NYCxDesign: The Emerging Designers to See Around Town

Whether in compelling group shows at long-running trade fairs or temporary pop-ups in obscure corners of the city, it seems like hundreds of designers are itching to debut their latest creations during this year’s NYCxDesign festival. Below, we round up seven of the most compelling young talents ushering in the next wave, from a trained architect’s poised entry into rigorous yet lively ceramic furniture to a touring indie musician’s accidental foray into woodworking.

1. Emily Thurman

“There was a story that needed to be told outside of my own practice,” explains Emily Thurman, who recently made a foray into collectible design. The Salt Lake City interior designer’s stunning debut collection of lost-wax bronze upholstered furnishings and cast-glass and porcelain lighting, named Hundō after the proto-Italic word for “pour out,” speaks to her abiding fascination with hands-on, process-driven work. That alchemical spirit translates not only to her tight-knit list of collaborators—Pompeii-inspired onyx and ebonized cherry wood tables with StudioDanielK, a pair of luminous cast glass standing lamps with Alexis Mazin—but her unorthodox methods in which experimentation and happenstance lead, sparking a meditation-like flow state.

Take the collection’s undeniable centerpiece, a dazzling lost wax bronze daybed that required an eye-watering 200 hours of sculpting, pouring, welding, and polishing to achieve its lustrous sheen and sculptural build. “As you’re in the midst of it, you’re almost surrendering to the craft,” says Thurman, who worked directly with Italian, American, and Belgian foundries to understand the nuances of her raw materials. “I can’t assume to know what the outcome is going to be until I’m fully present in the process of making.” She’s presenting Hundō in a theatrical installation ofcascading raw silk made with scenographer Peter Christensen, lending more dramatic flair.

On view at 86 Walker Street until May 21.

2. Jolie Ngo

Echoing traditional coiling techniques but masterminded using 3D-modeling software, Jolie Ngo’s bewitching pastel vessels immediately charmed collectors when R & Company unveiled them at Design Miami in 2020, as the Philadelphia-born talent was finishing up graduate school at Alfred University. For her latest outing with the gallery, a solo exhibition called “Power Clash,” the 29-year-old ceramist’s already thrilling practice has made even more adventurous shifts in scale to encompass mesmeric floor lamps, kaleidoscopic mirrors, and luminous lantern vessels built on her signature use of 3D printing and hand-applied ornamentation. Ngo previously incorporated plastic pieces into her ceramic vessels, but her latest collection includes works made entirely of plastic, allowing her to achieve new ranges of color, pattern, and light diffusion.

“The plastic works evoke a different sense of play and jubilation than their ceramic counterparts,” says Ngo, who mined a bounty of references ranging from Vietnamese silk lanterns to the sun-drenched landscapes of Santa Barbara, where she lives and works. She often thinks about color as “dressing the form” and describes the process as a collision between collage and power clashing—a fashion style in which disparate patterns and colors intentionally combine. “I’m collaging these different patterns and gradients aside and on top of each other to create a larger painting and a larger experience,” she says. Kaleidoscopic intrigue ensues.

On view at R & Company (64 White Street) until August 15.

3. Lucas Recchia

Brazilian designer Lucas Recchia often likens his home country’s distinct flavor of modernism to a famous father’s child who struggles to carve their own niche. “While I admire the legacy of Modernism,” the Forbes 30 Under 30 laureate explains, “I don’t understand why a country so rich in natural resources should limit itself to producing furniture that explores only wood.” In the designer’s inaugural solo exhibition at Bossa, called “Crafting the Future,” he’s revealing an array of experimental pieces that highlight the color and opacity of glass. “While Brazil has a tradition of producing crystal objects,” he continues, “no one had previously examined fusion and blown-glass techniques in the context of furniture design.”

The tables in his Mosai collection assemble small colored glass sheets like mosaics and fuse them together—an incredibly complex process that involves “calculating the exact distance each piece needs to be from the next and determining the precise temperature and duration required for them to ‘meet’ and create the illusion of fused edges,” Recchia explains. They’re similar in spirit to his Material Distortion series, which reinterprets stained glass traditions to fashion mirrors, patinated coffee tables, and centerpieces using melted pieces inserted into adjoined bronze or aluminum frames. Lately, Recchia has been fascinated by bronze and stone: His Eche collection pairs upholstered seating with textural bronze bases while his Zel table integrates metal forms shaped like suns and stars directly into molten glass. “My focus,” he continues, “has been to highlight the potential of other materials that are just as Brazilian.”

On view at Bossa (210 11th Avenue, Suite 403) until June 13.

