“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