This story is a part of Honest Take, our reporting on international design occasions that appears up shut on the latest concepts in fixtures, furnishings, and extra.
One of many West Coast’s finest artwork and design festivals is hitting a progress spurt in its teenage years: San Francisco’s FOG Design + Artwork honest is established sufficient to say its id, however nonetheless younger sufficient for boisterous experimentation. The twelfth version of the occasion noticed robust showings from established worldwide galleries making encore appearances, however there have been additionally a number of first-time FOG exhibitors, a lot of them exhibiting up-and-coming artists from the Bay Space and past.
Going down throughout two piers at San Francisco’s Fort Mason, FOG additionally at all times has acquainted faces—and, surprisingly, some new-to-me Bay Space mainstays that I’m delighted to find. This yr it was Crown Level Press and William Stout Books. However I additionally love discovering out about worldwide artists working in mediums like glassblowing, woodcarving, ceramics, weaving, and extra. The actual magic of FOG is seeing artwork displayed alongside design, revealing the fantastic thing about craft in all its types.
Photographer Cayce Clifford and I teamed up once more this yr to peruse FOG’s opening celebration searching for the honest’s most off-the-wall showings from close to and much. Winding our approach by way of the cubicles, it was straightforward to lose monitor of time as we loved the easy pleasure of leaning in. Right here’s an up shut have a look at what we discovered.
San Francisco locals William Stout Architectural Books had its transformed VW parked outdoors the honest.
Marta Gallery
Now in its third yr, FOG FOCUS, the honest’s platform for rising artists, had its greatest exhibiting but with 16 galleries. Positioned in its personal pier at Fort Mason, the exhibition is at all times buzzing with experimentation. A newcomer to this yr’s honest, Los Angeles’s Marta Gallery had one in every of our favourite FOCUS cubicles, devoted to a tandem exhibiting of labor by New York–based mostly designer Minjae Kim and photographer and sculptor Dominik Tarabański.
“We needed to take part in FOG as a result of it’s one of many solely festivals that, with out arbitrary boundaries or categorizations, locations artwork and design on the identical airplane,” Marta’s cofounder Benjamin Critton informed us. The gallery’s sales space did simply that, with lighting and furnishings by Kim sitting alongside images by Tarabański, the 2 in intimate dialogue. Kim and Tarabański are mates and have studios in the identical constructing in Brooklyn, so a joint exhibiting was a pure method to proceed their inventive dialog.
With designer Minjae Kim working in quilted fiberglass and carved wooden, and photographer Dominik Tarabański crafting fragile sculptures and flower preparations that he images, each artists deal within the language of ephemerality, toggling between the realms of the valuable and the disposable. Marta’s sales space was a strong reminder of the sweetness discovered on this pressure.
Blunk Area
A Bay Space treasure, Blunk Area is a Level Reyes gallery and analysis middle devoted to the legacy of native designer JB Blunk. Based by Blunk’s daughter, Mariah Nielson, the gallery first made an look at FOG final yr within the honest’s retail part, FOG MRKT. This yr, Blunk Area had its personal sales space at FOCUS, with a bunch present of latest furnishings by Rio Kobayashi alongside historic work by a trio of Blunk’s artist mates. Additionally on view have been a number of tabletop sculptures by present artists which can be a part of the gallery’s “100 Candleholders” exhibition, now on view.
Seeing Kobayashi’s blocky chairs and stools subsequent to summary work by Richard Bowman, Fritz Rauh, and John Anderson made them really feel much more sculptural, lifting them out of the purposeful realm into the world of artistry.
“We needed to convey a Northern Californian aesthetic rooted in materials sensitivity, experimentation, and a deep connection to position,” says Blunk Area curator Mariah Nielson, daughter of JB Blunk, of the sales space’s pairing. It options furnishings by modern designer Rio Kobayashi alongside historic Blunk-era work.
KIOSKO 94
Behind FOG FOCUS, an set up of colourful, fabric-stuffed letters spelled out “KIOSKO,” making Cayce and I ponder if this was yet one more gallery sales space or a retail store of some type. Inside, artist Jasko Begovic was onerous at work behind a stitching machine, crafting his wearable artwork and cloth sculptures whereas chitchatting with guests.
Introduced by native San Francisco gallery CULT Aimee Friberg, Begovic’s work at FOG continues his explorations of id and inclusion, and the way warfare impacts our sense of group and belonging.
CULT Aimee Friberg offered an set up of labor by Bosnian-born, San Francisco-based artist Jasko Begovic known as “KIOSKO 94.”
The artist can be current at numerous instances over the course of FOG weekend, engaged on his stitching machine on comfortable and wearable sculptures, encouraging guests to return again many times.
Works in Progress at FOG MRKT
Within the honest’s fundamental pavilion, we have been instantly drawn to FOG MRKT simply inside the doorway, the place a small group of shops offered artisan-made merchandise that have been additionally on the market. A newcomer to the market was “Works in Progress,” an exhibition showcasing new works from Bay Space designers.
The FOG presentation is the fourth iteration of the nomadic “Works in Progress” sequence, spearheaded by Bay Space locals Kate Greenberg and Kelley Perumbeti. The group exhibitions at all times middle on a theme, and kick off with an open name to designers to submit work. “The sequence is about making a framework the place artists, designers, and craftspeople can experiment by way of purposeful objects,” Perumbeti informed us. “And from there, it’s about getting the work out into the world.”
