My platform for contemporary design is back. In February we saw the first exhibition since the pandemic. Here is what happened at Designgalleriet.
Designgalleriet is my space for contemporary design. Opened in 2008 and now in 2022 we had an opportunity to do a design exhibition.
Spring 2021 I had coffee with the two designers who made the objects, and almost a year later we could present this exhibition called Raw Industry. The process from start to finish is almost always a year.
As always, we divide our responsibilities and it is my job to find a space, give it a relevance, curate it and handle the communicative side of things.
The designers in this exhibition are David Ericsson and Daniel Enoksson. Both are talented, fairly young designers. Ericsson was awarded Designer of the Year this winter. Both are classical furniture designers and this is the first time they did a collaboration. It is kind of a covid project. Sitting at home, the two designers were a bit bored or wanted a challange so they got a scholarship to work together. They decided the wanted to do something in a material neither of them had any experience in – hence glass.
The granted money from the scholarship was to explore if we in Sweden could make furniture pieces in glass, as is more common in for instance Italy or Germany.
In the framwork of the project the designers decided they wanted to make classical furniture pieces like tables and stools. And in cast glass.
One of my tasks was to find a space. I had been to this beautiful building. This is the previous head quarter of Stockholm Gas (later Stockholm Water). Now a coworking space with United Spaces.
Nice, large windows to the street. And I really liked the idea of having a gallery setting at a coworking space. Plenty of people passing through.
The exhibition had two areas. The main introduction at the ground floor and and level with more details on first floor. Here also Linnea from Astrid Textiles. The extra curtains added to the room experience.
Daniel and David setting things up.
Tables in different colours and sizes. The bottom section is mouth blown and the top is casted. The designers tried various colours. Starting with the purple. The whole concept is of course also a “trial and error” to see what worked. Some colours simply didn’t work. In total we could see purple, yellow, blue and clear tables.
The designers also made stools.
As mentioned, on the upper level you could see the process of the production. Various kinds of molds and pictures of the production. Everything was produced at Målerås.
The exhibition was open for two weeks (now closed) and a huge success. Lots of people coming by to look, touch, feel and talk.
Two designer and a gallerist… Daniel Enoksson to the left, David Ericsson in the middle.
And where do we go from here? The designers are continuing doing furniture. They own the glass molds so basically they could start producing these tables but their main carreer is in ordinary furniture design. Personally I got lots of energy from this and plan to do more design exhibitions.
Finally, just amazing pictures with these objects. Stylish and nice room settings. Photographer is Andy Liffner.