Cole Lu at Bangkok Kunsthalle.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist, Nova Contemporary, and Bangkok Kunsthalle. Photo by Kanrapee Chokpaiboon
7 Collectible Design Shows to See in December
From avant guard ornaments in London to Manuel Sandoval-inspired commissions in California
December is a time for rituals. From the hordes of design mavens descending on Miami for Art Basel and Design Week, to holiday shopping on the chilly streets of New York City, the end of the year calls for familiar delights. And while this list has a highlight of Miami Design Week and a few essential New York shows on this month’s list, Galerie doesn’t stop there—there are doors to be opened in Thailand, for example, and even a London ornament for the old Christmas tree.
Crafting Plastics at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami. Photo: Courtesy of Crafting Plastics
1. “Liminal Cycles” at the Institute of Contemporary Art | Miami
Bioplastics innovator Crafting Plastics rev up Miami Art & Design Week with a December installation in the garden of the ICA which transforms a Lexus Battery Electric Vehicle into a quartet of sculptures. One is skinned in UV-responsive material to track UV radiation levels; another joins that skin to a lattice design for a wind-activated work; and others riff on steering wheels and headrests that play on viewer’s sight, sound, and touch. Fragrance expects dilo will also pull up, collaborating with Lexus, Crafting Plastics, and designers Germane Barnes, Suchi Reddy, T. Sakhi, and Michael Bennet of Studio Kër for a capsule collection of 26 limited-edition objects.
Kenta Anzai returns to the Guild Gallery. Photo: Courtesy of Guild Gallery
2. “Impermanence” at the Guild Gallery | New York
Fukushima-based Kenta Anzai returns to the Guild Gallery for a second show of ceramics which highlight his use of urushi tree sap, a material dating back to the Jomon period of 14,000 BC-300 BC, deployed in the time before the invention of glaze by ancient artisans to waterproof and strengthen their clay. In the hands of Anzai, the sap forms a deep, black hue over multiple applications and polishes across two months of work. His latest work seems both timeless and deeply rooted in tradition, with forms that float and narrow and swell as they develop into sculptural vases.
Sandoval Stool by Ryan Preciado. Photo: Courtesy of Karma Gallery
3. “So Near, So Far: Ryan Preciado—Manuel Sandoval” at the Palm Springs Art Museum | California
For his first solo museum exhibition, Ryan Preciado digs into the history of Manuel Sandoval, a Nicaraguan American carpenter who, as a member of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship, greatly influenced the direction of American design but received little credit for it. Sandoval’s aesthetics and techniques form inspirations for a body of new commissions from Preciado, including sculpture, lighting, an elegant chair with a slatted back and headrest that rises like a collar, and an intriguing set of stools which sink vibrant blue cushions into half-globes of wood.
“I Too Am” by Bennet Schlesinger at Galerie Timonier. Photo: Marco Galloway
4. “I Too Am” at Galerie Timonier | New York
“Something’s there to be shared/by those who know longing and those who don’t,” the legendary filmmaker and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini wrote in his poem “I too Am.” For his debut New York show, Bennet Schlesinger found inspiration in Pasolini’s lines, resulting in debut collection of furniture including a wheeled bookcase, writer’s desk and chair, and daybed for dreaming—all made of exotic woods including afromosia, poplar, and paduak. These pieces, and his paintings also on exhibition, lend a poetic touch to a new range of his beloved bamboo and paper sculptural lights, already much longed for by those who know.
Cole Lu at Bangkok Kunsthalle. Photo: Courtesy of the artist, Nova Contemporary, and Bangkok Kunsthalle. Photo by Kanrapee Chokpaiboon.
5. “The Engineers” at Nova Contemporary | Bangkok, Thailand
Multidisciplinary artist Cole Lu follows up solo shows in East London and Maine by opening doors at the early 19th-Century royal temple complex The Museum and Library of Abbots of Wat Bowonniwet Vihara—literally. Lu has installed a pair of monumental free-standing doors crafted from the local Neem (Sao Dao) wood, which is said to have medicinal properties, and lined in linen. He’s then inscribed investigations of engineering, religious scriptures, and ancient storytelling gestures into the doors via pyrography, or writing with fire, transforming the burned doors into actual and metaphorical portals between past and present, between the ancient repository of Thai Buddhist knowledge and the current Bangkok Art Biennale.
“James Bantone: Scrap” at New York Life Gallery. Photo: Courtesy of New York Life Gallery
6. “James Bantone: Scrap” at New York Life Gallery | New York City
Mannequins are the unsung hero of merchandising and retail design, with their aspirational if eerie mirroring of the humans who dress and gaze upon them. They are also the muse for James Bantone, who has scoured the catalogues of mannequin manufacturers for images of them and the men and women who modeled for them. Bantone photocopies and prints these strange visual duets, then uses acrylic transfer to join them to steel plates previously distressed with vinegar. The results are sort of tableaux in which the histories of industrial design, merchandising, and existential crises are on full display.
Angélique Heidler's avant guard ornament. Photo: Courtesy of Ginny on Frederick
7. “Little Tree” at Ginny on Frederick | London, UK
Just in time for the holidays, the Smithfield Market gallery has asked over 40 contemporary artists to rethink the old yuletide tree, fashioning unique, avant guard ornaments from materials both beloved and surprising. Paris-born, London-based Angélique Heidler, for example, offers a jovial character swaddled in netting, metal hearts, and glittering straps of gems—with a face that just might be covered in coal soot. Artists including Mary Stephenson, Charlotte Edey, Hamish Pearch, Bruno Zhu, and more join in the Christmas cheer.
Cover: Cole Lu at Bangkok Kunsthalle.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist, Nova Contemporary, and Bangkok Kunsthalle. Photo by Kanrapee Chokpaiboon
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