Three Design Exhibitions We Can’t Stop Thinking About from Paris Art Week

Amidst the spectacle of Art Basel Paris at the Grand Palais (the historical World’s Fair venue of 1900 that also hosted the Olympics this past summer) and its many satellite fairs across the city during Paris Art Week, three quieter design-focused exhibitions stole our hearts; it’s three weeks later, and we still can’t stop thinking about them. The so-called “City of Light” first earned its sobriquet in the 19th century, not only for the city’s early adoption of street lamps, but for its contributions to science and art. Remaining true to its reputation, our three favorite shows from Paris Art Week boasted innovative design pieces against the backdrop of unique or unlikely venues, from the famous and historical Rue de Seine, to Karl Lagerfeld’s former mansion, to a 17th century Gothic-style secular temple to humanism.

Galerie Gastou and Galerie Desprez-Bréhéret at Design Miami/Paris

Just a block away from the Musee d’Orsay, Hôtel de Maisons played host to the second edition of Design Miami/Paris. Set against the lush backdrop of Karl Lagerfeld’s former mansion turned luxury boutique hotel, Galerie Gastou teamed with Galerie Desprez-Bréhéret to showcase 20th-century sculptor Jean Touret’s hand carved wood furniture and Brutalist wrought iron lighting and candlesticks. In 1946, Touret moved to a rural region near Marolles and set up and led a cooperative with the local artisans. The designs they created highlighted the natural grain, texture, color, and solidity of the wood, often featuring visible gouge mark patterns. At the exhibition, the galleries paired Touret’s solid, hand-carved wood forms with porous ceramics from French ceramic artist Agnès Debizet. Her signature coiled, knot work method often results in works that resemble morel mushrooms or undersea coral. We here at Sight Unseen weren’t the only ones smitten—Galerie Gastou and Galerie Desprez-Bréhéret earned “Best Gallery Presentation” for its standout collection.

Resonance by Garcé & Dimofski, Minjae Kim, Studio HAOS

Tucked away through a porte cochère on the storied Rue de Seine at Galerie Charles-Wesley Hourdé and Galerie Chevalier Parsua, “Resonance” boasted strong, simple shapes, qualities also highlighted in pairing the designed objects with the bold abstractions and stylizations of ancient African, Pre-Columbian, and Oceanic masks and sculptural objects. The indebtedness of Modernists such as Picasso and Matisse to the traditional arts of Africa has been well-documented, and “Resonance” closed the loop between the old and new visually and concisely.

Lisbon-based Studio Haos debuted fiberglass and steel rod pieces reminiscent of Franz West’s playful and irreverent daybeds and chairs (2006). The simple, strong, Ellsworth Kelly-esque shapes of Garcé & Dimofski’s carved chestnut-stained wood and gunpowder glazed ceramic tile topped coffee table and desk highlighted the abstraction of the ancient African objects as well as their rich deep hues. The synchronicity between Minjae Kim’s blocky, dark lacquered wood daybed and chairs similarly highlighted the strong, abstracted shapes of the accompanying masks and statuettes from Burkina Faso, Mali and more.

Numeroventi

Florence-based gallery Numeroventi popped up in a 17th-century Gothic-style building and the mash-up of cultures and eras was present through and through. The building previously played host to Auguste Comte’s secular Temple of Humanity, and is now owned by the Brazilian Church of Humanity. Numeroventi’s exhibition was centered around a stark but striking display of updated propositions on known archetypes including the cube, the bed, the chair, the lamp, the mobile, and the vessel.

Hailing from Tbilisi, Georgia, design-duo Rooms Studio’s iron rod four-poster bed was topped with bullheads, referencing the fauna of their native homeland — the bed was unforgettable in its contrast, evoking the eeriness of a stark institutional bed on wheels as well as powerful ceremonial staffs or cudgels topped with bull’s heads. Complementing the bed was a silver-toned, hand-quilted satin wallhanging modeled after traditional dowry blankets. Also evoking the bovine were Minjae Kim’s fiberglass Cattle Lamps, whose shapes appeared like rooftops on stilts as well as resembling the Chinese character for comfort. Kasia Fudakowski’s mobile — comprised of handblown glass, steel, electric cable, and fringe—resembled a fragmented flapper shimmying in fringe, and elegantly encapsulated the concept of freefall, spiral, and lack of control in life. Argentinian designer Conie Vallese’s oversized tiled cube proposed a modular approach to furniture and shelter, adorned with daisies as a nod to cultivating one’s garden and home.