the material that represents the final element: a composite mix of earth and resin with natural earth pigments. All of the pieces are mould-based and the same shapes are recurrent throughout the collection, the designer notes, but each material had a very unique process, which she followed closely.

Inspiration for this series struck when she visited Henri Matisse’s Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence (Chapel of the Rosary), a chapel that the artist created in 1949. ‘I felt completely overwhelmed by the fact that someone I usually associate with the two-dimensional image had created the most beautiful, spiritual three-dimensional space,’ she says.

Spiritual elements are tellingly evident throughout the collection, from ritual chalices to seats that mimic temple’s pews, and beads reminiscent of rosaries. ‘The elemental and the primitive is obvious in the elements and the materials, but I also think there is a lot of connection to identity and femininity,’ adds Toogood. This is also the first time that she has used textile outside of her fashion collections, creating tapestries that combine textures with paint and photographic images.

Toogood was given carte blanche by the gallery to develop this collection, and worked on an immersive set to present her works in. The designer covered the gallery walls in white canvas (a ‘humble, neutral’ material she often uses in her fashion work), while the pieces sit atop white-sprayed seaweed mats. The idea, she explains, is to offer a more domestic, textured environment to present the collection.

Last year, Toogood was included in the ‘Design Currents’ showcase at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but this is the first time she has exhibited in a solo show in the US. ‘[Here], patronage for contemporary design is really strong,’ she notes, adding that she hadn’t anticipated the freedom to produce such a large collection, afforded by a gallery like Friedman Benda. ‘Now I am excited to see these pieces in a new context,’ she says, thinking of where they could be displayed once they go to new owners. ‘I look forward to seeing their new life. I hope the raw, elemental ingredients of the pieces make their aesthetic last.’

INFORMATION

‘Assemblage 5’ is on view until 15 April. For more information, visit the Friedman Benda website

ADDRESS

Friedman Benda
515 W 26th Street
New York, NY 10001

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Earlier this year, Friedman Benda presented a survey of Dutch designer Joris Laarman’s research in digital fabrication. Shown at the gallery’s mega-booth at Design Miami/Basel, the retrospective featured large-scale designs by Laarman that pushed the boundaries of form and material.

In 2004, Laarman started a lab as ‘an experimental playground to study and shape the future’. Having graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven the previous year, the designer’s first notable work came in the form of a decorative radiator that defied more traditional utilitarian designs.

Over the past decade and a bit, Laarman’s work has developed into a continuous exploration of shape, material and technique, and his lab has overcome engineering hurdles as well as traversing new frontiers in making. His method of working consists of developing large series and collections, each taking up to six years to engineer and manufacture in-house. What marks Laarman’s vast body of work is the subtle organic forms of his pieces, which are simultaneously decorative and functional, ranging from tables and seating to partitions and dividers.

‘I don’t prefer to work in a specific material,’ explains the designer, whose oeuvre seamlessly incorporates experiments in metal, wood, resin and marble, among other materials. ‘Every design asks for an approach in material that fits best. This could be a large variety of materials including materials that didn’t exist before yet.’ But even when using traditional materials, Laarman’s approach is radical: using a combination of 3D printing and welding, for example, he created his 'Microstructures' series, intricate 3D-printed chairs clad in copper for strength.

His 'Dragon Bench', a gravity-defying sculptural net, was created with a new invention recently developed by the lab, a new-generation metal printer. ‘In 2014 we set up a new company called MX3D that focuses on robotic metal printing,’ Laarman says. ‘The sculptural works I create with these machines also function as technical research.’ Thanks to this new technique, Laarman and his team were able to print with metals such as steel, stainless steel, aluminium, bronze or copper, resulting in light structures that don’t require support.

