Landmark Penthouse, New York, location of the Galerie Gabriel et Guillaume showcase. Photo Robert Granoff
Launching for the first time in New York tomorrow, Galerie Gabriel et Guillame will showcase rare pieces from Brazil, France, Italy, and Lebanon. The Lebanese-French duo Nancy Gabriel and Guillaume Excoffier debut with a unique neo-baroque design language that has since become synonymous with luxury continental contemporary interior and furniture design. Ahead of the showcase, they offer Vogue Arabia a first, up-close look at some must-have pieces to be cherished for a lifetime and beyond.
Elizabeth Garouste & Mattia Bonetti – Cabinet Argenté
ELIZABETH GAROUSTE & MATTIA BONETTI
“CABINET ARGENTÉ”
From the house of Marithéand François Girbaud, New York, edited by Neotu Silvered metal, bronze
W 27.56IN D 14.57IN H 56.3IN
W 70CM D 37CM H 143CM
France, 1992
US$48 000
“After months of research we managed to find out documentation proving that this cabinet comes from the extravagant house in Hudson, NY, which Marithé and François Girbaud, the then hugely successful fashion designers, had furnished only in contemporary design from the likes of Garouste & Bonetti, Martin Szekely, Olivier Gagnère…”
José Zanine Caldas – Denuncia Table
JOSÉ ZANINE CALDAS
“Denucia” table
Vinhatico wood | Glass top
48 X 39 X H 31 IN. | Glass top (diameter) 60 IN.
123 X 100 X H 80 CM | Glass top (diameter) 152 CM
Brazil, circa 1980
US$220 000
“José Zanine Caldas’ work in the last decades of his life is exceptional not only because of its sheer sculptural beauty but also because of its inclusion in contemporary concerns of sustainability. His “protest” furniture (“denuncia” in Portuguese) is indeed made of recycled wood, salvaged from destroyed forests next to his home in Brazil, thus highlighting three decades in advance, concerns, which have become paramount in the 21st century. Moreover, we worked for months on getting all three children of Zanine Caldas to sign the certificate of authenticity–something they had never done before!”
Mariagrroup + spockdesign – Gravitation Chandelier
MARIA GROUP + SPOCKDESIGN
“Gravitation” chandelier washi
Paper | Steel | Light diameter : 75 IN.
Diameter : 190 CM
Limited Edition of 8 + 4 AP
Lebanon, 2019
US$68 000
“As the force that gives shape to most large scale structures of our universe, gravity is depicted by the movement of light around a dark center, the deformation of the fibrous paper around an abstract void. The Chandelier is a genuine craft masterpiece as it is made of 600 sheets of washi paper and requires seven people to fold it by hand.”
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Maria Pergay – Pair of Sconces
MARIA PERGAY
Pair of Sconces
Stainless steel, bronze
France, circa 1975
US$68 000
“The most prominent and widely-known works designer, Maria Pergay, having exploded onto a male-dominated design scene in the 1970s with her pioneering stainless steel furniture. ‘Stainless steel does not forgive,’ says Pergay of her material of choice. ‘It has authority, and it helps me not to make errors. But it also shines and glows; it hints at greater things.’Today, her works are held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. We bought these exceptional sconces in an apartment in the west of Paris, whose fabulous decor by Maison Jansen had been kept intact since the 1970s – the Maria Pergay sconces were in the dining room, alongside pieces from Gabriella Crespi and Jacques Duval-Brasseur.”
Ranya Sarakbi & Niko Koronis – NRT II
RANYA SARAKBI & NIKO KORONIS
NRS II Side Table
Limited Edition of 12 + 2 AP
Bronze
DIAM 17.3 IN. – H 21.6 IN. DIAM 44 CM – H 55 CM
ITALY, 2019
US$24 000
“This piece is really where collectible design meets sculpture. The shape, its intriguing balance, and the beauty of the bronze are undoubtedly reminiscent of Brancusi sculpture.”
George Mohasseb – Erosion bookshelf
GEORGE MOHASSEB
“Erosion” Bookshelves
Limited Edition of 12 + 2 AP Plaster Hemp | Water-based resin
31 X 31 X 83 IN.
80 X 80 X H 210 CM
LEBANON, 2019
US$26 000
“The unique bookshelf made of plaster, hemp fiber, and water is inspired from the force of nature carving out the shape through a solid volume. It is like a link between past and present. There is something extremely contemporary about the totemic shape, yet the use of ancestral techniques, are able the generate the organic shape and the poetry around it.”
Galerie Gabriel et Guillaume Exhibit presented by frenchCalifornia at Steinway Penthouse, 111 West 57th Street, New York, until January 31
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