FOG Design + Art 2023
NILUFAR GALLERY
@FOG Design + Art 2023
Fort Mason Festival Pavilion, San Francisco (US)
2 Marina Blvd Suite 260, San Francisco, CA 94123, United States BOOTH 308
Dates: 19th January — 22nd January 2023
Nilufar Gallery takes part in FOG Design + Art 2023 fair with a showcase that seamlessly blends mid-century with contemporary creations, conceived by some of the most interesting talents from around the globe. Nina Yashar, founder of Nilufar Gallery, has selected pieces from her rich collection that embody the highest form of avant-garde expression, speaking both about yesterday and nowadays design.
“We’ve created an enveloping environment and living space that narrates one of the most interesting facets of nowadays’ design: the dialogue between vintage and contemporary pieces. I am delighted to showcase our collection at FOG Design + Art, an ideal stage that understands and values such connections between far away times” states Yashar.
At FOG Design + Art 2023, Nilufar Gallery exhibits examples of Brazilian design by pioneering talents from the 1950s and 1980s that still today reflect a contemporary feel: Jose Zanine Caldas, with his Bar cabinet, Lina Bo Bardi, with her Pompéia stool designed for the SECS Pompéia in São Paulo, Giancarlo Palanti, with his Two Zig Zag armchairs used for the foyer of the Teatro Cultura Artística in São Paulo and his Tridente armchair, and Joaquim Tenreiro, with his rare “Three legged” low chair. To accompany them, the designs Mod. LT3 extendible floor lamp by Ignazio Gardella, and two collages by Louise Nevelson.
From the contemporary selection, for the first time Nilufar Gallery introduces the avantgardist works by Maximilian Marchesani, the newest addition to the gallery’s portfolio (please find additional information below). In addition, the gallery showcases the eclectic and instantly recognizable visions of Lola Montes Schnabel, with her new clay collection Le Castraure (please find additional information below), Martino Gamper, with a selection from his latest collection “Innesto” and a Nilufar Edition mirror designed in 2020, Osanna Visconti, with a screen designed in 2019, and Bethan Laura Wood, with the Olive and Gherkin mirrors designed in 2019.
Maximilian Marchesani - Unproduced Marchesani’s work explores how industrial processes distort the natural world to shape them into metropolitan natural ecosystems, wishing to find a new balance between the natural and the artificial. Marchesani’s first collection presents in one language a summary of his numerous passions: fascinated by all that can be built, fixed, broken, by scientific matters, physics and the universe, light remains his central attraction as the element that gives life and definition to the world, while remaining not fully comprehended.
‘Matrice’ is a wall lamp composed of a limestone and quartz rosette, onto which three suspended light sources are connected. The glass cannulas that include the LED are coated with the tail hair of a female dog, knotted by hand. The three light elements are powered by small conductors coated in silk, connected to the rosette. 'Matrice' embodies Marchesani’s understanding of light as the primary source of life; in the same way mammals’ umbilical cord feeds the embryo, the conductors power the light sources. On the other hand, his suspension lamp ‘Famiglia’ reflects on the passive and active contamination in contemporary environments. The work is composed of branches of Twisted Hazel (Corylus Avellana Contorta) and parrot feathers (Psittacula Krameri, also known as Ring-necked Parakeet) that Marchesani collected in a Milanese public garden; both represent terrestrial creatures that have been altered by environmental changes. The hazel is originally born with a straight stem that over time curls and knots, and was genetically modified to maintain the same curvatures. The Ring-necked Parakeet is native to the tropical and subtropical areas of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, but it was imported in Europe in the 1970s and has since been destroying the surrounding ecosystems. The branches stand for synonyms of ‘contaminated’, while the feathers for ‘contamination’.
These artistic compositions represent how Marchesani sees the world today: one in which artificial and natural cannot be disassociated. The artificial becomes the skeleton, digested by the raw material while maintaining its technological function and losing its aesthetic one; with the passing of time, the organic matter generates shapes and undergoes corruptions in its growing, by ever-evolving, changing and surprising with results that weren’t originally intended.
Lola Montes Schnabel - Le Castraure In these works, candle-holders made of clay, Schnabel has followed the steps of traditional Sicilian mastery. During the pandemic, the artist found herself in Sicily where she met, learned from and worked alongside master clay artisans and the tradition that still exists. What started as a personal project to occupy the time of isolation, soon became artistic expressions of three dimensional objects. The relationship between mentor and scholar, teacher and student, has always been a key definition in Schnabel’s practice, as passing on knowledge onto generations through the transmission of craft.
