Visiting FUMI

In the small and highly specialized emerging territory of galleries devoted to collectible contemporary design, each must devise its own identity, its unique voice, each has to reflect and represent its founder’s vision, taste, and aesthetic sensibility. Otherwise it has no chance to leave a mark, to make a difference, to elevate the world’s best design to the world’s stage, and ultimately to survive. Gallery FUMI is certainly confined to this definition. Yesterday I was hosted by Valerio Capo and Sam Pratt in the new space of FUMI, which they founded nearly a decade ago at their personal home, but which has recently moved to Mayfair. Here, under one roof, you can, if you pay close attention, experience the world of contemporary design in its richness, all through inspiring objects created by designers discovered by Capo and Pratt in a carefully curated atmosphere. From London, to Berlin, to Barcelona, each one of the studio designers represented here creates work in small editions, or one-off, crafted in the full scope of handcraftsmanship, from carving to glassblowing, from cabinetry to lacquering, mirroring, plastering, hammering, casting, all traditional crafts utilized to create original and innovative 21st-century design. Don’t expect to be able to define what you see in stylistic terms, but it is the approach that has come to define Gallery FUMI’s mission. Images courtesy  of Gallery FUMI.