The same technique will be crucial for Laarman and his team’s next operation: a 3D printed footbridge built over one of the oldest canals in Amsterdam, fully functional and entirely built by robots. ‘Over the past several decades, the transition from analog to digital has revolutionised many fields, but digital technology is also starting to define an evolution in the way we manufacture, distribute and recycle products,’ he notes. ‘Inspired by emerging industrial manufacturing methods in the early 20th century, modernist pioneers valued and changed the aesthetics of design. Now the new realm of digital fabrication is shifting our current notion of design and pushing artists to explore the endless new possibilities of digital manufacturing.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Joris Laarman's website

Those who have experienced the work of Richard Woods might liken it to falling into a comic strip or a passage out of Edwin Abbott Abbott’s Flatland. Graphic, two-dimensional worlds are transposed onto a three-dimensional plane using woodblock prints. The result is a somewhat disorienting display.

Woods' latest work follows a similar vein, this time applying an array of bold prints across 20 tabletops. Aptly titled 'Work Tables', the series is presented as part of an exhibition of the same name at Friedman Benda Project Space this week.

Treating the tabletops as a storyboard, Woods lets the narrative unfold across each surface through layers of pattern and print. As with his other works, 'Work Tables' employs an element of trompe l'oeil in the form of patterned tablecloths setting the stage for the story, while diverging in the use of stenciled silhouettes that bring each frame to life.

Side by side, the tables depict moments over the course of a meal with scenes such as ‘Get the Cat Off the Table (AJ)’ and ‘Outdoor Eating (MA)’. Each suggests a specific event in time, whether a disobedient cat on the table, a forgotten saw, or scattered picnic cutlery.

Visitors are invited to wind their way through the series, getting a glimpse into these abstracted moments, captured by Woods and reconstructed as vivid displays of form and colour. 

INFORMATION

'Work Tables' is on view until 19 August. For more information, visit Frieman Benda's website

Photography: Daniel Kukla

ADDRESS

Friedman Benda Project Space
515 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001

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‘There's a lot of overlap,’ explains LA ceramic artist Adam Silverman when discussing Ground Control, his debut solo exhibition at New York's Friedman Benda and its relation to Body Language, his recent two-gallery solo exhibition at Culver City's Cherry and Martin.

The big differences: new non-functional pots (there were no vessels in the previous show) that are mostly installed directly on the floor (with a few pieces atop burnt Japanese shou-sugi-ban pedestals and shelves). The clay-festooned, tie-dyed denim wall installation he debuted in LA has also grown by a panel (with glossy purple hunks of clay, which blend into the fabric more, replacing the matte Yves Klein Blue hunks he used last time). 

‘Part of the title is that it is on the ground and it does control how you move around the space,’ says Silverman, who painted the floor a dark chocolate brown. ‘But it doesn't dictate in the sense that it has arrows like an Ikea store telling you which way to move.’

That movement, defined in his previous outing, was inspired by the conceptual choreography of Merce Cunningham. Instead of highlighting the frozen moments in dance as he did in LA, Silverman arranged a ‘choreographic map’ that explores motion, defining the space around his clay creations, while still allowing for improvisation. 

‘It's telling you to move somewhere in this space and start and stop where you want, but don't occupy this space, move around it,’ he says, noting the best way to experience the installation may be after the opening when you can move through it alone or with one other person. ‘It's also subterranean with a window onto the street, so there's another way to experience it from above, almost as if they were looking down on a stage. The light comes down the wall and we changed all the lightbulbs, so it's a warm yellow bath of light. It's a very New York experience.’

Highlights include a matte glazed yellow pot – the first time he's shown this glaze – some figurative vessels (with a mouth-like opening) and an extruded worm-like creation. This time around his assemblages explore verticality (against planar crags functioning as plinths) rather than horizontality (with them as backdrops). Again, playing to his surroundings. 

One standout piece is a black assemblage that was ‘violently assaulted’, says Silverman. ‘There are pieces getting stuck through the surface, piercing the surface, then it's rammed onto this base. There's a lot of physical alteration going on in a not so subtle way.’

