Salon Art + Design Returns to New York for Its 10th Year

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Salon Art + Design is celebrating its 10th year with a return to the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan at its usual time in the fall. 

The fair, which is produced by
Sanford L. Smith
+ Associates and runs from Nov. 11-15, features a range of material “from the beginning of the 20th century to yesterday,” says
Jill Bokor,
executive director.  

The goal of the fair’s exhibiting galleries is to create “immersive” booths that blend objects the dealers work with into inviting environments, rather than putting things on pedestals, she says. 

Bokor views this 10th year of Salon as a “double celebration,” because “a lot of fairs don’t last for 10 years,” and because it’s actually taking place in person with 46 galleries in attendance, including 10 from outside the U.S. The fair typically has around 55 gallery booths, but several international dealers couldn’t commit in time because of fluctuating travel restrictions amid the pandemic. 

The galleries that have confirmed were busy with customers through the summer, Bokor says, which means they are bringing a lot of new inventory. And despite the slightly smaller roster of dealers the fair is able to showcase its usual array of design and art categories, from furniture, to ceramics, art, and lighting, she says. 

For the first time Salon will feature works from Japan, with representation from Carol Davenport and Onishi Gallery, both from New York.
Throckmorton
Fine Art in New York, also new to the fair, will bring pre-Columbian art. 

Another first will be the addition of jewelry, which a few galleries will display in accompaniment to their lighting and design objects. 

Galerie Negropontes in Paris, for instance, will bring a collection of bronze jewelry in addition to ceramics and furniture, while Macklowe Gallery in New York—also at Salon for the first time—will bring 20th-century jewelry in addition to Art Nouveau furniture and lighting. The jewelry includes a serpent bracelet valued at US$250,000.

Another featured item at the fair is what Bokor calls “the world’s craziest ping-pong table”—a work imagined by one individual and designed by 14, that is being sold for about US$450,000. “It’s about as one of a kind as anything we’ll have at the fair,” she says. 

Geoffrey Diner Gallery in Washington, D.C., who deals in 20th- and 21st-century furniture, is also bringing a 1966 watercolor by
Alexander Calder
titled Loose Yolks.

Salon also includes eight special installations this year from fair partners that will fill historic rooms in the Armory’s front halls. Four of these exhibitors, including Didier Ltd. from London—which specializes in secondary market jewels designed by “modern masters” and designers from the late 19th century to the end of the 20th century—are from outside the U.S.

Among the special installations is the debut of Studio Greytak of Montana’s immersive installation of furniture and objects that incorporate stones and minerals.
John Greytak
has “created some amazing pieces including nesting tables with stalactites,” Bokor says. 

Also,
Silvia
Furmanovich, a Brazilian jewelry designer, will be debuting a line of home furnishings at the fair in a setting that gives tribute to the Amazon Rainforest.

After a year in which the fair couldn’t be held because of the pandemic, Bokor is happy Salon can bring the first design fair to New York this year. 

“People are seeking community and engagement and talking to other people about the things that they love as much as they are buying what’s for sale,” she says.

Updated to remove a mistaken value for Calder’s Loose Yolks.