Frédéric Pellenq is not afraid to reference. Whether it’s artist Ellsworth Kelly, whose hand-drawn geometries informed a series of chairs; architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whose famed Prairie style is translated into a side table; or decorator Jacques Grange, who is paid tribute through an armchair, Pellenq has nodded to the titans of 20th-century art and design for his first solo exhibition. 

Presented at the Paris gallery Kolkhoze earlier this fall, the show, titled Les Quatre Soleils, includes a range of furniture pieces that are each handmade in France by Ateliers Racines and come in a limited run of 12. The styles vary from “oneiric totems to almost bourgeois ‘couture’ furniture,” but tie together through the use of oak and neutral fabrics, as well as repeated motifs. Softly rounded seat and back cushions on the Kelly armchair are echoed in wood on a dining table from the same set, while the linked rhombus pattern that encircles the Prairie side table is repeated as coffee table legs.

Other stand-out designs for the exhibition include the fully upholstered Grand Camarat sofa, with chunky arched arms that bookend a wavy back, based on the vernacular architecture of the French Riviera where Pellenq grew up. Also, a shout out for a quartet of candle holders, which are backed by wooden panels cut into different shapes along one vertical edge.