10 Collectible Design Shows to See in April
From re-editions of an obscure French architect’s rigorous geometry studies to a Greek collective’s hydroformed metallic mutations
April heralds the arrival of spring, meaning much-welcome warmer temperatures, blooming flowers, and longer days after wintertime hibernation. This month’s slate of collectible design exhibitions leans into that atmosphere, with artists and designers wielding resin, paper pulp, wood, and metal to explore transformation and the uninhibited freedom of creativity. In Brussels, Laurids Gallée suspends luminous resin volumes that shift with every step, while in Tokyo, Shigeki Fujishiro’s pulp creations disperse pigment into layered, unrepeatable compositions. Design connoisseurs may notice the conspicuous absence of Milan, but a dedicated guide to the fairs and exhibitions surrounding Milan Design Week will follow shortly.
1. “Gallery Fumi: Materials of Joy” at Galerie56 | New York
Kicking off a three-month residency at Galerie56, the Tribeca gallery owned by Galerie Creative Mind designer Lee F. Mindel, the London dealer surveys its core ethos through a tightly curated group show that reveals the vast material knowledge and hand-driven production emblematic of its roster. More than 15 artists and designers contribute works that span carved wood, cast metal, and intricate surface treatments, each grounded in longstanding techniques yet pushed into new territory. Standout pieces include a large-scale mirrored work by Sam Orlando Miller that fractures symmetry within an ovoid field, and a series of oak and Patagonia quartzite furnishings by Francesco Perini that channel traditional Tuscan marquetry techniques. Once this exhibition closes, it will shift to a solo exhibition of new works by ceramist Jeremy Anderson.
April 9–May 28
2. “Shigeki Fujishiro: Mix” at Licht Gallery | Tokyo
Shigeki Fujishiro’s ongoing Mix project reframes an industrial technique through a meticulous, hands-on process. Working with pulp moulding, the Japanese designer dissolves recycled paper fibers in water, then embeds finely torn fragments of colored paper before shaping and drying each piece. What begins as a controlled procedure soon gives way to serendipity as pigments disperse unpredictably and settle into layered surfaces that register both saturation and subtle shifts in tone. Presented as a dense installation of roughly 400 works, this show reveals the breadth of his exploration. Each object carries a distinct chromatic identity; no two pieces are alike. Visitors can also welcome to touch and handle the pieces directly.
Until April 19
3. “Laurids Gallée: Lima Charlie” at Objects With Narratives | Brussels
Presenting his largest light installation to date, the Rotterdam designer continues to deepen his investigation of resin through five suspended luminaires that emanate ethereal light held within tinted volumes. Otherworldly gradients shift through refraction while color travels through each piece, changing subtly with every step and angle. Across the gallery, machined aluminum sculptures extend that language. Cones, beams, and dish-like profiles fuse into continuous bodies that recall transmission satellites, each oriented as if directing or receiving a signal.
Until May 31
4. “Lærke Ryom: Raiments” at Innenkreis | Copenhagen
Lærke Ryom seems like the perfect designer to inaugurate Innenkreis, a newly opened gallery in Copenhagen dedicated to presenting functional artworks in relation to pre-1940 decorative arts with a focus on craftsmanship. Here, she debuts furniture and lighting—collectively named after an archaic word for “garments”—that utilizes fabric for its structural presence. Tailored coverings rest on daybeds and drape down floor lamps, allowing wool to fall naturally across each frame and assert its weight and character. Sitting nearby, naturally, are turn-of-the-century nesting tables by Josef Hoffmann, a Gio Ponti table lamp, and 19th-century vernacular pieces.
Until May 23
5. “Gregory Beson: To the Ground” at Coup d’Etat | San Francisco
The Brooklyn woodworker is presenting his most expansive body of work to date, developed in close collaboration with the Bay Area gallery to reframe his practice for cohesive vignettes. Over a dozen pieces spanning seating, storage, and sculptural objects were refined to emphasize proportion and the inherent qualities of their materials. Walnut slabs and Pennsylvania white oak underpin the collection, often paired with tactile textiles such as natural bouclé that deepen tonal variation. To that end, a standout credenza assembles contrasting wood grains into a patchwork composition on its doors so the surface reads as a haphazardly composed field of shifting hues.
Until May 15
6. “Labor & Adornment: Radical Craft in America” at Superhouse | New York
Drawing on design historian Glenn Adamson’s assertion that craft operates as an active mode of making, this group exhibition frames adornment and labor as intertwined forces. Ornament emerges as a coded surface language tied to lineage and identity, while labor appears through repetition and finish as an ethic made visible. Across works in wood, fiber, glass, and clay, artists recast familiar formats to address place and cultural inheritance. Liz Collins’ needlepoints elevate handwork into a charged site of expression, Sarita Westrup’s basket forms draw on South Texas material traditions, Wendy Maruyama’s painted wall cabinets translate early Bauhaus color studies into domestic architecture, and Tom Loeser’s tiered Sit-Upons merge Shaker austerity with the social logic of the stoop.
Until April 25
7. “Agnès Debizet: Contes de Brume” at Galerie Gastou | Paris
Agnès Debizet presents a new group of stoneware works that blur the boundaries between sculpture, furniture, and lighting. Self-taught and based between Paris and Burgundy, she has developed a distinct vocabulary of organic, totemic figures marked by porous surfaces, looping structures, and intricate interlacings enriched with porcelain slips and glaze. Chairs, lamps, and tables take on anthropomorphic presence, their silhouettes evoking trees or sentinels in illusory terrain. Across the installation, these textured forms suggest passage and transformation.
Until June 6
8. “The Hervé Baley Éditions” at Magen H Gallery | New York
Hervé Baley realized only about 20 buildings in France in the late 20th century and often furnished them with bespoke pieces, leaving his work scarce on the market. Now the French architect is getting his due for this overlooked work with a focused presentation—developed in close collaboration with his estate—that introduces a suite of editions adhering closely to his original drawings and models. Conceived as logical extensions of his architectural thinking, each piece reflects his rigorous attention to proportion and reveals a disciplined geometry marked by angled planes and precise joinery. The distinctive stools, chairs, and tables were executed in plywood by specialized workshops, with fabrics by Élitis and Pierre Atelier.
Until April 24
9. “Dripped” at Nina Johnson Gallery | Miami
Channeling water materially and metaphorically, this group show traces how desire, power, and identity can circulate through objects that shift between solidity and liquidity. At its core, the Athens-based collective Made by Astronauts presents its most expansive body of work to date, a constellation of sculptural and functional pieces unified by hydroforming, an industrial process that uses high-pressure water to expand metal into fluid, organic forms. Elsewhere, Hilliary Gabryel transforms salvaged furniture into latex-encased works that probe aspiration and domestic fantasy, while Oh de Laval’s self-portraits draw on water and Greek mythology.
Until April 18
10. “The Thinning Veil” at Nurture by Nature | Burlington, VT
As culture is increasingly being flattened into screens, this upstart Vermont gallery is encouraging us to “touch grass”—or perhaps experience design as a physical, shared ritual. They do so by assembling decorative objects and lighting by the likes of Thomas Yang, Ethan Streicher, and Elizabeth Lenny, many of whom created works specifically for the show. From granite-embedded candle sconces and waxed brass appliqué lighting to hand-embroidered heirloom seating and cast aluminum wall hooks modeled after pine branches, each piece aims to translate the charged psychic terrain of New England into domestic objects.
Until May 9