Friedman Benda
Collective Design 2016

New York, NY – (March 8, 2016) Expanding on the theme of Crosscurrents, Friedman Benda’s presentation at Collective Design will feature work by seven designers, spanning five continents and three generations. A dialogue among practices emphasizes the rich diversity and backgrounds of the exhibiting designers, while calling attention to the breadth and depth of the gallery’s program.

nendo, the international award winning, Tokyo-based design group, founded by Oki Sato (Canadian/Japanese b.1977), has been chosen by Collective Design to be the 2016 Collective Influence, an annual presentation within the fair that highlights the exceptional work and career-long impact of a single designer. For this, nendo has designed a new series, Trace cabinets and lighting that will be installed along an 85-foot wall at the entrance to the fair. Following Collective Design, nendo will have a solo exhibition at Design Museum Holon, Israel, in June.

Andrea Branzi, (Italian, b. 1938)
Renowned internationally for his role in Italian Radical Architecture since the 1960s, Andrea Branzi will present three new floor lamps. Concurrently, he will have a solo exhibition of his new Plank series, at the gallery, May 5 – June 11, 2016. Branzi was recently honored with a 50-year retrospective at Musée des arts décoratifs, Bordeaux in 2014-2015, and will be honored again, with a solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 2017.

Campana Brothers Fernando (Brazilian, b.1961) and Humberto (Brazilian, b.1953)
Achieving both national and international recognition since opening Estudio Campana in São Paolo in 1983, the Campana Brothers are constantly exploring new materials and investigating new points of view in contemporary design. Represented in museum collections internationally, the Campana Brothers will present a continuation of the Bolotas series, with its lush volumes of shearling, along with, a new table in the Ofidia series created from free form ropes, cast in bronze.

Paul Cocksedge (British, b. 1978)
Winner of Wallpaper Magazines’ 2016 design award for his Freeze desk, Cocksedge will present a lighting installation comprised of stainless steel sconces. Now in a domestic scale, this work picks up from Bourrasque, an acrylic work originally commissioned by the city of Lyon for it’s annual festival of lights, with a current site-specific installation at the D Museum in Seoul. Made with thin sheet metal that has undergone minimal alterations to its basic form, these gently curved sconces emphasize restraint and invoke a sense of beginning. Its essential principle is to achieve the most of the least, making it a sensitive exercise in lightness and equilibrium.

gt2P (Great Things to People, Chilean, founded 2009)
A design practice based in Santiago, Chile, promoting digital crafting with the richness of traditional techniques and driven by their Chilean cultural heritage, gt2P have taken their Marble vs. Bronze series to a larger scale with an elegant conference table. Formed from two disparate materials that collaborate to form the structure of the furniture, this series embodies materials that signify both transcendence and tradition.

Andile Dyalvane (South African, b. 1978)
South African ceramist Dyalvane’s scarified surfaces, rooted in his South African Xhosa culture, reflect an ancient tradition of body scarification still practiced today. His work serves as a voice for local traditions, motifs, and craft techniques, but he is an artist with great scope and ambition beyond his own borders. Our presentation of Dyalvane’s objects will preview his first NY solo exhibition at Friedman Benda Camagu opening June 23.

Misha Kahn (American, b. 1989)
On the heels of a solo exhibition at the gallery, Kahn will present a new limited edition console and stools in cast aluminum. At 27, he demonstrates a broad range of creativity. From collaborating on a fine art installation at the Whitney Biennial in 2014, to creating complete gallery and fair installations, and more recently collaborating on a set design for an Italian opera in New York, Kahn is an explosive talent.

Marcel Wanders (Dutch, b. 1963)
Wanders, who just presented his first solo gallery exhibition in New York, has been the subject of three major solo museum exhibitions and is ubiquitous with over 1700+ projects to his name. His large abstract figural mirror, Dysmorphophobia 2, with carved details and cutouts, creates an illusion of a character or ghostly figure, while Self 2, a steel cabinet and kinetic piece, balances a sculptural ovoid form that abstracts a human head and physically rocks on the top surface.