INFORMATION

’Adam Silverman: Ground Control’ is on view until 11 June. For more details, visit the Friedman Benda website

ADDRESS

Friedman Benda
515 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001

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The pure, graphic simplicity of Nendo is a focal highlight of this year’s Collective Design Fair, which opens its doors at Skylight Clarkson Square in downtown New York tomorrow. The Japanese design collective unveils a new collection of furniture and lighting entitled ‘Trace’, which poetically visualises the relationship between a sketch and the finished product in three-dimensional form.

‘[This] was about visualising the unseen,’ explains founder Oki Sato. ‘People know that you cannot stand in front of [a door] because it’s going to open, but if you look at architectural or technical drawings, you will notice that there are these lines and arches that show how the doors will open. By visualising the movement that people recognise, but don’t really care about, I thought that could create some animation to the furniture pieces.’

‘It is always about recognising the things that we do not see in everyday life,’ he continues. ‘‘The theme is in line with the [50 Manga Chairs] that we showed in Milan this year, which was also about showing emotions and movement.’

Comprised of twelve furniture pieces, as well as an array of lighting, the Trace series has been installed at the entry of the fair’s industrial space. The lights – lacquered metal sconces that each draws arcs in space to articulate the swinging of a pendulum – cover an 85-foot long wall. The furniture – rectangular wooden cabinets with drawers and doors that swing open in different, unexpected orientations, delineated by slender metal frames – flank both sides of the entrance corridor to ensure the fair starts off on a dynamic note. Nendo has also created the reception desk for this year’s edition.

‘Since [everything] is at the entrance of the fair, it had to have this inviting feeling. The way we selected materials, like wood and a warm lighting, we wanted to make them have a friendliness and welcoming feel to the space,’ Sato explains.

The collection has been made possible by Friedman Benda gallery, who has represented the group since 2009. ‘To Nendo and its ever-expanding audience, design is a mental state in which anything can be reimagined and become part of its universe,' says Marc Benda. ‘With every project, Nendo tells a unique, positive, and highly relevant story.’

INFORMATION

Collective Design Fair runs until 8 May. For more details, visit the fair's website

Photography: Adam Reich

ADDRESS

Collective Design Fair
Skylight Clarkson Square
550 Washington Street
New York, New York

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The creative endeavours of the multi-dexterous designer Marcel Wanders have long been heralded since he debuted his iconic 1996 'Knotted Chair' – a cunning twist of whimsy. In celebration of his radical style, Friedman Benda is hosting ‘Portraits’, Wanders’ first ever solo gallery show in New York.

‘Over the past ten years, Marcel has built a personal body of work parallel to his industrial design and architectural work,’ says Marc Benda, who has supported the Dutch designer’s career for a decade. ‘"Portraits" is unexpectedly personal, intimate and immersive,’ he continues. 

‘What I've done is try to create the ultimate combination of traditional crafts and technology, but with the goal of expressing a more intimate and fragile side of myself,’ says Wanders. ‘My personal duality is on display as I want both to shine, but also to reflect what is real as to darkness and brokenness. At times, I express vulnerability, disappointment, disillusion and shame.’

‘Shiqule Nuhai’, two monumental vases, reference Wander’s extensive collection of Delft jewellery. Only, rather than glazing them in traditional blue, Wanders hand-painted the pattern in black to reflect his darker sensibilities. Also on view are three mirrors dubbed ‘Dysmorphophobia 1, 2 and 3’, each edged in craggy stainless steel. ‘Mirrors do to truth what bias does to knowledge,’ he notes.

As one might expect, Wanders’ sculptural works also venture into the quixotic. ‘Tempter’ is a solid bronze rocking unicorn, complete with metal chain stirrups at close to six feet high. The result is as fantastical – and evocative – as ever.

