Preview: TEFAF New York 2022

Raphael Navot, ‘Acrostic Overlay Armchair (Left & right)’, 2021
COURTESY: Raphael Navot & Friedman Benda

TEFAF NEW YORK is back. For five days in early May, the Gothic revival halls of New York’s historic Park Avenue Armory will be transformed into immersive environments filled with modern and contemporary art, jewellery and design from 91 leading international galleries.

“The art market is not only recovering from the 2020 downturn, it is also growing – sales were up by 29% from 2020 according to the 2022 Art Market Report,” says Hidde van Seggelen, Chairman of TEFAF, “and collectible design is a very strong area. I am certain that the comprehensive offering of collectible design at TEFAF New York will act as a draw for collectors.” We think so too. There are highlights a-plenty, but here are our seven must-see galleries for design devotees.

Marc Newson, ‘Quobus 1,3,6’, 2022
COURTESY: Marc Newson & Galerie kreo

Adrian Sassoon
The London-based decorative art specialist will be premiering several new works from their stellar stable of artists. Of particular note are ‘Light Time’ by south Australian artist – and TEFAF New York newcomer – Clare Belfrage. These seductively tactile objects, made using an adaptation of traditional Venetian glassblowing techniques, combine simple, organic forms with beautiful ring-like patterns.

Clare Belfrage (forefront), ‘Light Time, Dark Grey with Red’, 2021; (background) ‘Light Time, Grey with Red’, 2021
COURTESY: Clare Belfrage & Adrian Sassoon

Dutch ceramics conservator turned artist Bouke de Vries is collectors’ favourite, and his new ‘Sputnik Camel’ will delight his many fans.

Bouke de Vries, ‘Sputnik Camel’, 2021 (detail)
COURTESY: Bouke de Vries & Adrian Sassoon

“This dramatic composition breathes new life into fundamentally damaged, yet precious, Etruscan ceramics and Chinese 17^th century porcelain to riotous effect,” says gallery director Mark Piolet.

Bouke de Vries, ‘Sputnik Camel’, 2021
COURTESY: Bouke de Vries & Adrian Sassoon

Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery
The unveiling of Aldo Bakker’s new console size, marble ‘Ring Table’ will be a big draw at the Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery booth. Each edition of this intriguing creation is identical in form – four complementary elements are interlocked around a central void – but the size and material change in every iteration, making each one unique. “Depending on the size, it can be a ring, a bracelet, a stool, a table …” says Bakker. “This is a story about size, the circle and universal forms.”

Aldo Bakker, ‘Ring Table Console Salome Marble’, 2021
COURTESY: Aldo Bakker & Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Dansk Møbelkunst Gallery
Collectors of Danish Modern, both actual and aspiring, will be thrilled to discover a rare ‘Academy Cabinet’ by Poul Kjærholm at the booth of this Danish design gallery. “The Academy Cabinet was designed in 1955 for the School of Architecture at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen,” explains the gallery’s Senior Director, Dorte Værnø “The Royal Academy was a highly influential institution in Denmark, its furniture department founded by Professor Kaare Klint in the 1920s is regarded as the cradle of modern Danish furniture design. This cabinet is one of only thirty-one from the original ten-drawer series.”

Poul Kjærholm, ‘Academy Cabinet’, 1955
COURTESY: Poul Kjærholm & Dansk Mobelkunst

“This cabinet was designed in 1955 for the School of Architecture at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen – and is one of only 31 from the original ten-drawer series” 

Dorte Værnø, Dansk Mobelkunst

Poul Kjærholm, ‘Academy Cabinet’, 1955 (detail)
COURTESY: Poul Kjærholm & Dansk Mobelkunst

“The Royal Academy was a highly influential institution in Denmark, its furniture department founded by Professor Kaare Klint in the 1920s is regarded as the cradle of modern Danish furniture design”

Dorte Værnø, Dansk Mobelkunst

Demisch Danant
In May 1968, Parisian Galerie Maison et Jardin put on an exhibition of stainless-steel furniture by the designer Maria Pergay. It was not the first time stainless steel had been used to make furniture, but it was the first time this industrial material had been treated as if it were an exotic wood or precious metal. Pergay’s vision marked her out as one of the most innovative and influential French designers of her day, and transformed perceptions of stainless steel. Fifty-four years later, one of the pieces exhibited in Paris – the ‘Saturn’ table – is coming to TEFAF New York, courtesy of 20^th century design specialists Demisch Danant. With its undulating curves and marquetry-like surface, Saturn encapsulates Pergay’s enduring fascination with her material. “Stainless steel does not forgive,” she says. “It has authority, and it helps me not to make errors. But it also shines and glows; it hints at greater things.”

Maria Pergay, ‘Saturn Table’, 1968
COURTESY: Maria Pergay & Demisch Danant

Friedman Benda
The theme for this US gallery’s booth is materiality and excellence in making. Amongst the work on show will be previously unseen pieces from three contemporary artists – Misha Kahn, Faye Toogood and Raphael Navot – each a key voice of their generation. “Kahn’s most recent work, ‘Radiant Affection’, from his celebrated Rock Series, is one of the most ambitious examples of the series, deftly fusing sculpted bronze with a mass boulder of rose quartz,” says the gallery’s founder Marc Benda. “Toogood will unveil works from ‘Assemblage 7’, a new body of work that venerates the primacy of traditional artisan carving techniques, while the latest sofa and armchair from Navot’s acclaimed ‘Acrostic’ series exemplify this artist’s unique sculptural sensibility.”

Faye Toogood, ‘Lost and Found / Plot’, 2022
COURTESY: Faye Toogood & Friedman Benda

Galerie kreo
A new mirror by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec and a collection of modular bookcases by Marc Newson are highlights of this Parisian gallery’s booth. Newson’s enamelled steel ‘Quobus’ is playful, sculptural, and satisfyingly functional, while the Bouroullec brothers’ ‘Flou’ is a lesson in the materiality of cast glass. Originally designed for the Bourse de Commerce-Pinault Collection in Paris, the glass, at 3.5cm thick, has such organic luminosity that it seems to be as much window as mirror.

Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, ‘Flou Mirror’, 2021
COURTESY: Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec & Galerie kreo

Galerie Maria Wettergren
This interdisciplinary design gallery first showed ‘City Light’ in 2021 at its Paris HQ, as part of the exhibition, ‘Modernism Crystallized’. These eight translucent resin light-clocks are modelled on the cityscape of Manhattan and are programmed to reflect its shifting colour and light cycle, so it is fitting that they are now being presented at TEFAF New York.

Boris Berlin & Daniel Berlin, ‘City Light’, 2020 (detail)
COURTESY: Boris Berlin & Daniel Berlin & Galerie Maria Wettergren / PHOTOGRAPH: Gregory Copitet

The result of a collaboration between renowned designer Boris Berlin and his son, the architect Daniel Berlin, ‘City Light’ brings together design, architecture, fine craftsmanship and high technology. And if you watch it for an hour as the resin changes colour to evoke the hues of the day, from the first rays of sunrise through to the pink glow of sunset, you will find there is some poetry too.

Boris Berlin & Daniel Berlin, ‘City Light’, 2020
COURTESY: Boris Berlin & Daniel Berlin & Galerie Maria Wettergren / PHOTOGRAPH: Gregory Copitet