This yr’s idea for “Works in Progress,” an itinerant design exhibition, was Objects for the Threshold, which invited designers to create items that remember the experiences of arrival and departure.
Mirrors, key hooks, mail trays, and shoe stools have been reminders that purposeful objects may be as clever as they’re purposeful, bringing pleasure to the rituals that happen day by day in our properties.
Galerie Maria Wettergren
One of many first cubicles to catch our eye in the primary pavilion, Galerie Maria Wettergren from Paris returned to FOG after their first go spherical on the honest final yr. The presentation paired celestial, evanescent wall-hangings towards weighty tables and benches constituted of chunky blocks of wooden—every little thing was in good steadiness.
Danish textile artist Margrethe Odgaard assembles her wallhanging items by overlaying layers of printed silk organza.
Wooden and steel tables by Danish designer Laura Bergsøe held a weighty presence in Galerie Maria Wettergren, which is predicated in Paris.
AGO Tasks
I first found AGO Tasks at FOG 2024, they usually’ve now turn into one in every of my go-to galleries for locating rising Latin American design. This yr, their sales space delivered with raucous works by greater than a dozen designers, a lot of whom have been making their debut on the honest.
We notably beloved the bird-of-paradise leaf-shaped chandelier by New York–based mostly studio Pelle positioned above a forest-themed rug by Mexico Metropolis designer C.S. Valentin.
Enjoying with concepts of nature and abstraction, collectively the items reminded us of being in a funhouse model of a greenhouse.
Sarah Myerscough Gallery
It’s uncommon to come across furnishings you possibly can play with, however within the sales space of London gallery Sarah Myerscough, we discovered simply that in woodworker Julian Watts’s exuberant “Sprouted Desk.” Carved from luscious, darkish walnut, the piece is ostensibly a espresso desk, however is roofed in plug-and-play carved totems that may be moved round at will. “The items hover between purposeful and sculptural,” Watts informed us. “On the identical time, they continue to be grounded in a way of mischievousness and play.”
Cayce and I beloved how Watts’s items teetered on the sting of performance, permitting simply sufficient area on a desk for a single ingesting glass, for instance, or leaving a gap in the midst of a carved woodblock chair simply slender sufficient in order to not fall by way of.
Sourcing wooden from his native Oregon, designer Julian Watts usually makes use of salvaged walnut and maple milled within the Willamette Valley, or begins with chunks of wooden that his neighbors donate to his studio.
“Sprouted Desk” has totems that may be rearranged.
Ortuzar
Newcomers to FOG, New York gallery Ortuzar offered a bunch present with work, sculptures, and drawings from artists throughout geographies and generations. A standout for us have been the sculptures by Japanese-Brazilian artist Megumi Yuasa. Now 88 years outdated, Yuasa takes inspiration from Japanese ceramic traditions however infuses them with atypical supplies like metals, glass, oxides, and paints.
Impressed by the religious side of nature, Megumi Yuasa’s sculptures usually embrace a component of hovering or balancing. The artist describes his work in religious phrases: “The whole lot is constituted of every little thing, every little thing relies on every little thing. The whole lot is every little thing.”
Hosfelt Gallery
A San Francisco mainstay, Hosfelt Gallery has been bringing the work of native and worldwide artists to Bay Space audiences since 1996. This yr at FOG, Cayce and I have been drawn to Hosfelt’s sales space by a mild clanging sound, which turned out to be kinetic steel sculptures by midcentury artist and furnishings designer Harry Bertoia. “I had identified about and admired Harry’s work for ages,” gallerist Todd Hosfelt informed me.
Taking the form of tall steel poles evoking reed grass, the poles in Harry Bertoia’s reed sculptures may be touched and pushed to bend and clang collectively, very similar to a wind chime. Personally, as an avid museumgoer, the place the look-but-don’t-touch legal guidelines of artwork decorum rule, I’m at all times a sucker for one thing interactive.
Fashionable Institute
One other FOG first-timer, Glasgow’s Fashionable Institute delighted us with their pairing of small sculptures by Swiss artist Urs Fischer. A tiny chandelier hanging precariously in the midst of the sales space showcased Fischer’s explorations in Murano glassblowing, and a miniature blue-painted bronze horse with a single tear had us swooning.
Artist Urs Fischer makes valuable chandeliers from Murano glass.
A tiny blue horse shed a single tear. There was one thing about seeing artwork and design on a micro scale that felt delightfully refreshing, particularly in a second when the excesses of capitalism are feeling particularly loud.
Friedman Benda
Some objects at FOG simply made Cayce and I smile. Los Angeles and New York–based mostly Friedman Benda did simply that, with a group of lamps that surprisingly mixed figurative and natural types. Swiss-born, L.A.–based mostly designer Carmen D’Apollonio offered a group of glass and ceramic lamps that appeared to sit down on the sting of a shelf very similar to an individual would, with mushroom-cap heads that evoked Nintendo’s Toad character in the absolute best approach.
“Every lamp turns into its personal character and looks as if a bit of human,” says D’Apollonio of the colourful assortment.
Behind the Friedman Benda sales space, Mexican designer Fernando Laposse offered one in every of his Patachon monster desk lights, a furry determine with glowy arms and a plucky straw hat. Made from hand-knotted agave fibers with brass and metal particulars, the determine grew to become our FOG mascot—playful, irreverent, and a celebration of the artwork of craft.
