6 Spectacular Collectible Design Shows to Check out This Winter
From Katie Stout at Nina Johnson in Miami to Ronan Bouroullec at Galerie Kreo in Paris
1. “Reverse Fireworks in Slow Motion” at Carpenters Workshop Gallery | New York
Fast-rising Athens artist Kostas Lambridis has conceived a new suite of functional works now on view at Carpenters Workshop Gallery in New York. Here, the Design Academy Eindhoven alum has taken on a mono-material approach, meticulously assembling furnishings and accents using an eclectic trove of found objects that share a base medium (metal, plastic, wood, or mineral), but little else aesthetically. The resulting pieces, including a show-stopping metal bar and monumental wooden table, have a patchwork appearance that is tactile, curious, and utterly harmonious all at once.
2. Ronan Bouroullec at Galerie Kreo | Paris
Renowned for their work as an industrial design duo, Paris-based brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have created objects for Vitra, Kartell, Flos, Alessi, and Ligne Roset, among other global brands. They’ve also established separate identities, as evidenced by Ronan’s recent book, Day After Day, published by Phaidon, which explores his own creative practice. On display through January 13 at Galerie Kreo are a trove of his abstract drawings and bas-reliefs in conversation with a series of enameled vases that he created last year in Tajimi, Japan. Referencing the region’s traditional Mino yaki ceramics, Bouroullec utilized extruded geometric forms to create poetic volumes in striking color combinations.
3. Katie Stout: Olympia at Nina Johnson | Miami
Endlessly inventive artist Katie Stout has opened her most ambitious show to date at Nina Johnson gallery, which is now filled with numerous large-scale works composed of bronze, glass, and ceramic, as well as a collection of spirited watercolors that have never before been displayed. Dubbed “Olympia,” the show is named after Stout’s newborn daughter and is partially inspired by her pregnancy journey, with a series of elaborate vessels and jugs that nod to themes of fertility and motherhood. Other motifs, including frogs and dogs, reference Stout’s move from urban Brooklyn to the Hudson Valley, where she converted a 20th-century church into her workshop.
4. Jeff Zimmerman at R & Company | Los Angeles
Since opening its Los Angeles outpost earlier this year, R & Company has been exhibiting extraordinary art and design pieces by an array of artists on its roster, among them master ceramist Hun Chung Lee, who inaugurated the Culver City gallery during Frieze Week. The latest exhibition, put on in conjunction with art consultancy ARTED, features 30 ethereal vessels and illuminated sculptures by leading glass artisan Jeff Zimmerman. On display are his explorations with crystalline forms, crumpled metallic volumes, and overlapping soda plates, as well as other diverse techniques that brilliantly showcase his never-ending imagination.
5. “Tesserae in Bloom” at The Future Perfect | New York
For the rest of the month, the garden level of The Future Perfect’s New York gallery is hosting “Tesserae in Bloom,” a new show by Brooklyn artist Cody Hoyt. A trained printmaker, Hoyt has demonstrated a knack for conjuring dazzling furnishings as well, including the ceramic tables, stools, and vessels sheathed in kaleidoscopic patterns on view here. The walls, too, sport Hoyt’s work: The whimsical floral design was made in collaboration with Calico Wallpaper.
6. “Garbo Talks” at Galerie56 | New York
“No cultural figure represents the transition of time more elegantly than Greta Garbo.” So says award-winning architect and gallerist Lee F. Mindel, who just sent in a design dispatch from Miami and whose Tribeca space, Galerie56, is hosting a new exhibition devoted to the Hollywood legend. The star of films such as Anna Karenina and Grand Hotel, Garbo seamlessly jumped from the era of silent films to the birth of so-called “talkies” in the 1930s. Here, Mindel and Swedish gallery Jackson Design (Garbo was born in Stockholm) teamed up to curate an homage-turned-celebration comprising more than 50 pieces inspired by Garbo’s work and her affinity for Scandinavian design. Mindel and the movie star even once crossed paths at Wysocki rugs, and a carpet Garbo designed is on view in the gallery alongside pieces by Josef Frank, Jean Royère, and Paavo Tynell.