When visiting her friend Arrigo Cipriani in Torcello, an island lagoon of Venice, Schnabel was taught about the artichoke cultivation, which she found to be poetic. The vegetable is itself the reflection of a dichotomy: a sweet core but with a sharp outer shield, it narrates an ambivalent love theme. Its “castratura” serves as a metaphor for loving, in giving up parts of oneself while risking to pierce the heart.
With Le Castraure , Schnabel recalls a dancing movement in a solid object, giving them a living and breathing semblance, reflecting a double-sided world made of vulnerability and action. The artist wanted to maintain an element of vitality in the pieces as their material, clay, is itself organic: a living matter that requires a precise and correct combination of alchemy and colours to reach a desired outcome.
ABOUT NILUFAR
Originally located in via Bigli and specializing in antique carpets, Nilufar Gallery moved to via della Spiga and ventured into modern and contemporary design by the late 1990s, exhibiting works by the great mid-century designers alongside unique carpets, cutting-edge furniture designs and pieces by emerging talents. Since the 2000s, Nilufar has hosted experimentations and “cross-contamination” exhibitions, enhancing the Gallery’s reputation as an international reference point for historical and contemporary design lovers. In 2015, Nina Yashar opened Nilufar Depot in a former silverware factory building. A large 1,500 square-meter space spread over three floors and located in via Lancetti (Milan) that is inspired by La Scala Opera House in Milan and that hosts a selection of the extensive Nilufar collection, in a setting where contemporary design harmoniously dialogues with iconic historical design pieces. nilufar.com / @nilufargallery
ABOUT NINA YASHAR Gallerist, collector, patron, undoubtedly one of the most prominent pioneering taste-makers in the world of contemporary design, Nina Yashar is the founder of Nilufar Gallery. Born in Tehran in 1957, Yashar relocated to Milan where her father became a leading merchant of Persian carpets and precious textiles. Yashar started her career working alongside him, until she opened her own business at 21 years old. At first, she dealt in antique and 19th-century French carpets, to later discover a strong magnetism towards historical design masterpieces and contemporary trailblazers. In over forty years of career, Yashar has forged an unparalleled baggage of projects, exhibitions, furnishings, talent discoveries that have changed the face of collectible design. Her signature taste is a unique blend of seemingly distant worlds: Crossing is in fact the title of one of her first catalogues, today a must-have guide for many around the world.
ABOUT MAXIMILIAN MARCHESANI
Marchesani started to work at 15 years old as a cook helper in his village and in Switzerland; he then continued to work and study gastronomy. In 2009 at 21 years old he moved to Berlin where he worked in some of the city’s best restaurants. His curiosity and passion for creativity was too strong, so he returned to Italy to study design. He moved to Milan, and after 3 merit-based scholarships he graduated in 2013 at IED (Istituto Europeo di Design). After 6 months of internships he is now working as an R&D project manager and Product Engineer for LUCEPLAN. Marchesani’s first exhibition was in 2022 at Alcova Milan.
ABOUT LOLA MONTES SCHNABEL
Lola Montes (b. 1981, New York, NY; lives and works in Sicily, IT) received a BFA from The
Cooper Union School in 2008. She has exhibited at Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Vito Schnabel Gallery, New York, NY; Tripoli Gallery, Wainscott, NY; Goodroom, Munich, DE; Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ; Zuecca Projects, Venice, Italy; Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center, Athens, Greece; and the Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany; among others. In addition to her painting and sculpture practice, Montes is a film maker and designer.
ABOUT FOG Design + Art
Celebrating today’s most significant creatives and leading contributors to the worlds of design and visual arts, the fair assembles 45 leading international galleries; prominent 20th-century and contemporary design dealers; a weekend of exciting programs; and 21POP, a special installation created by Stanlee Gatti. FOG has become a focal point for the design and arts communities on the West Coast and further afield. The fair is synonymous with a uniquely pioneering spirit due to its bold hybrid approach and intimate presentation of art and design, dynamic programming on-site and its community-led mission to champion art and design in its historic Fort Mason setting. Building on FOG’s longstanding commitment to cultural institutions, the fair’s Preview Gala is honored to continue its crucial support of SFMOMA’s exhibitions and education programs. FOG represents a key moment in which the local and global community congregate to engage in critical dialogue, artistic exchanges, and a shared passion for creative pursuits. fogfair.com/ / @fogfair
@FOG Design + Art 2023
Fort Mason Festival Pavilion, San Francisco (US)
2 Marina Blvd Suite 260, San Francisco, CA 94123, United States BOOTH 308
Dates: 19th January — 22nd January 2023
Nilufar Gallery takes part in FOG Design + Art 2023 fair with a showcase that seamlessly blends mid-century with contemporary creations, conceived by some of the most interesting talents from around the globe. Nina Yashar, founder of Nilufar Gallery, has selected pieces from her rich collection that embody the highest form of avant-garde expression, speaking both about yesterday and nowadays design.
