Photo: George Venson
Design fairs ruled the city for the past two weeks, with shows from Wanted Design, Collective Design, Sight Unseen, and the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Innovative lights, Shaker-inspired rakes, and an ingenious sofa were some of the best things I spied during the NYCxDESIGN marathon.
One of the most talked-about and Instagramable events during the Design Week bonanza was the opening of artist George Venson of Voutsa’s Vanity Project pop-up shop at 179 Mott Street. Here, in this gorgeous color-popping space (open through May 31), you can revel in all things Voutsa. “I just mopped the floors,” Venson told me with glee, the day he opened. “My floors! I’m a shopkeeper!”
Photo: George Venson/George Venson
Monica Khemsurov and Jill Singer curate and produce the ever-inspiring off-site show Sight Unseen. These lights, by Erich Ginder Studio, are made of die-cut linen and laser-cut plywood, and they can be worked in so many ways — but I loved this interlocking setup.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Sight Unseen also presented a beautiful array of furniture and objects created by the designer collective Furnishing Utopia, inspired by an immersive study at Shaker Village. It featured this Trestle table by John and Wonhee Arndt of Studio Gorm and the Handy folding ladder and Handy rake by Chris Specce.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The painting and these candy-colored cubes featured at Sight Unseen are by Aelfie Oudghiri, who, of course, painted the folding chairs to match her designs.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The Collective Design Fair, started by a group of design pros led by architect Steven Learner, invited Sight Unseen to create a special installation with some of their designers. The joyous jolt of graphic color from Fort Makers, with the wall covering and fabric-covered cubes, was just too good.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Naho Lino’s Very Sweet Chandelier, made of handblown-glass orbs and steel, featured at Mark McDonald’s booth at the Collective Design Fair, looked like a fistful of helium balloons that had just escaped to rest on the ceiling.
Photo: Courtesy of Mark McDonald
Since founding Wanted Design in 2011, Odile Hainaut and Claire Pijoulat have curated an increasingly diverse selection of international design talent, now showing at both Industry City in Sunset Park and in West Chelsea. At the Industry City space, Matali Crasset worked with We Trust in Wood, Vent des Forêt, a French design collective, who produced fantastic textiles and wooden stools, bowls, and cutting boards.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
At Wanted Industry City, I loved Kim Markel’s delicious-looking Glow Chairs in gummy-bear colors made from recycled plastic. I would like a whole army of them.
Photo: Courtesy of Kim Markel
Then it was over to Wanted Design in West Chelsea, where I was intrigued by Blackbody’s organic light-emitting diodes that made up such magical configurations.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Also at Wanted Design in Chelsea, Andreas Bergsaker was part of a wonderful show, “A Few Good Things: New Designs From Norway,” curated by Metropolis magazine editor Paul Makovsky. These Mushi Lamps can hold secret treasures, as the tops come off the hollow bases.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
On to the mother ship, the Javits Center, to cover the ICFF, spread out over two floors. I found these enchanting embroidered Temari lights by Blue Design & Hitomi Nuno. Temari folk art was introduced to Japan from China around 500 years ago.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Jerry Helling, president and creative director of Bernhardt Design, is always on the lookout for new talent. This year he presented French designer Océane Delain’s Mellow Sofa, which can be adjusted by pulling the wood buttons on the cord system peeking out on the bottom of the sofa.
Photo: Courtesy of Bernhardt Design
Marset’s ethereal concentric-circle wall sconces by Rob Zinn, at the ICFF.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
This is but a fraction of the landscape depicted in Wayne White’s new wallpaper for Flavor Paper, from a mural that he painted in his dining room referencing a 19th-century wall covering. It is epic.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Doesn’t this take you back to days at the beach, where a flick of the wrist would open up those webbed nylon deck chairs? At the ICFF, Design Sublime featured these indoor-outdoor stools from design collective AMLgMATD, made with that familiar webbing that’s so practical and delightful.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