INFORMATION

'Portraits' is on view until 9 April. For more information, visit Friedman Benda's website

Photography: Andrew Meredith. Courtesy the designer and Friedman Benda

ADDRESS

Friedman Benda
515 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001

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New York’s Friedman Benda gallery plays host to two noteworthy exhibitions this month – ‘Marcel Wanders: Portraits’ and Misha Kahn’s ‘Return of Saturn, Coming of Age in the 21st Century’. The two prove to be quite the bookends: Wanders, the well-established designer whose restrained show is rendered in a dark palette becomes a foil for Kahn, who, at 26, is very much gaining a name of his own, with a very kaleidoscopic show he himself describes as something ‘meant to encourage comfort with one’s own mental chaos’.

The product of Kahn’s imagination is a collection of everyday objects: stools, mirrors, lamps and tables. Each is brightly colored, and his choice of material steers far from convention. He has made a cabinet, for example, from banana leaves, grasses, cactus, bone and lavimisu. And it shows. The Wild One China Cabinet smells like a stable. The show’s pièce de résistance, though, is The Slippery Feel of Inevitability, a hand-woven mohair tapestry that depicts a landscape made of Jell-O molds – again, brightly colored and apparently underwater.

The subtitle, ‘Return of Saturn’, speaks to Kahn’s personal self-reflections. Pointing to astrological tradition, he explains that it takes 27 years for Saturn to return to the same position where it had been at the moment of a person’s birth, making it a fruitful time to consider one’s life, a place he considers himself to be now.

This is not an art-in-a-white-box kind of show. Kahn created an immersive environment, covering the floors in plywood tiles and the walls in a custom-made wallpaper depicting oranges at various stages of having been peeled. The wallpaper itself is also torn and partially peeled. ‘I always thought peeling an orange was like ripping wallpaper,’ he suggests. As for why he chose oranges? ‘I thought they were like cosmic belly buttons. And I kind of liked the connection with the Medicis.’

INFORMATION

'Misha Kahn: Return of Saturn, Coming of Age in the 21st Century' is on view until 9 April. For more details, visit Friedman Benda's website

Photography: Andrew Meredith. Courtesy the artist and Friedman Benda

ADDRESS

Friedman Benda
515 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001

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NYC has some of the best art galleries in the world‚ but with over 1,500 to choose from, the sheer number is overwhelming. Not to worry, we’ve narrowed them down to some of our blue-chip favourites.

David Zwirner
Cologne native David Zwirner looks to bring the world’s best contemporary art to the city. His impressive – and expanding – exhibit of Cuban concretism is certainly in this spirit. In recent years, the gallery has established high profile relationships with the estates of Light and Space icons (and close friends) Dan Flavin and Donald Judd. And the gallery’s representation of Japanese polka dot queen Yayoi Kusama will keep the patrons coming ad infinitum. Multiple locations; www.davidzwirner.com

Lévy Gorvy
Dominique Lévy opened her eponymous NYC gallery in 2013, taking up residence in an old Madison Avenue bank. Fans of art in miniature (us) rejoiced when the gallerist hosted a retrospective of small-scale Alexander Calder sculptures in 2015, and we also took notice of Gerhard Richter’s Pantone-friendly Colour Charts. In 2017, Dominique Lévy partnered with Brett Gorvy to form Lévy Gorvy. It is one of two galleries that exclusively represent the ubiquitous Frank Stella. 909 Madison Avenue; www.levygorvy.com

Friedman Benda
Remember how excited we were about the pre-Memphis Group work of Ettore Sottsass? That glimpse of Sottsass' early pastel oeuvre was the brainchild of Marc Benda and Barry Friedman, who founded Friedman Benda in 2007. The pair doesn't shy away from a little bit of wacky, and it pays off. Casepoint: Paul Cocksedge’s mind-boggling seamless sculptures. 515 West 26th Street; www.friedmanbenda.com

Gagosian
Larry Gagosian’s art empire includes no less than five New York City locations. Currently exhibited artists include Takashi Murakami and Cy Twombly; the gallery also holds close the abstract expressionists of The New York School. Despite a stable that reads like a Who’s Who in pop art, the gallery has made pleasing forays into design: recently showcasing the furniture of the late Austrian sculptor Franz West. Multiple locations; www.gagosian.com

