“Jeff Zimmerman: Metamorphosis” at R & Company.
Photo: Logan Jackson
8 Collectible Design Shows to See in February
From a celebrated glass artist’s undulating vessels to a console table that appears caught in a black hole
February is a month for taking stock of all the love in your life. It’s a welcome reminder that adoration can take many forms, from romantic, familial, or platonic to one’s affinity for the finer things. If you find yourself leaning into the latter, we rounded up an itinerary of stellar design exhibitions that will sate your hunger for personality-packed objects to spruce up your living space. We visit a pair of vanguard glass artists in New York and journey beyond to Paris, St. Moritz, and Dubai in search of design that will make your heart skip a beat.
“Peter Speliopoulos: Chasma” at Les Ateliers Courbet. Photo: Courtesy of Les Ateliers Courbet
“Peter Speliopoulos: Chasma” at Les Ateliers Courbet. Photo: Courtesy of Les Ateliers Courbet
1. “Peter Speliopoulos: Chasma” at Les Ateliers Courbet | New York City
Fashion designer-turned-ceramist Peter Speliopoulos has been fascinated with caves—the modern Greek word for cave, “spelio,” is in his surname. Inspired by caves as portals between realms and Carl Jung likening them to symbols of the unconscious, Speliopoulos unveils two series of ceramic vessels, Livani and Chasma, that mark his foray into traditional wood firing techniques. Each piece of ancient stoneware clay is carefully hand-built, fired in a Japanese Noborigama kiln, and undergoes a rigorous, two-day-long process of continuous wood feeding. Exteriors are minimally glazed so the clay interacts directly with the fire, achieving a resinous cracked surface evocative of chasms. Each also rests atop a hand-crafted base, elevating them monumental sculpture and echoing the ancient Greek belief that chthonic spirits travel underneath, a conduit between the physical and spiritual.
January 14 – March 15
“Marco Campardo: Jello” at Galerie Kreo. Photo: Alexandra De Cossette
2. “Marco Campardo: Jello” at Galerie Kreo | Paris
Though graphic designer Marco Campardo was invited to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome to work on the institution’s visual identity five years ago, he ended up making colorful geometric stools out of cardboard molds that caught the eye of curator Luca Lo Pinto and jumpstarted his career pivot into furniture design. His ensuing Jello collection, which scooped the coveted Ralph Saltzman Prize at London’s Design Museum, now stars in a solo exhibition at Galerie Kreo in Paris and encompasses a dining table, square cocktail table, console, bench, and hybrid mirror-chair. Forgoing traditional silicone molds, he uses corrugated cardboard to create pieces marked by linear impressions and glossy resin surfaces. A palette consisting of saffron yellow, cobalt blue, forest green, lilac, petal pink, and icy blue imbues each furnishing with depth and subtlety, exuding a quiet, dynamic rhythm.
February 7 – April 5
“Ahryun Lee: Hoppy Marvels” at USM with J. Lohmann Gallery. Photo: Marco Galloway
“Ahryun Lee: Hoppy Marvels” at USM with J. Lohmann Gallery. Photo: Marco Galloway
3. “Ahryun Lee: Hoppy Marvels” at USM with J. Lohmann Gallery | New York City
The abstracted figurines Ahryun Lee creates aren’t quite animals, but the Korean artist hopes their candy-colored ceramic surfaces and bubbly builds will help viewers “hop into a world of color and joy, where every twist and turn of playful beings brings a burst of optimism and wonder.” Each expresses cheery emotions despite lacking facial features, and often seem in dialogue with one another. Even from their perches on the gridded shelves of a Haller system, Lee creates an otherworldly realm that ignites the imagination.
January 16 – February 6
“Vincenzo de Cotiis: Archaeology of Consciousness” at Robilant+Voena. Photo: Andrea Furger
4. “Vincenzo de Cotiis: Archaeology of Consciousness” at Robilant+Voena | St. Moritz
Galerie Creative Mind Vincenzo de Cotiis intended the artworks in “Archaeology of Consciousness” as otherworldly forms synthesizing the parallels of time and space. They debuted in Milan as contemporary riffs on the archway, reinterpreting their vaulted forms under the Italian artist and architect’s deft hand. After inaugurating his eponymous foundation in a 15th-century Venetian palazzo with an enfilade of arches evocative of ancient remains, he continues the conversation in the tranquil St. Moritz Protestant Church. There, he assembles rare stones, recycled hand-painted fiberglass, antiqued cast white bronze, and Murano cast glass into spiritual entities that evoke the journey through time and forms, recasting the exhibition as a spatial passage. They sit alongside expressive paintings by American artist Jordan Watson that capture the ecstasy of exhaling after breaking barriers and scaling new heights.
