PAD London 2019

Irving and Miriam van Dijk with Alex Chinneck’s ‘Growing Up Gets Me Down’, 2018
COURTESY: Priveekollektie / PHOTOGRAPH: Ian Scigliuzzi

COLLECTORS AND DREAMERS have been flocking to PAD fairs across Europe in search of the most exceptional works of modern art, design, decorative arts, photography, jewellery and tribal art ever since Patrick Perrin launched the first edition in Paris, 22 years ago. “Our aim over the years has been to share our passion for eclecticism and beautiful objects, and create an elegant salon in the style of a modern cabinet of curiosities – with the best selection of works available on the market,” says Perrin. “Over the past years, we have worked extremely hard to turn PAD into what it is today: a place to learn, discover and be inspired.”

Egevaerk, ‘Ice Series Shelf’, 2019
COURTESY: Sarah Myerscough / PHOTOGRAPH: Egevaerk

François Cante-Pacos, ‘Cyclades’ cabinet
COURTESY: Yves et Victor Gastou

“We have created a salon in the style of a modern cabinet of curiosities …”

Patrick Perrin

Mathieu Matégot, ‘Satellite’ suspension model, circa 1953
COURTESY: Matthieu Richard

“… with the best selection of works available on the market”

Patrick Perrin

As the elegant white tents of PAD London go up in Berkeley Square, The Design Edit asks some of the contemporary design galleries showing at this edition to reveal what treasures they have in store.

Southern Guild
For its inaugural appearance at PAD London, this Cape Town gallery will cast a spotlight on the exquisite craftsmanship and rich narratives that make South African design unique. The gallery’s founders, Trevyn and Julian McGowan are interested in talent rather than discipline, a cross-genre approach that has led them to working with fashion designer Rich Mnisi on his first piece of furniture, the ‘Nwa-Mulamula Chaise’.

Rich Mnisi on ‘Nwa-Mulamula Chaise’
COURTESY: Southern Guild / PHOTOGRAPH: Hayden Phipps

“Richard is, for me, one of the most exciting fashion designers working in Africa at the moment,” says Trevyn McGowan, “He has the wildness of Vivienne Westwood, combined with incredibly skilled tailoring. This upholstered leather chaise is very much drawn from his cultural experiences, most importantly in respect to the women who raised him (Nwa-Mulamula means ‘guardian’), and he also captures an essence of Africa that is fascinating for people from a variety of creative platforms. We’re already working with him on the next design collection. He is going to be stratospheric.”
Rich Mnisi, ‘Nwa-Mulamula Chaise’, upholstered leather, edition of 8, POA.

Todd Merrill
This New York-based gallery’s contemporary programme focuses on artists who are interested in pushing their materials to their absolute aesthetic limits. Artists such as Marc Fish. The British creative’s two chairs and floating console tables are the latest additions to his mesmerising ‘Ethereal Series’, developed out of his explorations into ways of combining resin with his signature wood laminations. 

Marc Fish, ‘Ethereal Console Table’, 2019
COURTESY: Todd Merrill

Marc Fish, ‘Ethereal Series Lounge Chair’, 2019
COURTESY: Todd Merrill

The revolutionary material Fish came up with allows light to pass through frosted resin in varying levels of light and dark. Reflected off the paper-thin wood veneers and manipulated by the fluctuating spaces between the laminations, the light gives these pieces a constantly shifting luminosity.
Marc Fish, ‘Ethereal Series Lounge Chair’, 2019, sycamore, acrylic, $28,000.

Galerie BSL
“Contemporary collectible design is synonymous not only with refinement and innovation, but also fantasy, poetry and wonder,” says the Parisian gallery’s founder Béatrice Saint-Laurent. These qualities are perfectly encapsulated in Pia Maria Raeder’s latest additions to her acclaimed ‘Sea Anemone’ series. The new floor and table lights have been handcrafted from thousands of beech wood rods, each individually cut and sanded, before being placed around a blown glass ‘bulb’ mounted on a hand cast bronze stand. As mysterious as the ocean floor that inspired them, they are, says Saint-Laurent like “soft, beaming creatures bringing tenderness and poetry to any room.”
Pia Maria Raeder, ‘Sea Anemones’ Floor Light Sculptures, beech wood, glass, bronze, €57,000.