4. Zack Nestel-Patt

Zack Nestel-Patt grew up playing, writing, and performing music, but after accepting a part-time job making wooden cremation urns following a move to Los Angeles, he quickly discovered a knack for furniture design and woodworking. When an early piece he fashioned for his own home gained attention at the furniture resale platform Not Normal Market LA, he got to work developing his new venture Ah Um Design Studio’s debut furniture collection, Jura, which launches during Wanted Design at ICFF. Each of Jura’s pieces, from mahogany coffee tables topped with hand-glazed tiles to freestanding wooden mirrors defined by geometric notches, are intended to be lived with and loved, eschewing the preciousness that often accompanies heirloom-quality collectible furniture. “I’m obsessed with texture—not just texture as in a tactile aspect to a material, but texture as an emotional component to designing and living with objects,” says Nestel-Patt, who counts Luis Barragán, J.B. Blunk, and George Nakashima among his influences.

“Being able to see and feel the remnants of the hands that made or designed something imbues an object with feeling, history, and thought.”

On view at ICFF/Wanted Design (Javits Center, 429 11th Ave) from May 18–20.

5. Devin Wilde

A pursuit of precision may linger in the mind of Devin Wilde, but the architect-turned-ceramicist largely jettisoned his perfectionist tendencies when he pivoted to working with clay. That doesn’t mean the Brooklyn designer’s rigorous vessels aren’t imbued with architectural flair—their sly nods to Postmodernism and Art Deco (coiled feet, layers of ribs, cylindrical embellishments) immediately distinguished his work when he founded his ceramics practice in 2023 to much design-world fanfare. After grabbing attention from retailers Spartan Shop and Lawson-Fenning, the latter of which continues to represent him, Wilde started developing a sophomore collection that scales up his most popular designs into ceramic furniture.

The collection, which consists of four side tables and two cocktail tables, sees Wilde continue to mine his favorite architectural periods for inspiration. His architecture background also came in handy for the different engineering requirements demanded by furniture. “Decor and furniture are experienced differently in the home; the latter being more tangibly interacted with every day,” says Wilde, who embedded internal structures to ensure each piece withstands daily use. “The designs for the new collection needed to reflect that.” His signatures remain: geometric forms are topped with delicate ball finials and metallic glazes replicate the sheen of Art Deco facades, but the material’s inherent earthiness make each piece feel like an heirloom plucked from antiquity. “My intent,” Wilde says, “is to offer utilitarian works of art that are visually striking and work well in a wide breadth of spaces and intents.”

On view at JONALDDUDD’s group show at Shelter (601 West 26th St) from May 17–19 and Lawson-Fenning (417 Lafayette St, Floor 5) indefinitely

6. Elsa Foulon

“I’m drawn to the organic, to forms that feel as though they’ve grown rather than been made,” Elsa Foulon says about the enchanting ceramic creations in her latest solo exhibition, “The Reveries,” presented by collectible design powerhouse Galerie Philia. Encompassing curved yet geometric curved stools and delicate pendant fixtures where folded Bemberg fabrics are nestled inside pointed bases, many of the Parisian ceramicist’s works are intentionally askew and revel in kiln-induced imperfections, forging a surreal, dream-like setting when viewed together.

“Many of my forms are created with the idea that light will be held or hidden within them—nestled in folds, absorbed by textures, or softened through materials like silk,” Foulon says. “There’s a kind of intimacy in how it settles, shifts, and invites you to come closer. The surfaces are soft, the edges almost blurred, much like the way dreams feel when we try to recall them.”

On view at Galerie Philia (74 Warren St) from May 15–21.

7. Danny Kaplan

Riding the high of settling into his live-in flagship showroom in an industrial NoHo loft, Danny Kaplan has been busy exploring new creative pathways. Beyond creating his signature hand-thrown lamps, vessels, and objects that feel plucked from antiquity yet invested with modern finesse, the fast-rising ceramist recently debuted three collections that are propelling him and his nine-year-old firm to new heights.

At the heart of Kaplan’s new Facet Metal Furniture Collection is a sleek dining chair inspired by his deep reverence for Art Deco and the timeless allure of metal. Each piece is accented with a subtle yet colorful strip of tubing available in aubergine, rust, lavender, blue, and powder white. “I love working with metal because it embodies the bold, masculine qualities that resonate with Art Deco designs—strong, precise, and aerodynamic,” says Kaplan, who created the collection as an extension of metal sconces he debuted in the fall. He’s also debuting two collaborations: a stunning line of merino wool and silk rugs inspired by the spontaneity of notebook sketches created with textile expert Esha Ahmed and a selection of circular mirrors adorned with gumdrop-like resin blobs conceived with multidisciplinary designer Joseph Algieri.

On view by appointment at Danny Kaplan (417 Lafayette St, 4th Floor) until May 22.