Artist Doug Meyer Crafts a Whimsical Line of Hardware for Modern Matter

Newly launched, his assortment with Modern Matter, American Rhapsody, taps into the expressive hues often seen in his artwork. “I always like to design something that in some strange way tells a story,” he says.

From his studio in Hudson, New York, Meyer crafted pulls, knobs, and desk accessories broken into four subsets, each influenced by a different period or movement in America. Available in only three finishes—polished nickel, polished brass, and burnished brass—the array takes familiar shapes like the traditional bat wing and reimagines it with an eye-catching injection of pink, yellow, or green. “To me, color is one of the most transformative things you can do to an object,” he says.

Standouts from the collection include the Fallingwater pull—a chunky bar with glazed ceramic facade that pays homage to the famed Frank Lloyd Wright design—and the cheeky X and O enamel pulls, bisected shapes in a tropical turquoise or summery green. “The idea behind the X and O knobs comes from my love of taking recognizable shapes and applying color to them,” he tells Galerie. “I am of the school that color can transform even the simplest object into something that has presence and meaning.”

The most artful assortment is the Sherwood Forest pieces—a patinated brass bar, letter opener, or magnifying glass enhanced with turquoise pattern inspired by the artist’s love of nature. The latter is also embellished with the phrase “Objects May Appear Larger Than They Are.”

“When brass oxidizes over time it creates this magical earthy vibrant green color that is very chalk-like in appearance,” he says. “The idea that this green color is formed naturally and combined with my love of the natural world led me to create these carved out organic leafy shapes on a body of burnished brass for the Sherwood Forest pieces. The phrases on the magnifying glass and letter opener add whimsy and hint at a fairy tail story, think Alice in Wonderland.”