“We’ve created an enveloping environment and living space that narrates one of the most interesting facets of nowadays’ design: the dialogue between vintage and contemporary pieces. I am delighted to showcase our collection at FOG Design + Art, an ideal stage that understands and values such connections between far away times” states Yashar.
At FOG Design + Art 2023, Nilufar Gallery exhibits examples of Brazilian design by pioneering talents from the 1950s and 1980s that still today reflect a contemporary feel: Jose Zanine Caldas, with his Bar cabinet, Lina Bo Bardi, with her Pompéia stool designed for the SECS Pompéia in São Paulo, Giancarlo Palanti, with his Two Zig Zag armchairs used for the foyer of the Teatro Cultura Artística in São Paulo and his Tridente armchair, and Joaquim Tenreiro, with his rare “Three legged” low chair. To accompany them, the designs Mod. LT3 extendible floor lamp by Ignazio Gardella, and two collages by Louise Nevelson.
From the contemporary selection, for the first time Nilufar Gallery introduces the avantgardist works by Maximilian Marchesani, the newest addition to the gallery’s portfolio (please find additional information below). In addition, the gallery showcases the eclectic and instantly recognizable visions of Lola Montes Schnabel, with her new clay collection Le Castraure (please find additional information below), Martino Gamper, with a selection from his latest collection “Innesto” and a Nilufar Edition mirror designed in 2020, Osanna Visconti, with a screen designed in 2019, and Bethan Laura Wood, with the Olive and Gherkin mirrors designed in 2019.
Maximilian Marchesani - Unproduced Marchesani’s work explores how industrial processes distort the natural world to shape them into metropolitan natural ecosystems, wishing to find a new balance between the natural and the artificial. Marchesani’s first collection presents in one language a summary of his numerous passions: fascinated by all that can be built, fixed, broken, by scientific matters, physics and the universe, light remains his central attraction as the element that gives life and definition to the world, while remaining not fully comprehended.
‘Matrice’ is a wall lamp composed of a limestone and quartz rosette, onto which three suspended light sources are connected. The glass cannulas that include the LED are coated with the tail hair of a female dog, knotted by hand. The three light elements are powered by small conductors coated in silk, connected to the rosette. 'Matrice' embodies Marchesani’s understanding of light as the primary source of life; in the same way mammals’ umbilical cord feeds the embryo, the conductors power the light sources. On the other hand, his suspension lamp ‘Famiglia’ reflects on the passive and active contamination in contemporary environments. The work is composed of branches of Twisted Hazel (Corylus Avellana Contorta) and parrot feathers (Psittacula Krameri, also known as Ring-necked Parakeet) that Marchesani collected in a Milanese public garden; both represent terrestrial creatures that have been altered by environmental changes. The hazel is originally born with a straight stem that over time curls and knots, and was genetically modified to maintain the same curvatures. The Ring-necked Parakeet is native to the tropical and subtropical areas of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, but it was imported in Europe in the 1970s and has since been destroying the surrounding ecosystems. The branches stand for synonyms of ‘contaminated’, while the feathers for ‘contamination’.
These artistic compositions represent how Marchesani sees the world today: one in which artificial and natural cannot be disassociated. The artificial becomes the skeleton, digested by the raw material while maintaining its technological function and losing its aesthetic one; with the passing of time, the organic matter generates shapes and undergoes corruptions in its growing, by ever-evolving, changing and surprising with results that weren’t originally intended.
Lola Montes Schnabel - Le Castraure In these works, candle-holders made of clay, Schnabel has followed the steps of traditional Sicilian mastery. During the pandemic, the artist found herself in Sicily where she met, learned from and worked alongside master clay artisans and the tradition that still exists. What started as a personal project to occupy the time of isolation, soon became artistic expressions of three dimensional objects. The relationship between mentor and scholar, teacher and student, has always been a key definition in Schnabel’s practice, as passing on knowledge onto generations through the transmission of craft.
