A proliferation of multi-designer exhibitions showing variants of a single object allowed the work of numerous emerging and local designers to take centre stage during NYCxDesign week, writes Dezeen's US editor Ben Dreith.
While plenty of the showrooms on Madison Avenue held events featuring contemporary European furniture design, many local curators opted for formats that allowed for many designer's work to be shown in one place.
Of these shows, some of the best were those that took a variation-on-an-object approach, where dozens of designers were asked to create a single genre of object. These included the Head Hi Lamp Show in Tribeca, which featured lamps by 54 designers in a wide range of styles, themes, and considerations, condensed into a single, well-trodden form. Group shows with variations of single objects were a popular route for exhibitions during NYCxDesign 2024. Pictured is a selection of handles launched by Petra Hardware
The Lamp Show happened for only a few days in a loft downtown, drawing hundreds of visitors despite the lack of any flashy, large-scale works or LED screens (though, like during Milan's design week, there were waits, even with the timeslot system the curators employed this year).
All of the objects were for sale, and most were relatively affordable. Many of them were playful ? even kitschy, such as a pair of martini-glass lamps by Brooklyn designer Jesse Lee.
"The importance of the lamp show is that the main objective is the creation of...