Hauser & Wirth
Founded in Zurich by power couple Iwan and Manuela Wirth and Ursula Hauser in 1992, the Swiss gallery opened a New York location shortly after. We noted their art scene dominance in 2013, when they put on three concurrent Paul McCarthy exhibits. Multiple locations; www.hauserwirth.com

Judd Foundation
Donald Judd fans rejoiced when his former Soho studio and home‚ previously viewable by appointment only‚ added a public gallery space. And fans also noted how fitting it was that Judd’s son, Flavin Judd, held the first show in tribute to Dan Flavin. Guided tours of the home are still available and encouraged by the Judd Foundation. As the once gritty SohHo neighborhood continues its posh transformation, it’s comforting that at least the art is exactly as Judd left it. 101 Spring Street; www.juddfoundation.org

Lehmann Maupin
The diverse, forward-looking artists of Lehmann Maupin include Brazilian graffiti muralists Os Gêmeos and fashion chronicler Juergen Teller. The gallery has served as a backdrop for Robin Rhode to comment on South African power cuts, and Teresita Fernandez to render Cuba as a malachite landscape. Renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has collaborated with founders David Maupin and Rachel Lehmann to design the gallery’s various homes around the city. Multiple locations; www.lehmannmaupin.com

Luxembourg & Dayan
Alberto Burri is seemingly everywhere lately, including the Upper East Side townhouse of Luxembourg & Dayan. Founded in 2009 by Israeli friends Amalia Dayan and Daniella Luxembourg, the gallery has quickly established itself as champion of the unexpected. They previously brought the atomic age kitsch of Italian artist Enrico Baj back to New York for the first time since the 1970s. 64 East 77th Street; www.luxembourgdayan.com

Paul Kasmin
Founded in 1989, Paul Kasmin’s gallery can fairly claim to channel that 1980s New York spirit. Young Kasmin was, after all, brought around the Factory by his art-dealer father. From the word art of Deborah Kass‚ whose OY/YO installation delighted Brooklyn Bridge park-goers to Les Lalanne’s whimsical world, Kasmin boasts a full roster of contemporary thought. Multiple locations; www.paulkasmingallery.com

Salon 94
Salon 94 originated as a Rafael Viñoly-designed extension of founder Jeanne Greenberg-Rohatyn’s home. It has since expanded to two other locations around the city‚ including another Viñoly construction on Bowery. We featured the gallery’s playful, tropical group show in our September 2015 issue. Multiple locations; www.salon94.com

‘I’ve documented Paul’s work for years but this was the first time that we’ve collaborated on this scale,’ says Mark Cocksedge about photographing his brother’s design processes – in this case the development of the monumental ’Freeze’ collection. ’For me, it was about four, five months of photographing, going back and forth from London to Liverpool. I had to basically be on call for five months [laughing].’ Pictured: the ’Freeze Multi Ring Table’ being treated with liquid nitrogen at a foundry in Liverpool

Paul Cocksedge's continuing quest to articulate simplicity through the use of materials reached a new, Wallpaper* Design Awards-worthy apex with 'Freeze', a monumental collection of metal furniture constructed by freezing the different components and then having them expand into place as they returned to normal temperature. The collection was unveiled at Friedman Benda gallery in New York last year, along with a captivating catalogue filled with photographs of Cocksedge’s intriguing process by the designer’s brother, photographer Mark Cocksedge.

‘I very much enjoyed this process because there are a lot of times when things are made that you see them once they’re delivered to the studio, or there’s this rapid prototype experience,’ says Paul. ‘This was really about being around materials – touching metal and really appreciating the mass, colour and texture of these materials coming together in this environment.’

In honour of Cocksedge’s recent win, we present a special edit of images from the catalogue with anecdotes from the brothers. 'In a way, all of that work is the hard bit and now we’re producing different variations – longer versions, wider ones, different colours. It’s all still happening,' Paul concludes.

