Roman and Williams Guild Unveils a Constellation of Career-Spanning Luminaires

That immediately becomes clear upon entering “A Certain Slant of Light,” a spectacular new installation that brings two decades of the firm’s light fixtures into dreamy focus. Mounted on the spacious second floor of Tribeca’s historic Mercantile Exchange building, the showcase serves as a sweeping taxonomy of all the luminaires that have quietly elevated the Galerie Creative Mind firm’s sought-after interiors. One hundred pendants dangle at varying heights from the 30-foot ceilings, recasting the cavernous interior as a spectacular constellation that sheds light, so to speak, on the firm’s winning approach of ethos over style.

Here, the thought process explores interconnectedness and craft. Each fixture receives equal weight in the arrangement, amounting to a celestial gestalt that makes it clear Alesch and Standefer don’t play favorites. Rather, they view their lighting oeuvre as a family tree. “Each piece plays a role in the larger dialogue that embodies our vision,” Standefer tells Galerie. “All together they collectively express our ethos; individually they explore our different sensibilities—from our deep love of materials to our embrace of historic techniques and high craft.” 

That fastidious dedication to artisanship remains a through-line, even as technology has evolved. “We’ve had to deepen our understanding of materials in order to maintain the beautiful glow we love,” Standefer says. Brass lights are exclusively made in France, owing to the Napoleonic-era standard that changed the material’s recipe with higher copper content, imbuing French brass with a distinct warmth difficult to achieve elsewhere. Cast glass is created between Milan and Venice, but the subtle gradient glass is hand-blown in Brooklyn, often up to ten times until the perfect gradient is achieved. A small team of blacksmiths at a 150-year-old Parisian foundry uses ceramic molds to cast in bronze. 

Thanks to these time-honored techniques and the firm’s fastidiousness, meaningful details emerge. The Dahlia table lamp transfigures alabaster into a graceful flowerhead sheathing the bulb in a gauzy veil that delicately unfurls. By contrast, the hearty Woodrum chandelier wields specially sourced hardwoods to evoke ancient architectural techniques, echoing the firm’s embrace of sacred geometries. Mixed in with the mélange are a dozen new fixtures, from the hand-blown aubergine Porto sconce to the dainty Petra Egg pendant in fluted alabaster and burnished brass. The Lentium series, available in a table lamp and sconce, is a hidden highlight; embedded in the depths of its cast glass are bubbles seemingly frozen in motion. 

“A Certain Slant of Light” is perhaps best experienced at golden hour, as warm light streams in through the Queen Anne style landmark’s soaring arched windows. As the sun recedes into the dim afternoon hours, the arrangement emits a radiant glow visible from afar. It’s a spiritual antidote to seasonal depression—the installation’s title references the Emily Dickinson poem of the same name that plumbs the depths of wintry gloom as the days grow shorter. Standefer, who remembers being struck by the poem while studying art at Smith College, intended the setup as a subtle paean to the ever-changing seasons.

For her and Alesch, the installation also marked a moment of serendipity. The Mercantile Exchange building shares an architect, Thomas R. Jackson, with the cast-iron structure on the corner of Mercer and Canal Streets in nearby SoHo that now houses Roman and Williams Guild and their acclaimed French restaurant and café Le Mercerie. The building would go on to host another landmark lighting installation: La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela’s droning light and sound environment Dream House, which was presented by Dia from 1979 to 1985 and now permanently resides at the Mela Foundation a few blocks away. 

With “A Certain Slant of Light” under their belt, Alesch and Standefer have written an exciting new chapter in the building’s luminous history—as well as their own. “It’s been so remarkable to see all of our lights together in one place, in their many brilliant variations,” they tell Galerie. “It’s been a powerful validation of our collection and decades of hard work.” 

“A Certain Slant of Light” will be on view at 6 Harrison Street, New York, until December 1.