Jacques Jarrige mobiles

While in Paris I spent time with Jacques Jarrige looking at upcoming works which I will be showing in my gallery next year. I will also be showing his found wood mobiles that are stunning.

Jacksons Booth at Modernism

Last Monday I visited Modernism at the Park Avenue Armory.

The exhibition looked very good overall but to me the most attractive booth was Jacksons

Jacksons specializes in the best of Scandinavian and international vintage design 1900 - 2000 with its main focus on Scandinavian classics.  

The collection really stands out, the choice of pieces is coherent and always of great quality.

Jacksons has a gallery in Stockholm and one in Berlin. 

Here are some of the pieces I liked but you can see online the depth of their inventory.

A set of “Poem” chairs by Erik Chamberts from 1953

A 1930’s glass table by Sven Markelius

A 1956 lounge chair by Franco Albini

A gigantic 50’s chandelier by Vilhelm Laurizten

Printed Matter annual art book fair

I visited PS1 this weekend and was amazed by the huge crowd this event draws. It’s great to see so many art books and so many people interested. I didn’t have the time to see everything but didn’t miss Christophe Boutin’s One Star Press booth representing artist Nathan Calder and his bookshelve

One Star Press asks their artists to design a book shelve when their book is published and here is another example from Tobias Rehberger

Other  booths I visited included Parkett Art Magazine

I was also amazed at the number of  books on the punk area  

Opening of Jacques Jarrige Exhibition

The opening was a great event to honor the work of Jacques Jarrige mixing other artists and friends.

The feedback so far is good: the work really stands out at a time when people crave for the handmade tactile and spiritual feel.

I visited on Friday the Kips Bay Show house, a yearly event to support the Boys and Girls Club

and I was once again struck with the amazing energy and talent displayed as a number of interior designers take on a room or area of an Upper East Side multi floor townhouse and turn them into jewels. Incredible attention to details in the floor, wall, design is omnipresent. I especially enjoyed the work of the design firm 2Michaels which I thought relayed very much to the work of Jacques Jarrige.

Read this blog post for detailed information about their exhibit

I also liked a lot the work of Nancy Boszhardt who took over a landing and transformed it into a simple, elegant, soulful and beautiful seating room

More on Nancy’s work

Another favorite was the dressing rooms by Darren Henault

The floors and wall covering were remarkable:

It is easy to feel isolated when working from a loft gallery where street traffic is limited so it felt inspiring to go to this event and connect with these brilliant decorators.

Installing the show part 2

 Jacques Jarrige tables have arrived and we are installing today:

Cloud is a series of cocktail tables with variations of colors and sizes: White lacquer and Anis, White and Coral, Black and Coral.  They work alone or as a group

Osselet (small bones) is a series of 6 hand sculpted stools that are very comfortable in addition to having an irresistible form.  They do look like a tooth

The space is coming alive.  Hanging are the Fiori chandeliers.

We also installed pairs of wall sconces from the Fiori family in brass and in aluminium.

Jacques sent a box of small objects, small sculptures and models of his work. We will display them on the shelves.

Yesterday I received a call from Claire Le Douaron who has been photographing Jacques and his work. I will post more later in the week but this is a great preview

More to come for the opening this Wednesday. 

Installing The Show….

The tension rises:  I am preparing for the opening of the Jacques Jarrige exhibition next week at my gallery http://www.valeriegoodmangallery.com .  Yesterday Michael Branning helped install the giant poster on the walls that is an image of Jacques’s atelier in Paris. It looks very good.  I received some of Jarrige’s  work  but other pieces are stuck in customs so it looks like we will be installing the show at the last minute.  But it’s coming together…

Please join us for the opening reception October 27^th from 6 – 9 pm

Furniture by Robert Daniel Gerard, ada Sam Gerard

I live in Rockland County next to the Lamont laboratory and one of my neighbors, Alice Gerard who recently lost her husband wrote a book about his work and their lives. Alice is an archeologist and an anthropologist. She is also the area’s historian. While visiting her I noticed some beautiful pieces of lighting and furniture and learned that her husband Sam had built them in the 60’s and 70’s.

Alice grew up in Palisades and went back to settle there after her marriage to Sam.  They had met at the university of New Mexico where Sam studied sculpture among other things.  In 1955, after a first job on the Vema , Lamont’s new oceanographic ship which took him on a cruise to the Azores, Casablanca and Portugal Sam started a 37 years career at Lamont Observatory. He worked on a series of scientific projects related to the ocean and invented a number of instruments to further research in that field. He was at sea often on the Vema and other boats, travelling as far as Argentina and Africa.

 In the early 60’s when the old teak decking on the Vema was replaced with steel Sam ended up with a lot of teak which he used to make lamps and tables. A boom was used to anchor the staircase in the house he, his wife and father in law had recently built.

The chandelier is reminiscent of work by Franco Albini for Fontana Arte from the 1960’s.  It is about transparency.  The wall lamp with a ceramic shade by a famous local artist is from the 70’s so are the chair, coffee table and other lamps.

Listening to Santiago Calatrava

Listening to Santiago Calatrava

I was glad to go back to the 92^nd Street Y’s Design Legends series and attend the talk by Santiago Calatrava  interviewed by Paul Goldberger . Read his very good article in the New Yorker 

Santiago Calatrava enthusiastically presented his work starting from his studies of the human body in drawings and sculptures to his architectural and engineering achievements: towers like turning torsos, train stations and hubs with opening roofs, bridges that extend into the skies like arms and theaters that reflect into the water.

Most of his work consists of building infrastructure therefore they are very long term projects and many things can happen along the way:  major crisis, changes etc.  Therefore he reminded me that one needs to strongly believe in its profession to stay in it and make things happen. 

I like a lot his sculptures shown at the Met, and his furniture I have seen like this anthropomorphic table.

Calatrava recently re-settled in New York and worked on set designs for the New York City Ballet. The auditorium at the Y was full and people were excited about his upcoming work in New York and especially at Ground Zero. It felt that the era of heroic works had come back to the city.

Recent Exhibition: Eric Schmitt

Valerie Goodman gallery recently had an exhibition of vases by Eric Schmitt:  “Bohemian Series” featuring  colorful hand blown glass in various combinations and two models with bronze bases that are like large pieces of jewelry

Eric Schmitt is an important French artist who designs classic yet innovative furniture made of durable materials such as bronze and marble. His work was first noted in the US by Suzanne Slesin in a New York Times article.

Since then Eric has been very prolific and is interested in both unique and very limited editions of important pieces and larger editions. He will present a new line of furniture at Ralph Pucci international next May.

 I am presenting some of his latest work and will continue to do so over the next months:

The Celeste table is related in design to the Hill vases

The Rocs Dining table is adaptable in various sizes and finishes

The center table is on display at the Mark Hotel in New York