March 9, 2018

14 Collective Design 2018 Must-Sees

For its sixth edition, Collective Design pops up at Skylight Clarkson North in New York City to present a curated selection of contemporary art galleries, design up-and-comers, and global creative talent. But 2018 marks a departure for the fair, led by architect Steven Learner. Instead of signaling the beginning of NYCxDESIGN in May, the fair moves to March, becoming the premier design event during Armory Arts Week. In this year’s edition, taking place March 9-11, New York’s budding design luminaries continue to push boundaries with immersive installations, fresh takes on the industry, and the latest in collectible objects and furnishings. Check out our editor’s picks below.

Harry Nuriev

Harry Nuriev’s My Reality. Rendering courtesy of Crosby Studios.

Crosby Studios founder Harry Nuriev relives childhood memories with My Reality, an installation that transports viewers to the brightly colored playgrounds of Stavropol, Russia. The immersive landscape centers on Carousel, a rotating sculpture awash in ultraviolet, set amid wall coverings depicting Soviet-style Brutalist apartment blocks (made by Wallpaper Projects).

Ryan Korban

40 Bleecker gallery by Ryan Korban. Photography by Bjorn Wallander.

Luxury retail wunderkind Ryan Korban, who boasts a roster of A-list clientele, reveals an installation that recreates the gallery space for his newly completed NoHo condominium building, 40 Bleecker. Inside, find textural furnishings such as statuary marble sofas, a limestone cocktail table, and curved silk seats, all custom. 

Fernando Mastrangelo Studio

Brooklyn designer Fernando Mastrangelo has masterminded The Dream, a surreal Henri Rosseau–inspired environment that kicks off his exploration into interiors. Enveloped in sand-cast walls depicting mountainous imagery, a sunken blood-red cashmere-upholstered sofa nods to the seventies. Lush carpets from his Edward Fields line also make an appearance.

Galerie Minimasterpiece

Callidus Guild’s booth, featuring the new Agnes collection. Image courtesy of Callidus Guild.

Yolande Batteau’s Brooklyn studio Callidus Guild debuts Agnes, a collection of minimalist wallpaper patterns that pay tribute to Agnes Martin paintings with compressed marble dust plaster, translucent glaze, and hand-polished wax.

Coil + Drift

Unconscious Forms by Coil + Drift. Photography by Charlie Schuck.

Along with debuting a range of new furnishings, Coil + Drift founder John Sorensen-Jolink will showcase Unconscious Forms, a dance performance that explores movement among the treasured possessions in one’s home. Additionally, the booth will broadcast an original short film of the same name in collaboration with photographer Charlie Schuck and stylist Natasha Felker.

Stickbulb

Fire and Ice by Stickbulb.

Inspired by Chicago’s ill-fated Pullman Couch Company building, which burned down in early 2013, Stickbulb, in collaboration with RUX, reveals Fire and Ice, a one-of-a-kind sculpture built from the factory’s ruins. The Queens-based brand’s signature salvaged wooden LED beams float above building fragments and sit alongside a large-scale print of the frozen-over factory.

Pullman Couch Company building in Chicago. Photography by Martin Murphy.

Objects of Common Interest

VIP Lounge by Objects of Common Interest. Image courtesy of Objects of Common Interest.

LOT Architecture principals Leonidas Trampoukis and Eleni Petaloti of Objects of Common Interest conceived the VIP lounge using custom glass-block elements in the Euclidean geometries that define the studio’s oeuvre. Situated behind a white mesh curtain, the lounge serves as a textural and abstract still life installation and offers much-needed respite for busy fairgoers.

Wentrcek / Zebulon

Collective welcomes visitors via a glowing amber-hued entry pavilion by Wentrcek / Zebulon, founded by Kristen Wentrcek and Andrew Zebulon, whose work manipulates industrial materials such as fiberglass insulation, wire glass, medical cast tape, and natural rubber. The site-specific installation references Intermediate States, a sauna-like experience at their studio in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. 

Christopher Boots

Fueled by wanderlust and Greek mythology, Melbourne atelier Christopher Boots debuts crystalline light fixtures inspired by the forms of plants, animals, and minerals. On display are Archimedes, inlaid with clear and smoky quartz crystals, and Pythagoras in a new Verdigris finish.

Johanna Grawunder

Gioster by Johanna Grawunder. Image courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery.

Milanese architect and designer Johanna Grawunder, the subject of Collective Influence, presents Object Permanence, an installation that riffs on her celebrated large-scale light installations. Represented by Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Grawunder’s work reinterprets modernist geometry, such as Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion.

Brook Landscape / Jesse Seegers

Brook Landscape and Jesse Seegers have collaborated on an oasis-like desert landscape populated by inhabitable inflatable spaces. Furnished by Natural Workshop, the installation calls into question our fraught relationships with natural materials and environments.

Galerie Michael Bargo

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Fascinated with the history of decorative arts, dealer and designer Michael Bargo assembles a global collection of furnishings, textiles, and objets d’arts that grace his eponymous New York gallery.

Peter Lane

Ceramic artist Peter Lane presents Astrolabe, a wall-mounted sculpture that integrates a fireplace and convex mirror, in an immersive environment created in collaboration with FACE Design and Aurora Lampworks.

Caviar20

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Toronto gallery Caviar20 is collaborating with art studio Moss & Lam to showcase their new custom wall coverings and Playtime Nest table collections along with artwork by American women.

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