'London is great in so many wonderful ways,' says Paul. 'In terms of the kind of making that we needed to do, the factories aren’t in London so my brother and I had to go on a road trip. We did a tour of some of the northern cities to try and connect with heavy industry because we were pushing limits, weights, sizes and machines.' Pictured: 'Freeze' bench, 2015

'What started off as being scheduled for just one day would turn into sometimes a week, or week and a half, of staying up there. I would just stay to capture all these wonderful moments that we see in the catalogue,' Mark continues. Pictured: the top of the 'Multi Circle Table' gets a lift

'There are a lot of people working in factories, so there's a balance that you’ve got to get right. You’re stepping into an environment that’s very different, a totally different world in a way,' recalls Paul, pictured here examining the table. 'There’s noise and chemicals and banter – there’s a lot of things that can go wrong in a place like that, so there was a respect level that we had to quickly get our heads around. These guys are doing jobs that are incredibly skilled, so that balance was very interesting'

Paul continues, 'There is an element of two worlds coming together. These guys aren’t necessarily used to doing this kind of decorative, fine art sculptural work. However, they are very much in tune with beauty in a different way; they’re very sensitive to certain things, like the way you have to handle metal, the treatments and the technologies that go into working with the kind of things we were doing'

'I think at one point because [the workers] had an idea of me being an "artist" or a "designer" coming into a factory, they were initially a bit wary,' Paul says. 'But because I took my jacket off and I worked, I think I got some kind of respect. Maybe not as much as in my head, but I became part of it'

'We were lucky on both sides – we had a factory that was equipped and then we had the team there, who [had] a very different understanding because they’d never built furniture like we were doing. But they had a really great sensibility towards making – there was that passion,' Paul adds

Mark says, 'The factory usually works on motors, gears and parts of turbine engines. There was a lot of engineering machinery used for making part for boats and cruise liners – definitely not art pieces, you couldn’t have gotten further away’

’This is one of my favourite photos,’ says Mark. ’You can really see them going, "what have we just created?". It’s just a chair, but it’s also quite fascinating. The picture does sum up the entire project in a way’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Paul Cocksedge Studio’s website

Photography: Mark Cocksedge

When it comes to design, fabrication is usually restricted to studios and the odd factory or two, but British designer Paul Cocksedge has tackled his newest work in the Swiss Alps and a ship foundry in Liverpool too.

These unlikely places of manufacturing reflect the London designer’s latest methodology, which can be enjoyed in full force at ‘Paul Cocksedge: Freeze’ – newly opened at Chelsea’s Friedman Benda gallery this week.

‘I was seeking a new way to create metal tabletops set on columnar bases without a single visible joint exposed, so I buried copper cylindrical table bases and legs in the snowy Swiss Alps and there while they froze, their circumference shrank a two thousandth of millimeter,’ explains Cocksedge.

Later when ‘unfrozen’, and slipped into the hole of an aluminum tabletop, the two pieces locked invisibly together without a touch of glue or welding.

For other editioned examples like the Freeze Multi Ring Table, its copper base and then tabletop rings of aluminum, steel, brass and copper were all frozen in liquid nitrogen and formed a beguiling tabletop pattern once again with nary a seam when inserted. ‘With their reflective surfaces, there’s a sense of seduction, a notion of a bling,’ explains Cocksedge of his highly inventive process.

With a host of A-list collectors, MoMA and London's Design Museum all jostling for Cocksedge’s compelling designs, this new body of work really pushes the limits. Cocksedge’s wizardry can also be enjoyed via the show’s stunning catalogue, in which Cocksedge’s brother Mark documents the entire process.

INFORMATION

’Paul Cocksedge: Freeze’ is on view until 23 December

Photography: Mark Cocksedge. Courtesy of Friedman Benda gallery

ADDRESS

Friedman Benda
515 West 26th Street
New York

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