Think about a stool that looks like a rock of pearls; a Rococo cabinet crafted of thousands of steel rings welded together into a mesh; a wall sculpture created of dense oyster shells; a piece of furniture made of roped bamboo cast in bronze. These are not just fictional objects, but what I saw when visiting the booth of Gallery Fumi at The Salon Art + Design today.It is exactly how you should feel when you enter an exhibition which makes you think differently about design. One of the most fascinating aspects of the collectible design world is the discovery of the people behind the galleries, those responsible for promoting and producing the design of our zitime, those who through their personal and educated taste succeed in discovering the designers of our zeitgeist. Meeting Valerio Capo and Sam Pratt, the minds behind London-based Gallery FUMI and its unique program, was a great reward. Their agenda is rooted in their love for designers who work their materials in small atelier situations, those designers who are thinking out of the box when it comes to the way they use and rethink materials, stretching their boundaries, and giving those materials new identities, merging design and craft in the most contemporary way. When you visit The Salon Art + Design this weekend, make sure to visit the booth of Gallery Fumi.
BROOKSBANK & COLLINS, Boullée Table, 2015
STUDIO MARKUNPOIKA, Cabinet, 2012
With Tuomas Markunpoika at the Salon Art + Design
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Sofie Lachaert & Luc d’Hanis, Lustrum Stool, 2016
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Glithero, Vis a Vis, 2016
Lukas Wegwerth, Crystallization 97, 2016
ROWAN MERSH, Placuna Pro Dilectione Mea, 2016