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Twenty First Gallery
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Salon Art + Design Returns With Diversity and Style for its 12th Edition
by Benjamin Genocchio
The 12th edition of Salon Art + Design is a signature and much-anticipated event on the New York design calendar. On view at the Park Avenue Armory through Monday the 13th, the fair once again presents a smorgasbord of outstanding decorative art, collectible design, and art from all periods and styles. It’s a designer’s paradise.
This year, the central exhibition space in the Armory’s voluminous Drill Hall hosts 50 booths and includes a handful of collectible jewelry dealers for the first time. Most of the exhibitors are, however, seasoned design and antique dealers presenting exciting new work and unveiling their latest finds. The majority of the dealers are American, but as usual, there are excellent, important European design dealers here as well.
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| Maison Rapin |
Among the European galleries is Maison Rapin, the Parisian dealer of elegant and adventurous contemporary design who has brought over a selection of pieces by the late jewelry and furniture designer Robert Goossens. Goosens, who designed jewelry for Chanel, also turned his talents to the creation of furniture, lighting, and decorative objects in dazzling gilt bronze and rock crystal. Philippe Rapin’s designs for his own limited edition brand Kam Tin include a pair of impressive jade tables with a patinated brass organic form and jade mosaic top. Nearby is a set of three Cloud Tables made with polished ivory onyx that positively glow in the darkened Drill Hall.
Galerie Negropontes, another Parisian dealer, is also taking part in the Salon with a selection of what gallery owner, Sophie Negropontes, describes as “unique pieces of furniture and objets d'art, guided by the harmony of shapes and the preciousness of materials.” The booth juxtaposes outstanding recent works by Gianluca Pacchioni, Erwan Boulloud, Perrin & Perrin, Ulrika Liljedahl, Benjamin Poulanges, Éric de Dormael, Étienne Moyat, Jean-Christophe Malaval and Hervé Langlais.
New York design dealer Evan Lobel is a longtime champion with expert knowledge of the work of Philip and Kelvin LaVerne. He specializes in rare pieces by late father Philip and son Kelvin, with whom he is personally acquainted, and Lobel has curated something very special for this edition of the fair. Guided by vintage photographs from the LaVerne archives, he has recreated the New York showroom of Philip and Kelvin LaVerne with, he explains, “several one-of-a-kind sculptural pieces that have not been shown together since the showroom closed back in the late 1970s.” This is a special and important booth at the fair and contains some astonishing sculptures.
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| Lobel Modern |
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| Guy Regal |
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| Donzella |
Lobel has a trio of showrooms at the New York Design Center on Lexington Avenue, where his housemates include Guy Regal and Paul Donzella, who are also showing at the Salon. It is Regal’s first time at this fair, and his booth is terrific — populated with dramatic and impressive pieces; lamps by Peter Lane, one of the hottest names in contemporary ceramics, and grand historical furniture, including a rare circa 1900 Carlo Bugatti cabinet in walnut and parchment with elaborate inlay and embossing on copper, pewter, and bone.
This year, Donzella wanted to focus on sculpture and sculptural objects, so he took two booths back to back with no dividing wall to allow for an extra large space with access from adjacent aisles. “I wanted the stand to feel open and spacious,” he says. He is showing rare and important Italian pieces by Gio Ponti, Osvaldo Borsani, and Giulio Minoletti, and by Americans Philip and Kelvin LaVerne, Studio Eben Haskell, as well as a rare pair of chairs by legendary Hollywood decorator Billy Haines made of leather with pig skin stitching — this is next level furniture design, creative, rare and always functional. The chairs were exhibited in his “Desert Living Room” at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. This presentation is an impressive showing of the masterful connoisseurship and curation Donzella is well known for.
