Discover Wallpaper’s highlights from New York Design Week 2022 (10 – 20 May 2022): the fairs, exhibitions and design openings to discover

The newly opened Kvadrat New York showroom, designed by Jonathan Olivares. Photography: Daniele Ansidei

New York City’s annual design festival, NYCxDesign, returns with a bang this month and a more diverse and designer-led programme than ever before. Just six months since its last iteration, this 2022 edition of New York Design Week (10 – 20 May) also marks the festival’s tenth anniversary. With open-studio design crawls off the beaten path, a vibrant array of exhibitions and, of course, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) – which again joins forces with WantedDesign Manhattan to take place at the Javits Center – there will be plenty to see all over the city. Here, we break down what’s in store and flag up our most anticipated highlights.

As North America’s leading platform for showcasing contemporary design, ICFF brings a wide array of furniture, lighting, accessories and more, and sees some of our favourite brands, such as Bernhardt Design and Armadillo rugs returning to show this year. To counter its density, the fair brings back ‘Oasis’, a restorative lounge space designed by Float Studio, which debuted last year. Decked out with lounge seating, curtained pods equipped with device-charging capabilities and guided-meditation headphones, this nature-inspired resting point will help revive visitors before they continue on.

15 – 17 May Javits Center, 429 11th Avenue, New York

At WantedDesign Manhattan, emerging designers have always been a focal point. This year is no different, with the signature Launch Pad showcase highlighting the work of 46 emerging designers from around the world – more than twice as many as last year. WantedDesign is also launching a new schools exhibition, this year including Rhode Island School of Design, Rochester Institute of Technology, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Michael Graves College at Kean University, Pratt Institute, and School of Visual Arts.

15 – 17 May Javits Center, 429 11th Avenue, New York

NYCxDesign has become known for its dynamic mix of group exhibitions that pop up all over the city during the festival’s duration. Independently staged and often designer-led, these curated showcases are rife with discovery and inspiration, not least because of their exclusive and often unseen locales.

‘Industrialism’ by Sized

For its first showing in New York, the LA-based curatorial platform Sized takes a deep dive into industrialism to honour its pervading influence on everyday life. Staged in partnership with Urban Zen and spread over two floors, the group exhibition explores how industrial production and collectible design intersect through the work of mostly New York-based artists and designers. Spanning design objects, jewellery, furniture, fine art and even vehicles, the show places materiality and construction front and centre. The show also sees the premiere of a selection of limited-edition pieces, amongst which is a chair (pictured) designed by Patrizio Gola and Guglielmo Giagnotti of Studioutte, in collaboration with Sized founder Alexander May.    19 – 28 May Urban Zen Center, 711 Greenwich Street, New York

‘Intervención/Intersección’ by Masa 

Mexico City’s Masa gallery celebrates its arrival on American shores with its first exhibition of Mexican and Mexico-based artists, architects and designers in New York’s Rockefeller Center. Located within a former federal post office, ‘Intervención/Intersección’ has been curated by the Mexico City-based writer and curator Su Wu and leans into the site’s longstanding history as a place for cultural and intellectual exchange between Mexico and the United States. Featuring work by architect Frida Escobedo, artist Jose Dávila and sculptor Alma Allen amongst many others, the mix of contemporary and historical works celebrates the transcendence of boundaries in every sense of the word.   5 May – 24 June Center Plaza and Rink Level Gallery, 610 Fifth Avenue Conc 1, Rockefeller Center, New York

‘Spotlight One’ by Black Folks in Design

Another in a series of firsts this week, Black Folks in Design, a collective of Black designers across design disciplines and artistic practices, presents its inaugural exhibition at Ace Hotel Brooklyn. The show casts the spotlight on six creatives and spans furniture, screen-printing, interiors and architecture. Ranging from Studio Anansi’s elegant vessels to Luam Melake’s perfectly proportioned chair and Kyle Lee’s vibrant ceramics, the exhibition celebrates a diverse range of aesthetics.   13 May – 29 June Ace Hotel Brooklyn, 252 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn

‘Earthen Luminaries’ at Trnk

Trnk honours craft and tradition with a group exhibition of lighting made from porcelain and ceramics. Featuring an international array of designers, including Marta Bonilla, Yuko Nishikawa, Nicholas Pourfard and Ellen Pong, the works on view reiterate the gentility and softness that artisanal stoneware and ceramics can bring to lighting, in contrast with the industrialised and highly precise specimens more commonly seen in the contemporary LED-geared designs on the market.   12 – 20 May Trnk, 18 Jay Street, New York

‘Hometown’ by Galerie Philia

Occupying a historic, landmarked townhouse in the heart of Chelsea, Galerie Philia’s latest showing combines old-world charm with a sculptural selection of contemporary design. Situated over five floors, the exhibition’s evocative installation invites visitors to imagine what life could be like with pieces by Rick Owens, Pelle, Hagit Pincovici and Luke Malaney – many of which have been specially commissioned to fit the interiors.    21 April – 16 June 483 West 22nd Street, New York

‘Craft in Transition’ by Female Design Council and Carl Hansen & Søn

The work of 12 members of the Female Design Council is on display in a celebration of craftsmanship, process and design at Carl Hansen & Søn. Curated by the council’s founder, Lora Appleton, ‘Craft in Transition’ brings together a contemporary collection of female-created work that showcases colour, innovation and a unique point of view, in a bid to bring women to the forefront of dialogues around design. Setting these forward-thinking works against a backdrop of Danish design classics is purposeful and demonstrates the connection between the considered use of materiality and superior workmanship to withstand time. 

