Anchoring New York’s fall cultural calendar is Salon Art + Design, the city’s premiere collectibles fair. Returning to the storied Park Avenue Armory from 9 to 13 November 2023, this year’s edition – its 12th – places emphasis on contemporary and vintage works in equal measure.
Joining long-time exhibitors like Cristina Grajales, David Gill Gallery, and Todd Merrill Studio are newcomers (especially from abroad) such as Achille Salvagni Atelier, Bo Design Group, and Rosior. A number of independent producers and brands have also programmed special displays. They include Charles Zana Mobilier, Humans Since 1982, and Mathieu Lehanneur, among a slew of leading luxury platforms.
In keeping with the new trend of bringing in more than just furnishings, fine art, and jewellery, the fair is now also playing host to galleries and online marketplaces that purvey different object typologies, everything from meticulously crafted game sets to bespoke kitchenware. It’s a sign of the collectible art and design industry’s continued growth and stratification, especially when it comes to facilitating a wider range of price points.
Here, we identify our highlights of the best showcased designs from an array of gallery, brand, and independent exhibitors making a splash at the fair.
Salon Art + Design 2023: the Wallpaper* highlights
Labaye Sumi's Colonne Noailles, Charles Burnand Gallery, London
Presented as part of London’s Charles Burnand Gallery’s ‘SUPER, NATURAL’ exhibit, Paris-based design duo Labaye Sumi will debut their Colonne Noailles floor lamp to the US market. The architecturally-inspired, semi-translucent, sculptural luminaire is an homage to the column in the Salon Rose at the Mallet Stevens-designed Villa Noailles on the Côte d’Azur. The monumental composition comprises a tall stained acrylic orange-hued cylinder and a moveable ring cast in violet. Mounted together and illuminated with refracted light, the two emit a pink tone.
Crina Arghirescu Rogard and Hartis's Neo-Narcissist mirror, Garde, Los Angeles and New York
Developed by New York-based Romanian architect Crina Arghirescu Rogard and Paris-based emerging talent Hugo Besnier, under his furniture label Hartis, the Neo-Narcissist mirror incorporates layers of leather and suede feathers mounted to a mirror-glass base. On view with Los Angeles and New York-based up-and-coming gallery GARDE, the expressive work evokes the seminal ancient Greek myth of Narcissus. The meticulously-crafted ‘wing’ works to playfully elevate one’s reflection and perception of themselves.
Brian DeMuro and Puru Das’ Tempest side table, DeMuro Das, New Delhi and New York
New Delhi and New York-based furniture producer DeMuro Das relies on its ability to translate age-old Indian craft traditions in contemporary design that often nod back to mid century modernism. The highly-sought after boutique producer chose this year’s Salon Art + Design to debut the new Tempest Side Table collection: a masterfully fabricated fusing of inlaid stone marquetry and metal casting; achieved on an impressive scale.
Nathalie Ziegler’s Pink Glass Chandelier, Twenty First Gallery, New York Lighting
Displayed with New York’s preeminent purveyor of contemporary French design Twenty First Gallery, Nathalie Ziegler’s Pink Glass Chandelier perfectly demonstrates her career-defying exploration of collaged, almost pixelated blown glass. Her suspended sculptures illuminate as chandeliers. She often collaborates with expert artisans at heritage glassworks Verrerie de Saint-Just, pushing their age-old techniques and making them relevant in new ways.
Dan Yeffet, Bouchon, WonderGlass, London
Glass is an ancient material and craft that continues to fascinate designers and collectors. As part of Salon Art+Design special brand collaboration this year, London-based producer WonderGlass is highlighting some of its most iconic collections developed using tried and true Venetian techniques. Paris-based talent Dan Yeffet’s Bouchon side tables take pride of place. Cast in silvery blue, these minimalist coil-like furnishings evoke the materiality and viscerality of cork.
