“The features setting Object & Thing apart from the typical art fair have implications that reverberate well beyond the event’s admirably modest ambitions.”
artnet News
“The new thinking behind Object & Thing is as much a response to the economics of the art fair, as a way of fashioning new aesthetics conditions or breaking down the boundaries between art and design.”
Financial Times
“Truth be told, the list of collaborators doubles as a who’s who of New York’s creative demimonde.”
Town & Country
Talks Program
Glenn Adamson moderated a series of panels that took place each day of the fair. Entry to the talks is included with admission to the fair. Adamson is a curator and writer who works at the intersection of craft, design history, and contemporary art. Currently Senior Scholar at the Yale Center for British Art, he has previously been Director of the Museum of Arts and Design; Head of Research at the V&A; and curator at the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee. His publications include The Invention of Craft, Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, The Craft Reader, and Thinking Through Craft.
Friday, May 3, 5 pm
The New "New Décor"
Speakers: Ann Agee, Martino Gamper, and Peter Shire
Moderated by Glenn Adamson
In 2010 Ralph Rugoff, the director of the Hayward Gallery in London, curated an exhibition entitled The New Décor. It featured a range of artists experimenting with furniture forms and other decorative art genres, and aimed at exploding the division between art and life. In some ways the project was a continuation of longstanding themes, going back to the work of Robert Rauschenberg. In another sense, though, it implied an unprecedented fusion of the previously distinct genres of sculpture and design. Central was the concept of “décor” itself – an implied environment or milieu, within which objects might take their meaning. This panel includes three leading practitioners who have worked at this fascinating interface: Ann Agee, Martino Gamper, and Peter Shire. All are object-makers with strong sensibilities, whose works suggest all-encompassing, aesthetically expansive worlds.
Saturday, May 4, 11 am
Play and Display
Speakers: Felix Burrichter, Rafael de Cárdenas, and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn
Moderated by Glenn Adamson
Among the most striking phenomena in contemporary art and design is a preference for extreme display environments. Rather than placing objects in “white cube” spaces – whose supposed neutrality will set off their true character – exhibition-makers often create high-concept, sometimes lavishly produced settings. This recognizes the radical potential for acts of display, while also raising important questions about the respective roles of the curator, gallerist, and artist. OBJECT & THING is itself an example of this tendency. Unlike most art fairs, which have separate modular booths, it is a fully integrated and characterful experience. This panel includes three voices at the forefront of adventurous place-making: Felix Burrichter, editor of Pin Up magazine and independent curator; Rafael de Cárdenas, founder of Architecture at Large and artistic director of Object & Thing; and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, founder of the galleries Salon 94 and Salon 94 Design.
Sunday May 5, 11 am
From the Ground Up
Panelists: Philippe Gouze, Gregg Moore, Erez Nevi Pana
Moderated by Glenn Adamson
Given urgent concerns about our planet’s ecology, it is not surprising that contemporary artists and designers have started to pay greater attention to the sourcing of their materials. Some practitioners do more than that, anchoring their whole creative vision in land and locality. At their best, these approaches aim at more than sustainability; they speak poetically of the singular qualities of a place. This panel includes potter Gregg Moore and restaurateur Philippe Gouze, who will discuss their collaboration for the world-renowned experimental restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns; and Erez Nevi Pana, an Israeli designer whose works derive from extreme environmental respect – as in his furniture fabricated at the bottom of the Dead Sea, where not a single creature could be harmed in the process.
Contributing Galleries – 2019
AGO Projects
Blue Mountain School
Blum & Poe
CLEARING
de Vera
Bridget Donahue
Friedman Benda
Hauser & Wirth
Herald St
Hyundai
Jason Jacques
Judd Foundation
Karma
Kayne Griffin Corcoran
Anton Kern Gallery
David Kordansky Gallery
LABOR
David Lewis
Magen H Gallery
Matthew Marks Gallery
Mendes Wood DM
The Modern Institute
Rossana Orlandi Gallery
P.P.O.W
Patrick Parrish Gallery
R & Company
Reform
Salon 94
Salon 94 Design
Shiprock Santa Fe
Jessica Silverman Gallery
Van Doren Waxter
Artist List – 2019
Ann Agee
Alma Allen
Harry Allen
Carl Auböck
Phyllida Barlow
Ercole Barovier
Bitossi Ceramics
J.B. Blunk
Bonnet
Will Boone
Christoph Büchel
Estudio Campana
Fabien Cappello
Roger Capron
Judy Chicago
Susan Cianciolo
Liz Collins
Adriano Costa
Martin Creed
Aaron Curry
Rick Dillingham
Lucy Dodd
EMBARGO
Morten Løbner Espersen
Martino Gamper
Alexis Gautier
Mathias Goeritz
Sonia Gomes
Green River Project LLC
Rogan Gregory
Erik Gronborg
Françoise Grossen
Colette Guéden
Evan Holloway
Walter Howato
Cody Hoyt
Richard Hughes
Marc Hundley
Jacques Innocenti
Mado Jolain
Donald Judd
Misha Kahn
Hans Von Klier
Zak Kitnick
Osamu Kojima
Beate Kuhn
Takuro Kuwata
Anne Marie Laureys
Guillaume Leblon
Charles Loloma
Tim Mackaness
Marepe
Paul McCarthy
Ian McDonald
Harrison McIntosh
Fausto Melotti
Tron Meyer
Mineo Mizuno
Ysabella Molini
Anndra Neen
Ruby Neri
Nagatoshi Onishi
Erez Nevi Pana
Matt Paweski
Monique Péan
Gaetano Pesce
Solange Pessoa
Amalia Pica
Antoine Poncet
Al Qöyawayma
Aneta Regel
Tom Sachs
Jaque Sagan
Ricardo Santamaria
Alan Shields
Peter Shire
Adam Silverman
John Souter
Katie Stout
Ricky Swallow
Joanne Tatham & Tom O’Sullivan
Hayley Tompkins
Faye Toogood
Jonathan Trayte
Daniel Valero
Rebecca Warren
Julian Watts
R Weil
Maggie Wells
Charlie Willeto
Thaddeus Wolfe
Yeesookyung
David Zink Yi
Jeff Zimmerman
The Shop – 2019
Blue Hill Market
The Good Liver
Karma Bookstore
Magazine & Book | By Apartamento and Mast
Momosan Shop
Playmountain EAST
The Primary Essentials
Saipua
Thompson Street Studio