San Francisco Design in Five Top Galleries
Teeming with tech start-ups, culturally centered neighborhoods, and world-class art institutions, San Francisco is a haven for cutting-edge design. From American icons like the Golden Gate Bridge and Victorian “Painted Ladies” to unique urban planning—Lombard Street, for example—to a skyline dotted by “starchitects”, the city itself is a designer’s playground. This year with FOG Design+Art, the city’s design credo is only enhanced; in honor of the fair we take a look at five of SF’s top design galleries.
In 2003 David Alhadeff had the foresight to found The Future Perfect in the up-and-coming design community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn; ten years later, after establishing a Manhattan outpost, the design gallery has shifted west, swapping out Brooklyn for San Francisco. Drawn to the “very progressive and smart” Bay Area design scene, Alahdeff continues his mission in his Pacific Heights location showcasing an outstanding selection of decorative arts and design while furthering a signature line of furniture and an international lineup of distinguished and emerging designers. At FOG Design+Art, the gallery shows masterful vessels by Alma Allen and Ryota Aoki, as well as environmentally friendly scrap-wood furniture by Piet Hein Eek.
Hidden on an alley in Jackson Square, Hedge Gallery melds the worlds of art, design, and craft in and eclectic mix of elegant and industrial objects from the 20th-century to the present. With offerings including furniture, lighting, glass, and ceramics, Steven Volpe, gallery partner and interior designer, uses his background in fine Francophile design to seek out unique works that hold their own, created by designers using modern materials. At FOG Hedge presents a solo show of recent works by internationally renowned architect and designer Ron Arad. Arad presents his “In Reverse” series, a homage to the Fiat 500 including a freestanding crushed Fiat and Drop, a 3D-printed wall sculpture.
Located in a former American Can Factory in the Mission, The NWBLK offers a carefully curated and designed array of furniture, fashion, lighting, and objects, in a space where retail meets gallery. Showing the designs of contemporary artists, craftsmen, and designers, the inventive works on view and for sale sit on the crux of advancements in design and technology. From Christopher Boots’s quartz chandeliers to Luis Pons’s optical illusion dressers to Tom Strala’s origami designs, at FOG The NWBLK shares a selection of some of the most creative individuals and brands at the present.
The headquarters of designer Dominique Maxime Genauzeau, DMG Design is located on a channel off San Francisco Bay, just outside scenic Potrero Hill. Born in La Rochelle, France,
Genauzeau currently lives and works in San Francisco, where with the help of contractors he designs and renovates private and commercial interiors, as well as furniture, lighting, and art installations. Deeply influenced and inspired by the ocean, his works evoke nautical elements and fluid forms. At FOG, DMG shows a signature reception desk resembling the hull of a boat and clever consoles making intelligent use of small spaces, much like the interior design of a ship.
The Office of Charles de Lisle
Through his design collective, The Office of Charles de Lisle, the eponymous designer has developed a full line of furniture, lighting, and decorative objects, and has shared his warm, thoughtful aesthetic with some of San Francisco’s luckiest residential and commercial spaces. Growing up in his father’s woodshop and studying ceramics, de Lisle has a broad understanding of material evident in his mixed-media approach to design, using materials from wood to bronze to clay. Keeping in mind the environments his designs will inhabit, de Lisle is interested in “paradoxes and contradictions; relationships with story threads that tie it all together”. We’re eager to see what’s next for The Office of Charles de Lisle, as they unveil their newest works at FOG.