Sten Studio’s Totem, Tuleste Factory, New York sculpture
Mexico City-based Sten Studio is showcasing its brand new Totem work with the effant terrible of New York design Tuleste Factory. The decorative sculpture serves a sampler of different sumptuous materials hewn in graphically distinct yet connected components. Though restrained and referential to a variety of architectural styles, the work is ultimately an homage to the natural world.
Matthew Fisher’s Elegy Table, M.Fisher, New York
New York-based talent Matthew Fisher has made a name for himself by distilling the formal and textural qualities of the ancient world in contemporary accessories and furniture designs. The new Elegy collection takes that exploration a step further. As evident in the table piece, Fisher explored the almost naturalistic transformation of stone, one that isn’t always rectilinear or symmetrical but much more raw, organic, and even molten in nature.
Kelvin LaVerne's Chinois Cabinet, Lobel Modern, New York
Salon Art + Design does a good job of blending contemporary and vintage works. Celebrated purveyors of hard-to-find antiques like New York’s Lobel Modern often choose this fair to unveil their rarest finds. Case in point: Kelvin LaVerne's Chinois Cabinet. During the early 20th-century the master craftsman and his son were famous for implementing age-old techniques such as patinated bronze and pewter in incredibly intricate relief patterns and allegorical depictions. The particularly unique 4-door console is testament to both.
Chapter Studio's Gol Console, Galerie Philia, Geneva, New York, Mexico City and Singapore
Global platform Galerie Philia took the collectible world by storm a few years back with its uniquely contextual exhibition programme – staging thematic, commissioned-based, shows everywhere from luxury New York penthouses to disused Milanese chapels. Entering the fair scene this fall is the next step in its meroic rise. Galerie Philia’s Reflect exhibition at this year’s Salon Art + Design highlights key works from some of its most tried and true talents. Intersecting geometric and organic components hewn in materials like rare marble and granite, Chapter Studio's Gol Console is as much an evocation of heritage as it is the cosmos.
Lost Profile Studio's Marbled Continuum (Pearl), Salon Design, New York
Salon Design, New York’s latest gallery and a platform that champions artisanal experimental in unparalleled ways, is making its debut at the fair. The gallery’s curated display will include a diverse selection of functional and more artistically-inclined works by some of its most illustrious talents. Included is Australian practice Lost Profile Studio’s incredibly graphical, yet visceral Marbled Continuum wall pieces. The layered sculpture’s angular cuts juxtapose the graining of the incorporated stone and in captivating fashion.
Piet Stockmans’s Wilde Strippen, Spazio Nobile, Brussels
Brussels-based Spazio Nobile prides itself on showcasing artists and designers that engage in contemporary interpretations of what was historically coined as the applied arts; the intersection of art, design, and craft. In true Belgian ‘experimental’ fashion, celebrated ceramicist Piet Stockmans has made a name for himself pushing the limits of the medium. His Wilde Stippen wall-mounted installation utilizes expressively-form stripes of porcelain to evoke the movement of grass in the wind.
Alexandra Llewellyn's Handmade bespoke games, Abask, London
London-based Abask purveys a wide array of uniquely crafted accessories. It serves as a platform for hundreds of independent makers operating around the world. Making its debut at Salon Art + Design with a unique display, the online salespoint is helping to push the boundaries of what traditional fairs feature. Showcased as part of the display, London-based Alexandra Llewellyn’s bespoke-crafted board games incorporated unlikely yet captivating pairings of sumptuous material.
Barbara Nanning, Verre églomisé VII, J. Lohmann Gallery, New York
Dutch artist Barbara Nanning works in both ceramics and glass, and even sometimes both simultaneously. Her ability to translate the organic and inorganic elements of nature in refined forms is unparalleled. On view with Salon Art + Design stalwart exhibitor J. Lohmann Gallery, The Verre églomisé VII vessel stems from a process that incorporates everything from hand blowing and forming to sandblasting techniques.
Salon Art + Design is on view until 13 November 2023
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue, between 66/67 streets
New York, NY
