The acclaimed European Collectible Design Fair opened its debut stateside edition on Thursday, September 5. The New York City debut of the festival runs through Sunday, September 8, and coincides with The Armory Show.
The Fair’s Stateside Debut
Over one hundred exhibitors of contemporary design gathered at the Water Street Projects in New York City’s Financial District for the Collectible Design Fair’s stateside debut. From crisp minimalism to colorful maximalism, an exciting array of New York’s most exciting designers are featured, as well as European contributors. The fair emphasizes “unique pieces, bespoke commissions, and limited editions, as well as newly produced works created with functionality in mind.” The Collectible Design Fair’s founders told Artnet News, “What sets Collectible apart from other fairs is our distinct focus on the present.”
Design Fair Highlights
Among the contemporary creations showcased at the New York Collectible Design Fair is The Alchemist’s Folly by Brooklyn-based designer Nicholas Delvin. “The definition of a ‘folly’ is something highly ornamental and functionless, like an outdoor structure that serves no purpose,” Devlin explained during the fair’s preview. “I was given the prompt of ‘Can we do something like a strawberry gazebo or something?’ It was supposed to be a pop art strawberry, but it organically developed and kept changing and changing. I was looking at a lot of Surrealist painters—Hieronymus Bosch and Remedios Varo. Bosch would do these alien strawberries.”
Nearby, the booth of Slovenia-based design studio Tokio showcased innovative smart home products. “The inspiration is Japanese calmness, minimalism, and timeless products like katana, shoji screens, haiku, and calligraphy,” said Akira Hasegawa of Tokio. “The thought was to design something that would hold those values and pierce the future. We are trying to convey that the modern take on old principles can be fresh and un-trendy.” The Beirut-based interior designer Tarek Dada attracted attention with Wall Lamps. The innovative installation emits a warm glow, combining concealed multicolored LED lights with various textures and shapes.
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What Is the Collectible Design Fair?
The Collectible Design Fair was founded in Brussels in 2017. The annual event provides exhibition space for European contemporary design galleries, institutions, and independent studios, as well as a curated selection of work by emerging designers. The New York edition of the Collectible Design Fair was instituted to showcase local galleries and designers alongside their European counterparts.
Earlier this year, founders of the Collectible Design Fair, Clélie Debehault and Liv Vaisberg, announced the inaugural New York showcase during the seventh Brussels edition. “New York came across as an obvious outpost,” Debehault Vaisberg told Dezeen back in March. “European designers want to show in NYC, American designers want a European crowd, it just all felt very right.” The Collectible Design Fair runs through September 8 at Water Street Projects in New York City.
