Piet Hein Eek & Veronese

The Future Perfect New York’s first exhibition in 2018 is for Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek, whose new furniture work will accompany pieces from his groundbreaking lighting collaboration with iconic Murano glass manufacturer Veronese. Newly commissioned furniture from Eek is on view, as well as a one-of-a-kind historical work that Piet created in collaboration with his wife, Jeanine Eek Keizer. Collectively, the show advances Eek’s fidelity to the materials at hand and demonstrates his dexterous approach to design.

The exhibition’s lighting component is the product of a synergistic collaboration. Veronese, the famed Murano glass manufacturer, founded in 1931, possesses a decades-old archive overflowing with colorful replacement pieces reserved for their magnificent chandeliers and design projects. Eek, with his transformative handcrafted furniture, created primarily from discarded and leftover materials, caught the eye of the company’s creative director Ruben Jochimek.

With its convergence of classic materiality and innovation, the forward thinking collaboration was inspired by Meccano, the modular children’s construction system. Many of the designs involve moving parts that can be reconfigured to create custom chandeliers and lighting installations. Underlying this ingenuity is the fact that each piece consists of glass pieces handpicked by Eek from the Veronese house’s expansive archive.

In addition to lighting, Eek presents a series of new standout furniture pieces which represent an elevation of the Dutch designer’s archetypal process. The new wood tile series, which includes a commode, desk and several pieces of cabinetry, utilizes the designer’s signature scrap wood, whilst elevating it with precise and rigorous craftsmanship. The new pieces utilize a diverse material palette - including glass, wood and vintage hardware - that imbues each piece with a feeling of patinated eclecticism. Each one-of-a-kind and perfectly scaled, it’s a collection that perfectly encapsulates the artist’s unique point of view.