9 Collectible Design Shows to See in June

June may signal the beginning of summer following action-packed design weeks in Milan and New York City, but the design world famously resists taking breaks. To that end, there’s a wealth of wonderful gallery shows around the world this month grappling with resistance of some sort, whether Nick Valentijn’s standout debut of patinated brass furniture that revels in impracticality or lighting designer Bec Brittain’s largest body of work in four years, a nature-inspired collection that eschews organic shapes to mimic angular internal structures of crystalline seed systems. 

1. “Marcin Rusak: Vas Florum, Resina Botanica” at Carpenters Workshop Gallery | London

Marcin Rusak aims to slow down the process of decay by capturing flowers and other plant life in resin to create dazzling furniture and objects. This show pushes the Polish talent’s practice even further, featuring all-new pieces that continue to recast everyday objects as contemporary artworks that freeze snapshots in time. The organic shapes of his Resina Botanica tables mimic the contours of natural boulders from the riverbed of Poland’s Solinka River; embraced in cast bronze bases, their tabletops highlight unique floral compositions in rust-hued resin. Vas Florum vases, meanwhile, showcase an astonishing variety of orchids, carnations, roses, tulips, asters, daisies, and hydrangeas. 

Until August 30

2. “La Dolce Vita” by Nilufar at Galerie56 | New York

It may be difficult to believe that Nilufar, the preeminent Milan design gallery founded by Nina Yashar, has never shown in New York City beyond the fair circuit. That changes with a show of rare Italian masterpieces at Galerie Creative Mind Lee F. Mindel’s gallery in TriBeCa. Facing the front windows are six simple yet captivating 1930s-era chairs by visionary Milanese firm BBPR; situated within is Piero Fornasetti’s one-of-three Malachite Trumeau cabinet in green lacquered wood, modified from a Gio Ponti original. Among the other treasures: a mahogany bookcase by Ico Parisi, a unique Ornavasso marble bench by Carlo Mollino, a Fabrizio Cocchi low table, and an industrial-inspired ceiling lamp by Giulio Sterbini. Passion for Italian design is palpable. “It reflects not only the deep connection with our cultural heritage,” Yashar explains, “but also a desire to share it in an environment where architecture, design, art, and people can intersect.” 

Until Aug. 27

3. “Nick Valentijn: Solo Show” at St. Vincents | Antwerp

Nick Valentijn builds furniture that defies utility: think cabinets with minimal storage, sofas that resist comfort, and candle holders that sprawl across the floor. In his debut exhibition at St. Vincents, the up-and-coming Dutch designer is presenting 12 sculptural one-offs—including three from his 2024 graduation project at Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design—crafted from patinated brass through an instinctive, unmediated process. “I don’t force the material. I let it do its thing,” says Valentijn, who was originally drawn to clay but recently shifted to metal. “If the plates don’t meet, I cut a piece off and see how it flows. If something’s off, I just fix it.” Forged in his grandfather’s old workshop and refined in a rural farmhouse, the pieces reflect a raw, tactile dialogue between maker and material.

June 7–Sept. 20

4. “Bec Brittain: IN/Organic” at Colony | New York

Bec Brittain’s largest body of new lighting fixtures in four years evokes the natural world through structural precision. Her angular Seed collection eschews organic shapes for angular arms that mimic the internal logic of crystalline solids while leaving room for nature’s unexpected rhythms. The reinvented series reflects a deepening of the celebrated lighting designer’s practice through a return to in-house production (previously handled by Roll & Hill) and greater creative control. “Bringing Seed back into my studio allowed me to reconnect with the work at every level,” says the Queens-based talent, whose forays into nature also inspired Unfurl. Introduced in 2023, that series continues Brittain’s botanical-inspired evolution with asymmetrically bent glass diffusers and machined brass hardware mimicking the structure and unpredictability of philodendrons. 

June 17–July 11

5. “Edgar Jayet: Si je t’écris ce soir de Vienne…” at Galerie Romain Morandi | Paris

At the turn of the 20th century, the Vienna Secession transformed the Austrian capital into a crucible of modernity that still reverberates through contemporary art and design. Its legacy has left a lasting impression on furniture wunderkind Edgar Jayet, who is debuting six new pieces that reflect the movement’s embrace of refined sobriety and structural clarity. Each piece, crafted by cabinetmakers and metalworkers in the spirit of the Wiener Werkstätte, is positioned alongside original masterworks from the era by Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, and Adolf Loos. Compelling dialogues ensue: the nickeled hardware and stained ash of a cashmere tweed daybed, for example, echoes the spherical details of a Hoffman side table.

June 5–28 

6. “Rooms Studio: 2016–2025” at Galerie Liberté | Luxembourg 

As the title suggests, this career-spanning presentation brings together more than a dozen distinct works across seating, tables, lighting, and tapestry from Rooms Studio, the inventive Georgian firm spearheaded by designers Nata Janberidze and Keri Toloraia. Each piece was carefully selected to reflect the Tbilisi-based studio’s shifting attitudes toward size, structure, and materials, especially the latter, which emerges in the sheer variety on display: wood, stone, cast aluminum, metal, beeswax, and textiles. The breadth of Rooms Studio quickly comes to the fore, encompassing narrative-based furniture that exudes a handsome, sculptural presence while also beckoning exploration into Georgia’s layered design and architectural heritage. 

Until Aug. 15

7. “Formafantasma: Formation” at Friedman Benda | New York

The occasion of Galerie Creative Mind studio Formafantasma’s first Stateside gallery show beckoned a dive into archetypes of American design and the roles objects have historically played within the home, specifically chairs, tables, and lighting made with humble cherry wood. Each piece balances warmth with precision: wood grain meets brushed aluminum, LED panels evoke the familiar scale of phone and laptop screens, and subtle textile accents nod to domestic labor often excluded from design history. “This pursuit is subtly informed by a reverence for the Shakers, Frank Lloyd Wright, and George Nakashima,” note co-founders Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, who have dedicated their Milan- and Rotterdam-based practice to exploring how design can have a positive impact on the world. The restrained collection creates a space where eras converge—”not to mimic nor reject history, but instead to expand upon it.”

June 6–Aug. 1

8. “Rafi Ajl: Litanies” at Pallas | San Francisco

Following a stellar debut of tantalizing glass vases imbued with a Pesce-esque playfulness at The Future Perfect last year, Rafi Ajl returns with a collection of enigmatic furniture informed by, and often encased within, metallic orthogonal grids. Specifically, the Berkeley-based artist behind The Long Confidence infuses rectilinearity into the structure of chairs embellished with burnished patina, hand engraving, and repetitive carvings; eroded stainless steel mesh guards sconces and practically seems sewn into pendants, cosseting each fixture like draped fabric. Ajl views each piece as a “primal resistance”—cabinets resisting disorder, tables resisting dispersal—to create pathways toward spatial logic rooted in disobedience.

Until June 9

9. “Kazunori Hamana” at Pierre Marie Giraud | Brussels

Kazunori Hamana’s ceramic vessels evoke the spirit of tsubo, traditional clay jars dating back to the 12th century, while asserting a contemporary presence shaped by intuition. From a seaside studio in Chiba Prefecture, the self-taught artist meticulously hand-builds each form using traditional Japanese coil techniques and fires them in a restored Edo-period kiln before exposing them to the elements. The resulting surfaces, etched by sea winds, rain, and sun, bear spontaneous brushwork and fragments of text from writers like Dostoyevsky and Kerouac, imbuing each piece with layers of memory. The body of work presents a quiet, tactile philosophy where vessels become metaphors for the body, holding space and history in equal measure. 

Until June 21