The Best Design Shows to See Around New York During Salon Art+Design 

New York’s collectible design scene is reaching a fever pitch this November as two major fairs are drawing an international coterie of collectors and tastemakers uptown. Salon Art+Design celebrates its 15th edition at the Park Avenue Armory from November 4–8, while Collectible returns for its third New York outing, this time in a former Upper East Side movie theater from November 6–8. Beyond the fairs, galleries across Manhattan have assembled a dazzling array of exhibitions that revel in material experimentation and exceptional craftsmanship. Below are the presentations worth seeking out this week.  

“Fernando Mastrangelo: Territories” at Cristina Grajales Gallery | Tribeca 

Landscape has long furnished Fernando Mastrangelo with potent source material, but his latest collection gives geography a geopolitical charge. For “Territories,” his first major solo show in a decade and debut with Cristina Grajales Gallery, the Hudson-based artisan looks to disputed regions around the globe, translating mountainous terrain into one-off functional sculptures. Cast from sand and crushed glass, with rare-earth oxides supplying earthy pigments, the pieces evoke contested landscapes without reproducing them literally. Bloodland, a dining table inspired by Crimea and the Donbas, sends low black mountains across bands of crimson and dusty rose, while other pieces draw from Kashmir and the Golan Heights. The exhibition marks a provocative return for Mastrangelo, whose painstaking casting technique transforms granular materials into painterly topographies charged with questions of land and ownership.  

“Guggi: The Aching Curve” at Ralph Pucci | Flatiron 

Ralph Pucci became entranced with a monumental, void-like sculpture by Irish artist Guggi—a founding member of the post-punk band the Virgin Prunes—while visiting Château La Coste during his landmark 2025 exhibition there, which sparked a collaboration that has culminated in this expansive solo show. For three decades, the artist born as Derek Rowen has explored the humble beauty of everyday vessels through meditative paintings and sculptures, repeatedly revisiting bowls and jugs specifically. His paintings depict fragmented outlines against atmospheric washes of color; polished bronze and richly patinated sculptures lend these familiar objects an almost primordial grandeur. For this show, Pucci encouraged Guggi to create small urn-shaped tables—his inaugural foray into furniture—using the gallery’s proprietary plasterglass material, some hand-painted with resonant washes of white. 

“Artemest Collection by Gachot: The New York Edit” at Artemest Galleria | Chelsea 

One of Milan Design Week’s standout debuts returns stateside as John and Christine Gachot unveil the second edition of their furniture collection for Artemest, created with the Italian marketplace’s robust network of master artisans. Drawing inspiration from the couple’s former Bond Street loft, the installation evokes the freewheeling spirit of 1990s downtown Manhattan, when artists and fashion insiders mingled uninhibitedly at legendary parties. The atmosphere evokes that glamorous panache through warm brass, sumptuous suede and leather, and gleaming lacquer in oxblood and black. New finishes refresh select Milan debuts for a stellar marriage of the Gachots’ unmistakably New York sensibility with exquisite Italian craftsmanship. 

“Rafael Prieto: The Future of the Past” at Emma Scully Gallery | Upper East Side 

For a year, Rafael Prieto watched 16 decorative stone fragments from an early-20th-century Tribeca facade sit on scaffolding outside his home and studio. Slated for disposal during the building’s renovation, the pieces fascinated Prieto enough that he arranged to salvage them, then lived with them in his studio for another year and a half. They became the catalyst for his second solo show with Emma Scully Gallery. Prieto translated their architectural details into furniture that ranges from sculptural objects to tables and seating. Four pieces incorporate the original stone, while others take cues but use new materials such as lacquered wood in deep red and dark purple, creating glossy expanses that contrast the stone’s innate coarseness.  

“Misha Kahn: All Intensive Purposes” at Friedman Benda | Chelsea 

For Misha Kahn, the creative journey often proves as compelling as the finished object. His latest show, which toasts a decade-long collaboration with Friedman Benda, revels in the Galerie Creative Mind artist’s irreverent imagination and boundless appetite for material experimentation. Everyday objects undergo wonderfully eccentric transformations through his unconventional methods, which embrace chance discoveries and unlikely combinations. A sprawling cast-metal dining table sports a crumpled napkin impaled with toothpicks, its graphic tabletop composed of glass and stone, an onyx cocktail table mimics crude construction, and wispy drapery appears carved from Calacatta marble. Kahn’s technical virtuosity lends even his most outlandish works a remarkable sense of sophistication.  

