Verso ‘Palma & Bravo, Contemporary Dialogues Between Brazil & Chile’
Verso unveiled its first-ever temporary gallery that showcased works by Palma & Bravo. The show explored how two studios merge traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge design techniques, with innovative pieces that reflect the unique cultural identities and use of materials of Brazil and Chile.
The showcase centred on Palma's second furniture collection, Bingo, and Bravo's Trama collection, a radically simple storage system rooted in technical and constructive arguments from the metal series developed by Donald Judd.
Verso ‘Palma & Bravo. Photo by Jonathan Hokko.
Trama by Rodrigo Bravo. Photo by Jonathan Hokko.
Interni Venosta
A new made-to-order furniture brand by Dimorestudio founders Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci, Interni Venosta launched with a captivating installation inside Gipsoteca Fumagalli e Dossi – a local plaster workshop on the edge of Brera. Made by Tuscan master craftsmen from Fabbri Services, the collection is a nod to Carla Venosta’s industrial design work, which is synonymous with Milan’s high society in the 1980s.
Interni Venosta at Gipsoteca Fumagalli e Dossi. Photo by Marco Guastalla
Rooms Studio ‘Bedroom’
At SIAM Art School, Tbilisi-based Rooms Studio unveiled the Bedroom collection, which was born out of a frustration with sourcing beds for their interior design projects.
Each bed in the collection is the centrepiece of six distinct interiors, ranging from a private residence to a hotel. The design process was much like curating beds for a hotel or a house imbued with character and narrative.
‘Bedrooms are essential spaces in our daily lives, serving as intimate sanctuaries where we begin and end each day. They are deeply personal rooms that carry the elements of our inner worlds. The exhibition is curated with a touch of surrealism, featuring our beds arranged in a circular display in a single bedroom. This presentation evokes a sense of dreamy, surreal space – a gateway from everyday life into a place within.’
Rooms Studio
Rooms Beds. Photo by Levan Maisuradze and Lile Revishvili.
Kaia ‘The Empyrean’
The British/German lighting company Kaia unveiled ‘The Empyrean’, a collection created in collaboration with GSL Works (The Guild of Saint Luke), the collective founded and directed by renowned British designer John Whelan. Presented in an immersive installation at Galleria Rubin, this new collection embodies the shared commitment of both partners to pioneering craftsmanship and design. The Empyrean offered a singular interpretation of lighting's evocative and spiritual essence, fusing literal and abstract elements in a contemporary expression that draws inspiration from Art Deco and sacred geometry.
The Empyrean by Kaia. Photo by Oskar Proctor.
Formafantasma ‘La Casa Dentro’
Presented at ICA Milano, Formafantasma’s solo show ‘La Casa Dentro’ (The Home Within) explores concepts of nostalgia and queer identity. Curated by Alberto Salvadori, the exhibition constructs a delicate reflection focused on the idea of the home, explored as a physical space and as a complex set of human relationships and themes linked to personal identity and collective memory.
The exhibition's title refers to a reflective vision of the domestic environment, where psychological and emotional nuances intersect. Starting from memories of their childhood homes, replete with decorative elements and handmade objects, Formafantasma questioned the critical reading of the ideological dogmas inherited from Modernism, where the rational was favoured over ornamental.
Formafantasma ‘La Casa Dentro’. Photo courtesy of Formafantasma.
Unno Gallery ‘Origen’
‘A journey to the root of existence’, Unno Gallery’s collective exhibition showcased the artworks of Latin American artists and designers Mark Grattan, Estudio Persona, Habitacion 116 and Andrea Vargas Dieppa. Named ‘Origen’, the group show delved into the very foundation of time and space, drawing from ancient myths and tales that have shaped humanity's unique and mysterious origins.
The exhibition statement speaks to the idea of all of us being one – each of us, a part that has created a whole since the creation of the universe. Universal geometry, patterns, memories, and different lives touched by a million alternate experiences bring a piece of design into the tangible world, creating a composition, our Beginning, and the Origen exhibition.
‘This is a very personal connection that we have with design and art; everything is connected through a thread that creates the symphony of the esthetic poetry we find in the exhibited works. This year, we brought together four artists from four countries that unite Latin America as its own universe through their investigation, cultural and personal portraits, and unique use of local materials. Each has a very particular way of portraying their Origen. At the same time, they have a synergy that ties them to our Beginning, the combined essence of our individual efforts acting as our mirror.’
Maria Dolores Uribe and Laura Abe Vettoretti, founders of Unno Gallery
Fold Collection by Estudio Persona.