When my friend Adriana Friedman, Director of DeLorenzo Gallery (below) has first presented me with the furniture pieces by interior designer Sam Amoia, which she began representing, I found them interesting, yet in progress. The furniture, which I have first seen, two years ago was crafted of crashed minerals combined with refined concrete in various colors into bold, rough forms, where the properties of the materials took a central role. The new exhibition, which I have visited last evening at DeLorenzo, presenting recent work of Amoia, demonstrates that his language has become more mature, more sophisticated, more defined. The new forms are handled with care and are much more refined, tasteful, and chic than before, while the sources of their appeal lie equally on the linear silhouettes as on the extraordinary materials. Brilliant white onyx and bronze have come to replace the concrete and crashed malachite, amethyst, crystal, and brass are highlighted in the fragile forms. The new pieces that Sam Amoia presented last night seem like them fell at home at DeLorenzo Gallery, standing next to Art Deco masterpieces by Eileen Gray, Jean Dunand, and Albert Armand Rateau. Bravo.
