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Two Major Collections Launched This Week In Collaboration With The Iconic Glassblowing Atelier
Above: In Common With’s Lido series uses two Murano glass processes; bottom: Ellen Van Dusen’s “mother and baby” jar and pear cups were inspired by her maternity leave.
Is there something real in the waters around Murano, an interconnected chain of islands in the Venetian harbor known as the center of artistic glassmaking? It’s where all your favorite glass collections are already made, from Dana Arbib to Sophie Lou Jacobsen. But lately it seems that many American designers are spending time in the fireplace. Blue Green Works’ garden series first appeared, and this month, two major collections in collaboration with Laguna-B glassblowers were launched: the Lido series by In Common With, and Dusen Dusen x Laguna-B, a group of playful serving vessels by Ellen Van Dusen.
In Lido, According to Founders Nick Ozemba and Felicia Hung have worked with two processes that are the signature of Laguna-B.Goti de fornasais an improvisational technique where leftover glass is used to create vessels in unexpected colors, patterns, and shapes.Murrinthe more popular of the two, involves layering and stretching colored glass into sticks to create patterns that are revealed when the sticks are cut into cross sections. Common With pairs these sophisticated surface decorations with their simple, iconic forms, such as the upside-down sconce and flush mount based on copper, and a new shape: the Cosmos Chandelier. For her part, Van Dusen came up with the idea for three pairs of jugs and cups — each representing a “mother” animal, such as a fish, zebra, or bird, and a corresponding “baby” cup — during her maternity leave in early 2025. Working with Laguna~B, who is known for his strong patterns and saturated colors, Vanysen was a natural painter who matched his natural deploe. informal fashion. “Glass has a mind of its own,” Van Dusen said. “Chance has become an important element of design – it determines the final pattern and arrangement in a way that fabrics cannot.”
Two of Our Favorite Ceramicists Have Just Paired Up for a Floral Light Collection
The new Foxglove lighting collection by Danny Kaplan and Kassandra Thatcher pairs botanical flowers on pins with architectural metal signs. Photos: William Jess Laird
When Danny Kaplan first opened his Noho showroom a year and a half ago, he filled it not only with his own designs – ceramic lamps and bowls, metal chairs, perforated sconces – but also with pieces made in collaboration with designers he liked: a beautiful series of room tiles made with Vince Patti of Lesser Miracle, a daybed by a daybed by the kitchen line Thomas Barger and Joseph Algie- a chandelier hanging with off-white botanical packets, meant to resemble the flower known as foxglove. The latest piece was made with ceramic artist Kassandra Thatcher, a longtime friend of Kaplan’s who once shared studio space with her and who became her trusted sounding board. That light this week was a full collection written by Kaplan and Thatcher together, including round and linear chandeliers, hanging pendant lights, directional sconces, a really sick mirror, and strong light tied to the floor and ceiling and, as I alluded to on Instagram, the big vibes of Parentesi.
Foxglove marks the first time Kaplan and Thatcher have worked in plaster, a material they love for its softness and ease of use; it allows them to create “touchable skin that feels natural and slightly imperfect in a good way,” says Kaplan. But my biggest reaction when I saw these pieces in person was the shiny metal that gave the buildings a cool edge. The tension light in particular balances hard and soft materials in equal measure, but I also love the stainless steel hardware that peeks out behind the sconces and forms the armature of the Arthurian-era chandelier.
These Hammered Aluminum Templates Appear, Sometimes, as Drawn and Folded Fabric.
On view at Galerie Forsblom in Helsinki, a series of anthropomorphized sculptures by German artist and printmaker Anna Fasshauer
I recently interviewed the designer and welder Hannah Kuhlmann – who makes beautiful, petal-like, powerful lamps and furniture out of metal – and we talked about the difficulties of being a female welder. It was not, he explained, that the work is too dirty or too difficult or too dangerous for a woman, but rather that these are the destructive ideas that tend to dominate welding workshops, which are often run by men (and especially men of the older generation). It was in the background of this conversation that I was introduced to the work of Anna Fasshauer, a German artist who is currently featured in a solo exhibition at Galerie Forsblom in Helsinki, and who is among the current group of women who defy these traditional expectations of metal work. In a YouTube video Fasshauer made with the gallery a few years ago, he talks about how his physical limitations actually help in making this work. He uses aluminum because it is light and easy to carry but becomes stronger the more you control it, and uses only his body and a rivet gun to create his images.