When visiting her friend Arrigo Cipriani in Torcello, an island lagoon of Venice, Schnabel was taught about the artichoke cultivation, which she found to be poetic. The vegetable is itself the reflection of a dichotomy: a sweet core but with a sharp outer shield, it narrates an ambivalent love theme. Its “castratura” serves as a metaphor for loving, in giving up parts of oneself while risking to pierce the heart.
With Le Castraure , Schnabel recalls a dancing movement in a solid object, giving them a living and breathing semblance, reflecting a double-sided world made of vulnerability and action. The artist wanted to maintain an element of vitality in the pieces as their material, clay, is itself organic: a living matter that requires a precise and correct combination of alchemy and colours to reach a desired outcome.
ABOUT NILUFAR
Originally located in via Bigli and specializing in antique carpets, Nilufar Gallery moved to via della Spiga and ventured into modern and contemporary design by the late 1990s, exhibiting works by the great mid-century designers alongside unique carpets, cutting-edge furniture designs and pieces by emerging talents. Since the 2000s, Nilufar has hosted experimentations and “cross-contamination” exhibitions, enhancing the Gallery’s reputation as an international reference point for historical and contemporary design lovers. In 2015, Nina Yashar opened Nilufar Depot in a former silverware factory building. A large 1,500 square-meter space spread over three floors and located in via Lancetti (Milan) that is inspired by La Scala Opera House in Milan and that hosts a selection of the extensive Nilufar collection, in a setting where contemporary design harmoniously dialogues with iconic historical design pieces. nilufar.com / @nilufargallery
ABOUT NINA YASHAR Gallerist, collector, patron, undoubtedly one of the most prominent pioneering taste-makers in the world of contemporary design, Nina Yashar is the founder of Nilufar Gallery. Born in Tehran in 1957, Yashar relocated to Milan where her father became a leading merchant of Persian carpets and precious textiles. Yashar started her career working alongside him, until she opened her own business at 21 years old. At first, she dealt in antique and 19th-century French carpets, to later discover a strong magnetism towards historical design masterpieces and contemporary trailblazers. In over forty years of career, Yashar has forged an unparalleled baggage of projects, exhibitions, furnishings, talent discoveries that have changed the face of collectible design. Her signature taste is a unique blend of seemingly distant worlds: Crossing is in fact the title of one of her first catalogues, today a must-have guide for many around the world.
ABOUT MAXIMILIAN MARCHESANI
Marchesani started to work at 15 years old as a cook helper in his village and in Switzerland; he then continued to work and study gastronomy. In 2009 at 21 years old he moved to Berlin where he worked in some of the city’s best restaurants. His curiosity and passion for creativity was too strong, so he returned to Italy to study design. He moved to Milan, and after 3 merit-based scholarships he graduated in 2013 at IED (Istituto Europeo di Design). After 6 months of internships he is now working as an R&D project manager and Product Engineer for LUCEPLAN. Marchesani’s first exhibition was in 2022 at Alcova Milan.
ABOUT LOLA MONTES SCHNABEL
Lola Montes (b. 1981, New York, NY; lives and works in Sicily, IT) received a BFA from The
Cooper Union School in 2008. She has exhibited at Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Vito Schnabel Gallery, New York, NY; Tripoli Gallery, Wainscott, NY; Goodroom, Munich, DE; Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ; Zuecca Projects, Venice, Italy; Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center, Athens, Greece; and the Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany; among others. In addition to her painting and sculpture practice, Montes is a film maker and designer.
ABOUT FOG Design + Art
Celebrating today’s most significant creatives and leading contributors to the worlds of design and visual arts, the fair assembles 45 leading international galleries; prominent 20th-century and contemporary design dealers; a weekend of exciting programs; and 21POP, a special installation created by Stanlee Gatti. FOG has become a focal point for the design and arts communities on the West Coast and further afield. The fair is synonymous with a uniquely pioneering spirit due to its bold hybrid approach and intimate presentation of art and design, dynamic programming on-site and its community-led mission to champion art and design in its historic Fort Mason setting. Building on FOG’s longstanding commitment to cultural institutions, the fair’s Preview Gala is honored to continue its crucial support of SFMOMA’s exhibitions and education programs. FOG represents a key moment in which the local and global community congregate to engage in critical dialogue, artistic exchanges, and a shared passion for creative pursuits. fogfair.com/ / @fogfair
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