Pia Maria Raeder, ‘Sea Anemone’ Floor Light Sculptures, 2017
COURTESY: BSL

Gallery FUMI
Among the many finely crafted, aesthetically audacious works displayed on this London gallery’s booth will be a new work by Francesco Perini. The Italian marquetry master has “re-thought his chosen material in a completely unusual and surprising way, solidifying his place within the craft of marquetry,” explain FUMI’s founders Sam Pratt and Valerio Capo.

Francesco Perini at work
COURTESY: Gallery FUMI

Francesco Perini, ‘Incontro Rug’, 2019
COURTESY: Gallery FUMI / PHOTOGRAPH: Marco Palermo

“’Incontro Rug’ is made from oak and travertine and the ‘rug-like’ quality is found in the combination of the textures of both materials, as well as in the hand-drawn design.”
Francesco Perini, ‘Incontro Rug’, 2019, oak, travertine, POA.

Achille Salvagni
“Working with glass is almost a wrestling match between man and material,” says the Italian architect and designer Achille Salvagni, who is unveiling his new Murano glass collection at the show. Alongside a trio of jewel-toned, jewel-like vessels will be some larger scale functional furniture pieces including ‘Dido’, a one-off bar cabinet made from ivory parchment encrusted with black Murano glass details. “I have drawn inspiration from the Seven Wonders of the World so each piece of glass will tell a story,” says Salvagni. Both elegant and playful (it stands on exquisite little turned out feet), this cabinet is the first unique piece he has made available to the public.
Achille Salvagni, ‘Dido’ Cabinet, parchment, Murano glass unique piece, €120,000 + VAT.

Achille Salvagni, ‘Dido’ cabinet, 2019
COURTESY: Achille Salvagni Atelier

Carpenters Workshop Gallery
Taking centre stage at this functional sculpture gallery’s booth is Nacho Carbonell’s ‘Big Round Chandelier’. A vast and richly textured illuminated installation, it is says the gallery’s co-founder Loic Le Gaillard, “a very imposing piece of design that’s really about the connection between the sculptor and his materials.” Those materials are metal mesh, papier-mâché and coloured pigments, which Carbonell has joined together with a welding gun. “It is absolutely impossible to reproduce,” says Le Gaillard, “and that’s what I adore about it. It is a genuine approach of a sculptor. It’s not about revisiting old pieces of work, it’s not about editions, it’s just this one unique piece. And it is glorious.”
Nacho Carbonell Big Round Chandelier, metal mesh, papier-mâché, pigments, POA.

Nacho Carbonell, ‘Big Round Chandelier’, 2018
COURTESY: Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Mouvements Modernes
Ceramics have always been an important part of this Parisian gallery’s PAD London exhibitions, and this edition is no exception. Making its London debut will be work by Danish ceramic artist Turi Heisselberg Pedersen. Inspired by geological structures, crystal formations, architecture and folded paper shapes, her forms are hand-modelled in stoneware and finished with slip glaze. “Her works have a dry, stone-like surface and a rich texture,” says the gallery’s owner Sophie Mainier-Jullerot, “and are expressions of the inherent character and textural freshness of the clay.”
Turi H. Pedersen, ‘Babel’, 2019, stoneware with englobe glaze, unique piece, €8,000.

Turi Heisselberg Pedersen, ‘Babel’, 2019
COURTESY: Mouvements Moderne

Priveekollektie Contemporary Art & Design
“We focus on the care and love that is put behind an artwork,” say Irving and Miriam van Dijk, owners of this Netherlands-based gallery. “We could instantly spot the hard work and sincerity behind Studio Amarist’s ‘Fuego Amigo’ – the artists are Spanish and their art represents their Spanish heritage because the lamps are made from Alabaster stone, a delicate, translucent mineral extracted from a quarry close to their studio.” Precisely modelled on a real mortar shell, ‘Fuego Amigo’ beautifies a projectile in stone, highlighting these young artists’ provocative focus on political and social themes.
Studio Amarist, ‘Fuego Amigo’, 2018, Alabaster stone, electronics, edition of 7, sets of 3, €24,000.

Studio Amarist, ‘Bomb Love’ lamps, 2019
COURTESY: Priveekollektie Contemporary Art