Basic.Space Brings a Stylish Shopping Event to New York
The design marketplace and Design Miami owner takes over a storied SoHo building with a weekend shopping showcase featuring archival pieces and works by contemporary talents
Ever since Basic.Space acquired Design Miami in late 2023, the online marketplace has continued to rework the fair’s foundational model of convening standout galleries and designer presentations under one roof. Recent editions left the booth-and-grid setting behind and instead moved toward something more fluid and experiential, staging collectible work inside storied locations from the gilded L’hôtel de Maisons in Paris to a suite of illustrious Hollywood Hills estates. The first Design.Space outing in Los Angeles advanced that approach in a new direction with a two-day gathering at the Pacific Design Center that welcomed emerging collectors and allowed them to buy directly through the Basic.Space app.
The shift proved effective. “While we love the convenience of online shopping, people still want in-person, real-life discovery moments,” Basic.Space CEO Jesse Lee told Galerie at the time. Visitors moved between Jean Prouvé’s demountable Sainte-Marie Gas Station, sold by Laffanour | Galerie Downtown for $1.5 million, and editioned pieces by the likes of Max Lamb, Willo Perron, and Sabine Marcelis, which were available for purchase with a single tap.
New York now picks up the story with fresh ambition and increased momentum. This weekend, Basic.Space will take over more than 20,000 square feet inside 575 Broadway, the former Estée Lauder headquarters. The team plans to shape the interiors into a layered presentation of archival and contemporary objects, artwork, and fashion. Everything will be available both in-person and through the app. “Los Angeles was a huge success,” Lee tells Galerie. “So it was important that we ensure New York is even better in terms of our offering and retail experience.”
The tone shifts as well. Los Angeles nodded to the ease of beloved department stores like Barneys and Colette. This edition, conversely, taps the glossy bravado and martini-soaked mayhem of late-eighties Manhattan. “Think American Psycho and Wall Street,” Lee quips. “Soho was the epicenter of culture and all things exciting happening, and it happens to be central to our offices and our friends in New York.” Those friends include a close circle of designers and gallerists who helped build a glamorous, high-voltage presentation of contemporary creative talent.
Among them is Kris Van Assche, who brings his new bronze vessels to the city after a standout exhibition in Paris. “I like the fact there’s something quite eclectic about Basic.Space, which I feel is somehow a salute to New York: a living collage of arts and aesthetics, cultures, people, and experiences,” he tells Galerie. His bronzes will appear beside midcentury works, new color studies of Gaetano Pesce’s luminous resin pieces for Meritalia, and an audio collaboration by Memphis slated to be revealed during the event.
Kouros Maghsoudi converted a corner office into a decadent lounge lined with lacquer tables inspired by Persian gathering traditions and sinuous chairs upholstered in Italian leather. Devon Turnbull mounted a listening room anchored by his custom-built OJAS sound system originally created for an audio-focused exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Marquel Williams assembled a menagerie of rare furnishings by Andrea Branzi, Vincenzo De Cotiis, Rick Owens, Wendell Castle, and Pierre Jeanneret into an installation shaped by the power plays often associated with Wall Street. The event also highlights smaller objects, including jewelry designer Jessi Burch’s brass comb crowned with an onyx cabochon.
Other contributors are beginning a more disruptive charge. Galerie Creative Mind collective MSCHF is presenting several of its most recognizable pieces, such as the Global Supply Chain Telephone Handbag collection, which mishmashes iconic handbags into one fashionable Frankenstein. Fashion’s resident enfant terrible KidSuper commissioned a playroom filled with whimsical works by Gufram and Tadashi Adamson. Lee sees these voices as vital to the event’s direction. “They’re smart, creative individuals who understand that cultural consumption behaviors are shifting,” he explains. “It’s extremely important for us to work with those who share a similar vision and set of values; it makes the collaboration both fun and easy.”
The New York edition builds on the ideas first tested in Los Angeles and pushes the concept further. “It’s a culmination of everything we’ve experimented with over the years—putting a real emphasis on how one discovers something that they love through a curated experience, while also providing convenience to make a meaningful purchase both IRL and URL,” Lee says. And more editions await: “You’ll see us in new, different cities in 2026.”