Galleries from across Europe gather at PAD arts fair
Galleries from across Europe gather at PAD arts fair
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1/8 £35,000-£53,000
Aristas oval gold-plated low table at Garrido Gallery.
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2/8 Goede
Studio glass artist Angela Jarman’s Amber Geode and Sapphire Geode in lost-wax cast lead crystal with 22ct gold leaf.
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3/8 Tobias Møhl
Blown glass with canework, made by the artist in Denmark.
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4/8 Azo bench
A limited edition of eight pieces, each numbered and signed, by François Bauchet at Galerie Kreo.
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5/8 Wink
Metal laquered, with five hand blown glass globes, by Jaime Hayon at Galerie Kreo.
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6/8 Console Borderline
By Hervé van der Straeten. Coloured polished stainless steel. Also available in polished stainless steel, brass and other colours.
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7/8 "Sitzmaschine" armchair
By Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956). Produced by J&J Kohn in beechwood and brass.
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8/8 A Wisteria Box
Moulded, carved and hand-built porcelain with yellow gold leaf interior, by Hitomi Hosono.
Art and design meld seamlessly at PAD, the French-born arts fair now in its 12th year, held in the Pavilion of Art and Design marquee in Berkeley Square, Mayfair.
Galleries from across Europe are featured but exhibits tend to have a French mid-century modern feel that’s more ornate and plush than the spare, democratic UK equivalent.
The show offers objects from different periods and genres in an eclectic way. A stand of Sèvres porcelain sits beside Rossana Orlandi, Milan’s leading design gallery, while craft gallerist Adrian Sassoon rubs shoulders with H Blairman, specialists in late 19th and early 20th-century furniture.
With 68 galleries, it’s a great chance to see museum-quality design and decorative artworks up close, with gallerists there to explain provenance.
This year the big trends are metal and nature. Metallic finishes have been a strong look in fashion and increasingly in interiors. PAD’s examples are more extreme and lavish, for example Damián Garrido’s gold-plated, asymmetrical, geometric low table at Garrido.
In contrast Ingrid Donat’s immersive room, at Carpenters Workshop Gallery, is composed of blackened bronze, rectangular, totemic furniture. There’s a similarly chunky feel to the Centaures tables at Pinto. Made of gouged brass, they are studded with marquetry in golden and brown horn.
Copper is also a material of choice, celebrated in “Copper” by Valentin Loellmann, a set of stairs-cum-seating-cum-sculpture. Metal can have a lighter feel, such as the Fifties table by Mathieu Matégot at Matthieu Richard. With a tubular black lacquered metal base, its enamelled iron surface is like a mini Mondrian of primary coloured rectangles.
Stainless-steel rainbow-coloured shelving by Hervé Van der Straeten, Console Borderline seems to explode out of the wall like a piece of futurist sculpture.
Metal is also a material of choice for lighting, such as Achille Salvagni’s Bubbles wall sconces in gold-painted bronze and onyx, or Jaime Hayon’s geometric Wink-Rouge wall lights at Galerie Kreo, made of lacquered metal and hand-blown glass globes.
Nature is a strong influence and theme this year. At Sarah Myerscough Gallery, newest work by Marlène Huissoud casts silk cocoons in metal. Nearby, Marcin Rusak’s hand-blown glass vessels encase flowers and leaves and at Peter Petrou, resin screens by Sasha Sykes suspend seaweed and birds’ nests in time.
Paris ceramicist Karen Swami makes Kiwi, a huge, wheel-thrown black stoneware pot with a crackled glaze, while Matali Crasset’s Les Capes vessels for Sèvres look like a procession of robed church figures.
PAD’s eclectic mix includes tribal art, paintings and historical pieces such as Josef Hoffmann’s wonderful beech-and-brass Sitzmaschine chair from 1907 at Alexandre Guillemain.
- PAD runs from October 3-7 in Berkeley Square, W1, from 11am-8pm Wednesday to Saturday, 11am-6pm on Sunday. Adults £25; students £15; under-15s go free when accompanied by a paying adult.