10 – 20 May Carl Hansen & Søn, 251 Park Avenue South, 13th Floor, New York

While group shows are an opportunity to share the love, these solo efforts – from showrooms unveiling new collections to galleries dedicating the stage to the work of one designer – prove that there’s no denying the power of one.  

Kvadrat throws open the doors of its first New York showroom this week, occupying a well-heeled corner of Park Avenue in Manhattan. Designed by Jonathan Olivares, a longtime collaborator of the textile house, Kvadrat’s 8,000 sq ft space is a vision of aluminium, glass and colour. Olivares has imagined the two-storey showroom as a workshop/gallery space. A square catwalk on the second floor offers visitors a unique vantage point of the ground floor gallery, while modular furniture designed by Olivares for Moroso allows pieces to be moved and reconfigured as needs require.

Opens 16 May 475 Park Avenue at 58th Street, New York

‘Vetro Alga’ by Dana Arbib for Tiwa Select

Tiwa Select, the gallery and curatorial platform dedicated to craft, brings the contemporary glasswork of designer Dana Arbib to the fore. In her work, Arbib pays tribute to her Libyan heritage while expressing a romanticised fusion of Jewish, Italian and North African cultures that at one time existed symbiotically in one land. An ode to a distant great uncle, a Libyan migrant who owned a glassblowing furnace in Venice, Arbib’s ‘Vetro Alga’ collection nods to the colours and shapes found in Roman glass and North African relics. Informally placed beside furniture by icons such as Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé, Arbib’s pieces add a new layer to the visual dialogue already happening inside Michael Bargo’s chic gallery space   14 – 18 May Galerie Michael Bargo, 15 Dutch Street, #403, New York

‘Act Four’ by Gabriel Hendifar at Apparatus

Apparatus’ brand of sumptuous elegance is back in full force with the unveiling of its latest collection from the studio’s co-founder and artistic director Gabriel Hendifar. Named ‘Act Four’ and inspired by the cultural developments and technological innovations of the 1960s, the optimistic collection celebrates manmade ingenuity by balancing machined perfection and the human hand. Apparatus’ penthouse showroom is a must-see on any visit, but this new installation heralds a refreshed look that promises to go beyond expectation.   16 – 18 May Apparatus, 124 West 30th Street, 4th Floor, New York

‘Dada’ by Atelier de Troupe

Inspired by Theo van Doesburg’s letterpress book What is Dada? from 1923, Atelier de Troupe’s eponymously named collection echoes a similarly bold sentiment in its new lighting and furniture designs. Presenting pieces at once functional yet surreal, the label has combined statuesque forms with industrial elements to create a chandelier, pendant lamp, sconce, armchair (pictured) and side table that each cut a strong figure.   10 – 20 May Atelier de Troupe Galerie, 19 Mercer Street, New York

‘Loose Parts’ by Nifemi Marcus-Bello for Parts and Whole

The Canadian furniture label Parts and Whole brings its signature selection of sofas to Lichen’s showroom in Ridgewood, Queens. Apart from presenting its flagship collections, Parts and Whole also introduces its new Loose Parts programme, which sees the production of limited-edition pieces in collaboration with a designer. The programme’s first iteration showcases the work of Nifemi Marcus-Bello, and sees his steel ‘LM Stool’ take on an eye-catching, fluorescent yellow tone. Designed in Nigeria and made in Canada, the edition of 40 stools will be available to purchase at Lichen and serves as a case study in decentralised manufacturing, while prompting questions about how production relates to place.    11 – 14 May Lichen, 564 Woodward Avenue, Ridgewood, Queens

‘Kingdom for a Horse’ by Ben & Aja Blanc at The Future Perfect

The husband-and-wife duo Ben and Aja Blanc take the spotlight at The Future Perfect with an impressive array of lighting and objects that combine handcraft techniques with organic forms. In this showcase in particular, the couple exude an added expressiveness with materiality to push the limits of their visual language. Incorporating elements like horsehair, clay, glass and silver, the new objects are bestowed with a painterly and abstract aura that underscores the concept grounding each piece.    5 May – 15 June The Future Perfect, 8 St. Luke’s Place, New York

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