“Roopantara: Matter in Metamorphosis” at House of Santal | Midtown 

House of Santal continues its exploration of South Asian craftsmanship with a show that celebrates the evolution of traditional techniques through contemporary curiosities. Taking its name from the Sanskrit word for transformation, the exhibition gathers inventive pieces that reinterpret centuries-old practices with unexpected materials and vivid silhouettes. Among the highlights are Saira Yousaf and Shahbaz Lahore’s sinuous Antler Settee, whose twisting wooden contours evoke branching antlers, and Keerthi Tummula’s Rock Pyrite Dining Table, which juxtaposes glittering mineral inlays with reflective chrome. Jwalant Madevwala and Kanika Agarwal reinterpret intricate Sadeli inlay and Indian miniature painting through the decorative surfaces of their Fragments console and Roar cabinet. 

“Pierre Yves Guenec: Anatomies” at Les Ateliers Courbet | Chelsea 

Inspired by the vertebral architecture of the human skeleton, French designer Pierre Yves Guenec fashions furniture whose sinuous contours evoke the curves of bone. His first solo show highlights his remarkable versatility through new explorations in bronze, stone, and wood. Standouts include a cedar daybed with sumptuous hide upholstery, crafted by master woodworkers in the French Alps, and a travertine module whose sweeping contours reveal the stone’s porous texture, carved near Milan by longtime collaborator Victor Guedy. Also on view is Svalinn, a shield-shaped sconce rendered in patinated nickel for the first time.  

“Starry Night / Nordic Light” at Galerie56 | Tribeca 

The long, dark winters of Scandinavia have inspired generations of lighting innovators, whose ingenuity transformed illumination into an expressive art. Co-curated by Lee F. Mindel and Stockholm’s Jackson Design, this enlightening survey gathers over 100 fixtures from Denmark, Sweden, and Finland by the likes of Paavo Tynell, Alvar Aalto, Poul Henningsen, and Verner Panton, who harnessed the possibilities of electric light to dream up enduring masterpieces. Highlights include Henningsen’s celebrated PH lamps, whose ingeniously layered shades distribute a soft, glare-free glow, and Tynell’s exquisite brass creations that evoke constellations. Sumptuous Kvadrat textiles recolored by Raf Simons envelop the gallery in a delightfully atmospheric setting that evokes the Nordic night sky. 

“Alexandre de Betak: Truss Light Sculptures 01” at Salon 94 | Upper East Side 

For more than three decades, Alexandre de Betak has transformed runway shows for fashion houses including Dior, Chanel, Jacquemus, and The Row into dazzling theatrical productions. Now the French creative director turns his attention to the industrial apparatus behind those extravaganzas, recasting humble lighting trusses and stage fixtures into 12 monumental sculptures for his first New York solo show. Across two galleries, freestanding and wall-mounted constructions of raw aluminum give way to bronze counterparts, which artisans at a French foundry meticulously cast, sandblast, and polish using more than 20 molds for a single piece. Prismatic glass and custom-programmed lighting animate each creation with shimmering pulses and sequences that respond to sound, lending these utilitarian structures unexpected grandeur.

“Origins” at Thirty8East | Upper East Side 

The landscapes and cultural traditions that inform an artist’s practice take on fresh significance in “Origins,” an ambitious exhibition curated by Ashlee Harrison at her intimate Upper East Side salon. Spanning four decades and six continents, the presentation explores how geography and personal histories influence artistic expression, juxtaposing blue-chip contemporary art with historic and collectible furnishings. Highlights include a luminous porcelain moon jar by Korean ceramist Young Sook Park, displayed near a terracotta relief painting by Lee Ufan, and rare Brazilian modernist furniture by Joaquim Tenreiro and Geraldo de Barros. Works by McArthur Binion, N. Dash, and Pedro Reyes further reveal the relationship between material and place.