January 30 – March 6
“Erwan Boulloud: Touching Time” at Twenty First. Photo: Harry Matenaer
“Erwan Boulloud: Touching Time” at Twenty First. Photo: Pierre Vaillancourt
5. “Erwan Boulloud: Touching Time” at Twenty First | New York City
Erwan Boulloud’s masterful creations are united in their ability to instill awe and carry traces of science and the past, whether inspired by the infinitely large (astronomical phenomena) or infinitely small (microscopic images of cells). In his latest show, he slows down the clock and translates frozen moments into one-of-a-kind furnishings adorned with spellbinding patterns and precious stones like lapis lazuli, amethyst, and malachite. His Ecailles Enfilade, for example, features a warped scale-like motif in patinated and polished brass marquetry that could’ve come into contact with a black hole. Those motifs reappear in the Yareta Chair, named for a moss-like specimen that spreads gradually over rocks in the South America altiplanos. Its bulbous seat appears to engulf a cubic built-in side table.
February 13 – April 18
“Andrés Reisinger: Winter Collection” at Collectional. Photo: Courtesy of Reisinger Studio
6. “Andrés Reisinger: Winter Collection” at Collectional | Dubai
Ever since co-designing a virtual winter house with architect Alba de la Fuente, the coldest season has long been a muse for multihyphenate designer Andrés Reisinger. His latest range of mind-bending furnishings captures the quiet descent of winter as frost-dusted whites and silvery blues envelop the outdoors and we turn inward for warmth. Its centerpiece is the cocoon-like Winter Sofa, whose bulbous silhouette and sumptuous upholstery echoes the fluidity of the northern lights. “When creating interior pieces, warmth is the feeling we aim to evoke—a harmonious contrast to the chill of the season,” Reisinger says.
February 6 – 22
“Toots Zynsky: Past/Present” at Heller Gallery. Photo: Courtesy of Heller Gallery
7. “Toots Zynsky: Past/Present” at Heller Gallery | New York City
An unshakeable torchbearer in the Studio Glass movement who helped Dale Chihuly found the revered Pilchuck Glass School, Toots Zynsky is widely known for her undulating glass vessels that speak to her profound relationship with color. (The Providence-based artist experiences synesthesia that translates music to color in her mind.) Her painterly creations incorporate a unique technical approach called Filet de Verre, in which thousands of hair-thin extruded Italian glass cane filaments fuse together and are hand-shaped while still hot in her kiln. In her latest solo exhibition, which inaugurates The Curator Lab’s new space in Chelsea, she unites 11 archival works dating to the 1980s with more recent experiments that, in her words, speak to how “the complexity of life and the complexity of glass” are very much alike—often murky, often beautiful.
January 23 – February 15
“Jeff Zimmerman: Metamorphosis” at R & Company. Photo: Logan Jackson
8. “Jeff Zimmerman: Metamorphosis” at R & Company | New York City
Jeff Zimmerman, another vanguard glass artist known for wielding his favored medium’s kinetic potential to create intricate, branch-like chandeliers and sculptures, returns with a stellar array of works that seemingly defy gravity and respond to light and space. Among the dozens of new pieces on view are illuminated hanging sculptures, complex wall works, and freestanding vessels that highlight the trained Venetian glassblower’s robust output and artistic sensibility. His iconic Vine Chandelier has grown in complexity, resembling an erratic tangle of plant life; his Unicorn and Marine chandeliers capture the explosive energy found in nature and, fittingly, the art of glassblowing, especially under Zimmerman’s hand.
January 24 – April 11
Cover: “Jeff Zimmerman: Metamorphosis” at R & Company.
Photo: Logan Jackson
More from Galerie
