9 Collectible Design Shows to See in June
From Marte Mei’s regenerative hemp furnishings grown from polluted soil to gently glowing porcelain lamps by Jeremy Anderson
June may mark the start of summer after whirlwind design weeks in Milan and New York, but the gallery calendar shows little sign of slowing down. It even seems to be venturing outside—across Europe and the United States, designers and artists are turning their attention to gardens, craft traditions, material histories, and the natural world. In Venice, Irene Cattaneo has transformed a secluded garden into an illusory landscape populated by bronze swings and luminous wellheads. In Los Angeles, Vincent Pocsik toys with the language of Shaker furniture through wooden chairs affixed with anthropomorphic limbs. Meanwhile, a tribute to the late Polish designer Paweł Grunert revisits his extraordinary experiments with wicker, revealing how he transformed a humble material into fantastical furnishings unlike anything before or since.
Scroll on for more of Galerie’s favorite collectible design exhibitions this month.
1. “Paweł Grunert: After I’m Gone, I’ll Return in the Form of a Chair” at Objekt Gallery | Warsaw
Few designers pursued the expressive potential of wicker with the fervor of Paweł Grunert. Working from a studio outside Warsaw, he transformed the humble material into fantastical chairs and sculptural furnishings that fused branches, roots, reeds, concrete, and steel into a world entirely his own. This tribute to the influential Polish designer, who passed away earlier this year, surveys the breadth of that lifelong experimentation and the radical perspective it brought to furniture. Throughout, Grunert’s works seemingly defy gravity. Some suspend from the ceiling while others spill outward in unlikely unions of organic and industrial materials.
Until July 17
2. “Marte Mei: Mending Lands” at St Vincents | Antwerp
For the past year, Amsterdam designer Marte Mei has collaborated with scientists, ecologists, and research centers to address the legacy of PFAS contamination in Zeeland, a region of the southern Netherlands affected by decades of industrial pollution. Her research centers on phytoremediation, a process that uses plants to absorb pollutants from the soil. Hemp, particularly effective at extracting PFAS, serves as both the collection’s catalyst and raw material. Tables, shelves, benches, mirrors, and tiles emerge from the stems of those crops, which remain free of contamination. Rendered in deep bordeaux hues and jewel-like translucent surfaces, the furnishings transform an environmental challenge into a striking material language with a regenerative, closed-loop approach in which the land itself contributes to its own renewal. A companion documentary, Pfaslands, traces the far-reaching consequences of PFAS pollution while documenting the research, cultivation, and fabrication processes behind the work.
Until June 26
3. “Jeremy Anderson: Held in Light” presented by Gallery Fumi at Galerie56 | New York
Amid an increasingly frenetic world, New York ceramist Jeremy Anderson is turning his attention toward comfort and stillness. For his most ambitious presentation to date, he tempers rigorous explorations of bronze, stoneware, and porcelain with a soft palette of pale pinks and silvery blues. Lamps, pendants, and vessels, many composed of stacked ceramic elements, allow light to filter through translucent porcelain surfaces marked by subtle tonal shifts and traces of the maker’s hand. The presentation also marks a notable expansion of his practice into furniture. A generously scaled daybed is the centerpiece, introducing his first upholstered work with a mattress clad in a Zak + Fox textile by and bolsters wrapped in a 19th-century American homespun coverlet. A dining table, credenza, console, and mirrors complete the ensemble.
Until July 3
4. “The Out There Is Right Here: Ian Collings and the Bishop Pine Preserve” at Blunk Space | Point Reyes Station, CA
During a residency at JB Blunk’s hand-built home and studio in Inverness, California, sculptor Ian Collings immersed himself in the landscape that informed generations of West Marin artists. He gathered richly colored jasper from the same terrain that once supplied clay for Blunk and studied the legacy of the Bishop Pine Preserve, the creative community that coalesced around British Surrealist painter Gordon Onslow Ford in the 1950s and ‘60s. The resulting body of work channels that lineage through carved stone furnishings and sculptures that echo the scale and anthropomorphic character of Blunk’s stools and side tables. Bands of jasper and jade ripple across their surfaces, tracing the movement of water used during the carving process. Collings draws a connection between those concentric rings and the unseen currents of heat, light, and sound that surround us. In doing so, he extends a longstanding West Marin fascination with the relationship between landscape, perception, and the cosmos, carrying the spirit of the Bishop Pine Preserve into the present.
