Diversity is the main feature of this popular annual show. Visitors can, as usual, expect a wide range of styles and prices and an ingenious array of different techniques, with plenty of cutting-edge and quirky pieces by established and up-and-coming names, all of which makes it just the place to search out a striking piece to use or wear.
Furniture, for example, includes pieces in wood such as Alison Crowther’s mollusc outdoor seating carved from chiselled chunks of oak; metal, including London-based Danish designer Mathias Bengtsson’s pieces produced using computer-generated laser-cutting techniques, and fibreglass, as in Aldo Bakker’s curvaceously modelled chairs. Even paper is pressed into service. Viennese artist Dejana Kabiljo is featuring a series of tables made from hundreds of leaves of paper that double up as giant doodle pads.
Running alongside the Contemporary Decorative Arts display is a complementary selling exhibition, Waste to Taste. Curator Janice Blackburn asked 12 artists to design high quality works from recycled materials that are unique and beautiful with an element of flair and wit. The result includes Deborah Thomas’s baroque chandeliers made from old glass bottles, Nicolas Coutts’ furniture created from shredded banknotes and Miguel Gonzalez’ lamps made from discarded items found in his native Barcelona.
Pressing paper into service
Contemporary Decorative Arts, Sotheby’s annual showcase for new craft and design, gets underway for its seventh successive showing next month. For a week from February 13-21, the Bond Street rooms will be given over to the latest in furniture, lighting, ceramics, jewellery, glass, silver and textiles by over 50 designers from round the world, all for sale.