These parameters directly affect the look and feel of his work. Each piece is human-sized, but his works feel inextricably linked to the body and other ways. Metal is often folded or folded, like clothing; in one image, the top is like a rubber mallet but the bottom looks like the kind of bustled and draped skirt by Mary Todd Lincoln, or like a sculptural dress by Issey Miyake. His sculptures are often humorously anthropomorphized, some appearing as bodies on the edge of a Martha Graham-like interpretive dance. The colorful industrial paint she uses is reminiscent of the work of Carol Bove, who is also currently in the limelight. Can we safely call 2026 the Year of the Woman Welder?
Holding On And Letting Go: A New Show Explores The Control Element
Pieces by Luke Malaney, Mia Morel, and Adam Cutts are on view at 144 Vanderbilt this Sunday, as part of the Loose Grip exhibit. Photos: Jack De Marzo
When I wrote an article last month explaining how Salone has changed and what I don’t like about it this year, what was missing was perhaps an explanation.what i dothey tend to be more passionate about the design fair. If reading Ujo Shop hasn’t taught you what that might be yet, check out the “Loose Grip” exhibit that opened this week in New York at 144 Vanderbilt, aka the pink building in South Brooklyn. It has all the features I love. It was selected by emerging designer, Luke Malaney, for his first exhibition tour, and features nine creators with whom Malaney feels a connection in terms of their exploration of materiality and “untetheredness” in their artistic process. The title, Malaney explains, “is a phrase that suggests both control and emancipation. It directs to a way of working that is carefree and rigid, open to variation, friction, and discovery.”
Essentially, that means a mix of old and new work, from photography to textiles, all centered around that central idea of working closely with the piece but also perhaps letting it guide you. There’s a ’90s-era “stove,” made of wonky plywood by Richard Snyder, an underrated artist of the ’80s and ’90s in New York City. Several pieces were created by Malaney himself, including a cherry and bamboo surround, a Zamboni painting, and a series of tables that bathe his signature wood and deep-colored copper aesthetic. Quinn Sherman contributed an ink-pointing landscape where the frame is a large part of the piece itself, made of hand-blown glass panes with colored lines that are the result of mixing with metal oxides and powders such as cobalt, copper, and cadmium sulfide. Ceramics, photographs, and quilts round out the exhibit. Viewing this Sunday 11-6, and by appointment only.
Editor’s List
CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT:
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Carrying on the grid/mosaic theme in today’s list, we start with this patchwork ceramic table presented this weekend at Afternoon Light by Brooklyn-based designer Ethan Streicher. Part of a larger series called Floor Models, Streicher will present them as if they were part of a closing auction for everything to go.
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We’ll be talking about other presentations on The Future Perfect next week but for now we wanted to highlight these beautiful tables made by ceramicist Jane Yang-D’Haene and her late husband, Francis D’Haene, who tragically died during the development of this series. The first furniture collection from Studio D’Haene, and inspired by a Koreanbrotheror a patchwork textile, which a couple encountered on a husband-and-wife trip to the Met.
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I’ve always been a fan of Anni Albers’ Rachel Duvall-inspired fabrics, and there’s a great selection of them on view at the new Radnor Gallery in the Brooklyn Tower flagship. If these new works seem fuller than usual it is because Duvall has introduced a painted substrate beneath the woven surfaces, creating tension between the underlying structure of the piece and its soft overlay.
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On view through May 30 at Volume Gallery in Chicago is a selection of new works by perennial fave Jonathan Muecke. The gallery uses the word “incrutable” on the material, and that’s a decent description of his work, which is always fascinating but not easy to categorize. Unless you’ve turned this into the best wine rack there is.
News
Left: Poor Flowers showroom in Soho; right: a side table from Ana Kraš’s Svila collection at the Emma Scully Gallery, which explores the different qualities of silk. Photos: Joe Kramm
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One of our design favorites, Wretched Flowers, recently opened a new showroom in Soho (which they share with Monica’s Petra!), and while pieces using their signature beaded chainmail are on the rise, I’m particularly fond of this sculptural lamp that’s had its little moment here. By appointment only.
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Emma Scully Gallery’s spring exhibition features designer Ana Kraš, whose Svila collection explores the way silk behaves in different contexts – on panels under the glass of a coffee table, hung in front of a lamp that highlights the irregularities of the fabric; and sliding side tables have their wooden tops carved by Balkan craftsmen in the designer’s homeland.
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This is the first year we can remember that design and art come together in one week in New York, so while we may not be bringing you an all-encompassing art scene this week, I’ve put together a great guideactually buying artover my Substack. It itches itches!
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Related: I’ll be speaking at ICFF this coming Monday at 11:30AM with a few of my fellow design editors, in a panel discussion about the state of design issues. Please stop by and say hello!