Twenty First, a New York gallery specializing in talented contemporary makers, also shows an amalgam of pieces — this time by gallery artists. The booth stands out for spectacular, inventive cabinets by three of their star designers, Marcin Rusak, Erwan Boulloud, and Jean-Marie Fiori. Add to the mix floor lamps by François Corbeau and the Quark Plexiglass coffee table by Emmanuel Babled and you have a booth that is as dramatic as it is enticing. There is great design on show here.
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| Todd Merrill Studio |
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| Galerie Negropontes |
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| Thomas Cooper Studio |
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| Throckmorton Fine Art |
Todd Merrill Studio has the work of several contemporary designers for their 7th showing at Salon. Things of note in the booth include the debut of a new collection, Flare, from design duo Draga and Aurel. The Flare series incorporates a process of working with Lucite that, when opposing colors react to any ambient light, creates an impression of internal illumination. There is also a new, sublime console by the Korean artist Yunhwan Kim. It is the artist’s first work using bronze.
Along with gallery booths, Salon has given space to what they call “special design exhibitions,” showcasing capsule collections by individual makers, and curated pieces from galleries in the Drill Hall and the Armory’s historic rooms at the entryway to the fair. There are terrific finds here, for example, Los Angeles-based artist James De Wulf, who crafts cutting-edge furniture he playfully calls “concrete couture,” which he has surrounded with potted plants, and L.A. design team Thomas Cooper Studio, a collaboration between designers Sally and Jason Cooper. They are debuting new lighting collections and art pieces, including sconces made out of alabaster, or beguiling fusions of glass, and the Halcyon chandelier, “a cascade of blossoms of smooth, solid cast cristale glass and hand cast natural bronze.”
There is such a vast array of material here in other genres it is impossible to mention it all. Some highlights include Throckmorton Fine Art’s “Them Bones-Sky Walk,” 1990, a painting by New York Neo-Expressionist Frank Holliday that is nothing short of fabulous and has been in the collection of Spencer Throckmorton for over 30 years. Converso has a terrific selection of Paul Evans pieces, including a unique dining table, and Karl Kemp has several outstanding André Dubreuil pieces, including a table made of acid-treated steel and a pair of 1990 “Perles” candle holders, with partially gilded wrought iron vines decorated with hand-blown crystal beads.
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| Mercado Moderno |
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| Liz O'Brien |
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| Converso |
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| Karl Kemp |
Mercado Moderno, from Rio de Janeiro, is dedicated to Brazilian design, specifically vintage modern furniture from the 1950s to 1980s, and happily is presenting original pieces by Joaquim Tenreiro, Jorge Zalszupin, and the manufacturer Forma, alongside vibrant paintings by Chico da Silva, Jaider Esbell and Lorenzato, among others. “The furniture pieces reflect the elegance and the sophistication of the renowned Brazilian Modernism, while the paintings reveal the expressiveness of the increasingly valued Brazilian Popular Art,” says João Vicente at the gallery.
Liz O'Brien has also conjured a marvelously fresh and interesting booth combining work from quilt artist Carson Converse, who she now represents, with pieces by Irish makers inspired by her visit to Ireland earlier this year. She invited Irish gallerist and independent curator Stephen O’Connell to select items for her booth, and he chose an array of items by three makers — Isobel Egan’s porcelain sculptures, Cecilia Moore’s hand-raised metal objects, and Alan Meredith's turned-wood vessels. Some, if not all, of these talented makers will be new to American design enthusiasts.
Galerie Philia decided to empty their booth to offer “a physical and mental space to reflect,” the gallery says, with the booth itself functioning as an interesting study in minimal-conceptual design display. There is little, almost nothing on display. Nearby, Charles Burnand Ltd has an exceptionally eye-catching collection of objects. The London-based dealer has curated their booth to reflect an imaginary collector’s home with art and design by Gio Ponti, DenHolm, Labaye Sumi, Frederick Nielsen, Dawn Bendick, and Caleb Zipperer, among others. It is an inspiring kaleidoscope of colors, materials, shapes, and ideas and a perfect microcosm of the fair at large.
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| Galerie Philia |
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Charles Burnand Gallery
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