Melting, Jeweled, Chiseled Glass in July’s Design Shows

Photo-Illustration: Curbed; Photos: Courtesy Artists

It’s the summer of glass experimentation: melting at Najla El Zein’s solo Friedman Benda show, reinvented five ways by an all-Nordic lineup at gallery HB381, and embedded with gemstone shards at a Todd Merrill installation inside Bergdorf Goodman. For anyone leaving town, the fifth Upstate Art Weekend starts July 18 and six prominent NYC galleries have banded together to open the Campus, one mega-art space inside a mid-century abandoned school two-and-a-half hours outside the city.

Najla El Zein at Friedman Benda

From left: Lovers Bench, by Najla El Zein. Photo: Courtesy Friedman BendaEnsemble No. 40 Photo: Courtesy Friedman Benda

From top: Lovers Bench, by Najla El Zein. Photo: Courtesy Friedman BendaEnsemble No. 40 Photo: Courtesy Friedman Benda

In Lebanese French designer Najla El Zein’s second solo show with Friedman Benda, stone and ceramic melt like butter; glass is stacked like crystal Jenga and thaws like ice cubes in the sun. For her show “Opacity, transparency, and everything in between,” El Zein mostly ventures away from stone to glass, but there are a few striking pieces rendered in the former, like the Ceppo stone Lovers Bench, which wraps two volumes around each other. In her glass ensemble sculptures, many parts make a whole. You can see the most monumental of her work in Qatar where, in 2022, El Zein created a hand-carved limestone sculptural bench that sprawls over 1,000 feet in the city’s museum district. Closes August 10.

An All-Glass Show at HB381

From left: Front row by Stine Bidstrup. Back row by Hanna Hansdotter Photo: Courtesy Helmi KorhonenBirth of Cold, by Maria Koshenkova. Photo: Clare Gatto

From top: Front row by Stine Bidstrup. Back row by Hanna Hansdotter Photo: Courtesy Helmi KorhonenBirth of Cold, by Maria Koshenkova. Photo: Clare Gat... more From top: Front row by Stine Bidstrup. Back row by Hanna Hansdotter Photo: Courtesy Helmi KorhonenBirth of Cold, by Maria Koshenkova. Photo: Clare Gatto

In Tribeca, a show of five contemporary artists is entirely dedicated to glass. From the duo behind long-standing gallery Hostler Burrows, HB381, a Northern European–focussed ceramics and sculpture gallery, presents “Summer Group Show,” which consists of an all-female, all-Nordic ensemble. Lene Bødker’s molded and hand-chiseled amber objects appear lit from within. “I don’t think glass likes to be looked through; we think by seeing through it we know it,” she once told The Butter. Metallic, bottled, bubbling, and oozing, the works of Sweden’s Hanna Hansdotter are small, bulging towers of mirrored color, while Maria Koshenkova’s blown creature-sculptures have a slightly menacing but alluring alien quality. Closes August 16.

Ghosts of the Mundane

From left: Fabric Chairs by Liz Collins x Crina Arghirescu Rogard Photo: Chris MottaliniTable by Mr. Liz Hopkins, Rubber Chair by Rich Aybar, Hanging Silk by Mr. Liz Hopkins Photo: Sheena Kim/Unique Lapin Photography

From top: Fabric Chairs by Liz Collins x Crina Arghirescu Rogard Photo: Chris MottaliniTable by Mr. Liz Hopkins, Rubber Chair by Rich Aybar, Hanging S... more From top: Fabric Chairs by Liz Collins x Crina Arghirescu Rogard Photo: Chris MottaliniTable by Mr. Liz Hopkins, Rubber Chair by Rich Aybar, Hanging Silk by Mr. Liz Hopkins Photo: Sheena Kim/Unique Lapin Photography

This group show at NKGAnnex is New York–based architect Crina Arghirescu Rogard’s curatorial debut and includes 18 designers working with almost every material. Aaron Young’s nostalgia-loaded tire swing hangs from a 24-karat-gold chain, and a suspended multi-orb lamp by Rich Aybar glows in the company of works by artist Mr. Liz Hopkins in a wide range of mediums: silky pink hand-loomed Fat Curtains, a black lacquered fiber-glass table, an earthy beehive-looking leaning light, and others I will leave for you to discover. Closes July 25.

Todd Merrill at Bergdorf Goodman

From left: Photo: Courtesy Todd MerrillPhoto: Courtesy Todd Merrill

From top: Photo: Courtesy Todd MerrillPhoto: Courtesy Todd Merrill

Longtime backer of artist-made furniture, Todd Merrill Studio has installed a glowing arcade of vases and objects that mesh with the store’s more-is-more aesthetic. In a small but packed alcove, wall-to-wall cases display Christopher Russell’s retro painted almost-Cubist ceramics and Maarten Vrolijk’s vessels, which look like they’re embedded with shards of gemstones. A glass chandelier by Jamie Harris is a space-age artifact in a sunset gradient. There are also resin stools by Draga and Aurel, cool steel cylinder bases with light-absorbing lollipop tops. The overall effect of the installation is like being inside a futurist Fabergé egg.

Upstate Art Happenings

Installation view, work by Rebecca Morris and Manfred Pernice on view at The Campus, Claverack, New York. Photo: Courtesy of the artists, Bortolami and Anton Kern. Photo by Yael Eban and Matthew Gamber.

Upstate Art Weekend (UPAW) returns to the Hudson Valley and Catskills Mountains for the fifth year with 145 participants across 11 counties — it originally began with just 23 (navigate through their Google Map). Those more interested in design can tour the workshop of creative-manufacturing giant UAP; Richard Serra and Louise Bourgeois are among its past collaborators. And not unlike UPAW participant Jack Shainman Gallery’s the School, in Kinderhook, the Campus in Claverack marks another deviation from the white cube. It’s a six-gallery takeover of an abandoned mid-century high school by major art-world figures: Bortolami, James Cohan, Kaufmann Repetto, Anton Kern, Andrew Kreps, and Kurimanzutto, where you can find Manfred Pernice’s painted particle-board table-sculptures and much more. Upstate Art Weekend is July 18–21.
The Campus closes October 27.