June 6–August 29
5. “Eric Schmitt: All is Well” at Ralph Pucci | New York
For nearly two decades, Eric Schmitt has worked masterfully with bronze and stone, materials that demand exacting craftsmanship. His latest collection embraces a different sensibility through Plasterglass, the proprietary medium developed by Ralph Pucci’s in-house sculpture studio. Fabricated in vibrant hues and larger scales, the works reveal a newfound freedom within the Toulouse-born designer’s practice while maintaining the sculptural rigor that has long distinguished his furniture. At the collection’s heart are dining and coffee tables inspired by the archetype of the well. Composed of one or multiple pedestal-like bases capped with glass tops, the pieces invite the eye downward into luminous cavities below. Side tables offer a more intimate expression, while wall sconces and a hanging lamp extend the forms overhead through rounded silhouettes and unexpected contours. The show coincides with the release of Schmitt’s new monograph, which includes a dedicated chapter on his exploration of Plasterglass.
Until September
6. “Irene Cattaneo: Il Giardino Segreto” preseted by Galerie Gastou at San Marco 3922 | Venice
Timed to coincide with the Venice Biennale, Irene Cattaneo recently transformed a secluded Venetian garden into a dreamlike fantasia animated by literature, childhood recollections, and parental bonds. It builds upon her earlier exploration of Baudelaire’s Les Bienfaits de la Lune, which cast the moon as a maternal force, and extends those themes through a new body of work steeped in metamorphosis and nostalgia. At its center stands a bronze swing entwined with flowering branches, a reference to Effi Briest and its memorable image of a young girl suspended on the precipice of adulthood. Other interventions include snowdrop-inspired lamps, a stone well echoing a historic Venetian wellhead nearby, and a bench and table crafted with opaline glass that draw inspiration from the ephemeral Queen of the Night flower.
Until September 30
7. “Vincent Pocsik: A Thousand Years” at Nazarian/Curcio | Los Angeles
Vicent Pocsik’s latest group of surrealist-inflected sculptures embraces Shaker furniture’s emphasis on utility, simplicity, and finely crafted joinery while steering it into far stranger territory. Carved from local woods and accented with cast metal, stained glass, and fiber, the works reflect the Los Angeles sculptor’s longstanding fascination with the handmade object and the expressive possibilities embedded within traditional craft. Familiar motifs recur in unexpected configurations across sixteen new works. Walnut hands clutch bronze tools, flowers, fruit, and vegetables; two new chair sculptures are adorned with subtly anthropomorphic features. Overhead, umbrella-like chandeliers cast light through stained-glass panels. Throughout the collection, references to 19th-century American furniture remain visible yet delightfully unsettled.
Until July 11
8. “Just Kidding” at JK Art & Design Projects | Southampton, NY
A decade after founding his Southampton gallery, Jeff Lincoln has embarked on a new chapter alongside Katherine Vogel, former director of Friedman Benda and Gallery Valentine. Together, they envision a platform devoted to creative exchange and the advancement of collectible design, with a particular focus on artists and makers whose work thrives on experimentation and craftsmanship. Their inaugural show establishes that mission through a lively dialogue between contemporary talents (Katie Stout, Casey McCafferty, Carmen D’Apollonio, Ben Medansky) and historical figures (Donald Judd, Maria Pergay, Andrea Branzi). Taking its cue from the verb “to kid,” the presentation celebrates humor, curiosity, and invention, and examines how objects can surprise and delight while challenging conventional expectations around function.
Until June 19
9. “You Can’t See It From There” and “Vanitas in Use I” at Innenkreis | Copenhagen
Timed to coincide with Copenhagen Design Week, the upstart gallery is presenting two complementary shows that explore how objects accrue meaning through use over time. One brings together six contemporary makers alongside historical furniture and decorative arts, expanding the art-historical concept of vanitas beyond symbolic imagery and into the realm of lived experience. Glass, ceramic, metal, and wood works share the gallery with historical pieces, including a 1843 wardrobe from Bavaria. The second show turns its attention to the spatial potential of textiles through new work by Trine Tronhjem and Liv Marie Rømer. A hand-printed room divider hangs at the center of the gallery; elsewhere, a digitally printed silk bed crown traces the outline of an absent bed, while three hanging lamps developed with Anna Søgaard suspend layered textiles through a weight-based system that allows light to filter through overlapping surfaces, generating nuanced chromatic effects.
June 8–August 8