About
Image credits: Gaetano Pesce, Vase #6, 2018, Courtesy of Salon 94 design and the artist; Susan Cianciolo, Game 3. UNDFEATED WAKE UP, I AM AT YOUR FEET, 2018, photograph by Gregory Carideo, © Susan Cianciolo, courtesy of the artist and Bridget Donahue, NYC; Donald Judd, Stool 5, Designed 1984 (Fabricated 2019), 50 x 50 x 50 cm (19.75 x 19.75 x 19.75 in), painted aluminum in Traffic yellow/RAL 1023, Donald Judd Furniture © Judd Foundation.
Object & Thing reimagines the art and design fair concept, by bringing together both disciplines through a focus on the object. Launched in 2019 as an exhibition in New York City, as well as through a corresponding e-commerce site, Object & Thing presents object-based 20th and 21st century works, collaborating with artists’ studios and leading international art and design galleries.
The Team
Abby Bangser
Founder and Creative Director
Abby Bangser is the founder and creative director of OBJECT & THING. She is former Artistic Director of Frieze Art Fairs for the Americas and Asia and the founding head of the Americas Foundation of the Serpentine Galleries. She has additionally worked for nonprofit arts institutions in both New York City and Los Angeles including Dia Art Foundation, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Rafael de Cárdenas
Artistic Director
Designer Rafael de Cárdenas is the artistic director for the inaugural edition of OBJECT & THING. Since founding the multi- disciplinary design practice Architecture at Large in 2006, de Cárdenas has overseen more than 100 projects including boutiques and installations for André Balazs Properties, Baccarat, Cartier, Christie’s, Glossier, LVMH-Kenzo, and Nike. In 2017, Rizzoli published a monograph on his firm’s first ten years of work and in 2018, he co-founded the object brand, Double Macchiato.
Glenn Adamson
Curatorial Advisor
Curator and writer, Glenn Adamson, 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", and "Thinking Through Craft". For Object & Thing's inaugural edition, Adamson contributed descriptive texts accompanying each artwork's entry on this website, in addition to curating the Talks Program that took place during the fair.
Advisory Committee
Glenn Adamson, curator and writer
Rahim Amlani, founder The Amlani Group
Rafael de Cárdenas, founder Architecture at Large and co-founder Double Macchiato
Martino Gamper, designer
Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, founder Salon 94 and Salon 94 Design
Armand Limnander, writer and Executive Editor W Magazine
Mariah Nielson, curator, director J.B. Blunk Estate, and co-founder Permanent Collection