Design
Summer News & Notes
In the Mix:
Dealer, Decorator, Designer
Evan Lobel has owned a gallery for fifteen years and sells some of the most venerable names in design. But in 2011, he became a designer in his own right when he released a collection of furniture called Night Star. His clean-lined commodes, tables, and upholstered pieces not only speak to Hollywood Regency style, but also explore the interaction of light and dark by juxtaposing materials. Radiant patterns pepper the collection, emblazoning the doors of a commode in hand-cut ebony, or the surface of a writing desk in pale, lacquered goatskin.
Lobel has a knack for wrestling unwieldy materials into complex arrangements of pattern—take for instance his resin console inset with lacquered slices of bamboo—so it’s not surprising that he cites designers like Edward Wormley, Ward Bennett, and Karl Springer (whose works he has sold for years) as pivotal inspirations. It follows that every detail is executed by hand, including the exquisite tufting on a series of sofas and chairs mounted on carved mahogany pedestals. “It’s all about wonderful materials,” Lobel says. “And, of course, the best craftsmanship possible.” lobelmodern.com
Michael Boyd debuted his new collection, PLANEfurniture, at Los Angeles’s Edward Cella Art and Architecture in April. Not surprisingly, planes and other geometries are central to the collection’s minimalistic, case-study feel. So are warm, sustainable materials (jute rope and plywood), striking primary colors (red), and “affordable” price points, all of which place the collection squarely in the wake of pioneering modernists such as Jean Prouvé, Donald Judd, and Gerrit Rietveld. Organized into four series named as sparely as the designs themselves—BLOCKseries, WEDGEseries, PLANKseries, and RODseries—the collection is at once pretentious and utilitarian, as comfortable in a gallery as it is on your patio. boyddesign.com
In Editions, her first collection of furniture, Liz O’Brien takes a stroll through decorative history, tweaking lines and techniques as she goes. Her Frances dining chair embodies Queen Anne style with sass, showing off cabriole legs and a plucky feminine shape. And her
Fairs: There and Here
Designers of the Future winners (left to right) Tom Foulsham, Markus Kayser, and Philippe Malouin.
The two-continent, two-season Design Miami opens its Basel edition on June 12, and a key focus of the Swiss show is the annual selection of the Designers of the Future, an awards program now underwritten by W Hotels. The winning designers are often just at the beginning of careers that—if the past is any indicator—are likely to blossom quickly. (Meaning: watch this space.) This year’s winners are an Englishman, a German, and a Canadian. Tom Foulsham established his own studio in London after working for both Thomas Heatherwick and Ron Arad. Markus Kayser founded his own design studio in London and Germany shortly after receiving a masters degree in art and design from London’s Royal College of Art in 2011. Philippe Malouin left Montreal to work in England for Tom Dixon and ultimately opened his own London-based practice.
