Furniture made with resin-drenched wool, a modern tea house and an installation showcasing designers pushing for police accountability were on show at Los Angeles Design Festival 2023.
After a four-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Los Angeles Design Festival (LADF) returned this year, with locations and exhibitions around the city and a central hub at warehouse-turned-retail district ROW DTLA.
There were other primary locations including outposts in the Helms Bakery District and Downtown Long Beach, with programming that included talks by architect Sekou Cooke, design strategist Jaan Orvet and design historian and educator Silas Munro.
Many of the talks focused on issues of equity in design and the rich and complex history of design in Los Angeles.
LADF executive creative director Erika Abrams told Dezeen that she wanted to take a centralised approach to embrace the array of cultures and styles that exist in the sprawling city.
Though a smaller scale than many other urban designer festivals and decentralised due to the spread-out nature of the Californian city, the festival saw exhibitions and openings from a variety of studios and institutions, though not everyone was explicitly involved with the official programming.
RAD furniture marketing lead Katherine Lee said that while the comparisons between New York and Los Angeles abound, the later has a design scene that is rooted in community, which has been supplemented by a large amount of work being shown that was completed during the pandemic and an influx of designers from the East Coast.
“Even before the pandemic, our social lives in LA happened in more private places, either due to the extra space we may have in our homes to host a dinner party rather than go out to a bar, the avoidance of traffic, or just the nature of routine,” Lee told Dezeen.
“That idea of intimate spaces and a desire to reconvene has LA’s eastside designers organizing events, meet-ups, and parties more in the last year than I have ever seen.”
From high-profile galleries like Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery to small studio exhibitions, the work at the festival showcased a variety of designs, many of which used toned-down conceptual designs and natural materials.
Read on for our top picks from this year’s festival.
Soft Touch and Tea House by Waka-Waka
Designer Shin Okuda of Waka-Waka set up an exhibition at adjacent design consultancy Small Office. The show consists of two distinct elements. The first was a collection of metal furniture with carpet seats made in collaboration with New Zealand rug company Nodi.
The second element was a modern tea house created by Okuda, who was born in Japan. It was constructed from wooden panels specified to be the same size as the traditional Japanese tatami mat and features a series of cloth-covered windows, a sculptural pillar and ansliding door for entrance, as well as a smaller one for delivering tea.
Chaos by Alexander May
Founder of creative agency Sized Alexander May curated a show at Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery to celebrate the year anniversary of the gallery’s West Hollywood location. For the exhibition, called Chaos, May went with darkly coloured furniture and brutal, industrial art objects.
Included were designs by renowned designers such as Ron Arad, Rick Owens and Victor Barragan. The inclusion of the two later points towards a fashion-oriented approach, as both men are most well-known for their clothing designs.
Also featured in the exhibition was an elegant glass and wood desk by mid-century Italian architect Gio Ponti.
Garden Party by RAD Furniture
Known for their commercial furniture for brands like Warby Parker and Sweetgreen, LA-based manufacturer RAD Furniture launched its first direct-to-consumer lines at Plant Material – a garden supply outlet in the city’s Silverlake neighbourhood.
The pop-up exhibition featured metal furniture meant for residential use painted in a variety of muted tones. Also on show were skateboards made from recycled ocean plastics by the brand’s sister company, Lander.
Slow Ode by Rest Energy
LA-based designer Caleb Engstrom, a seasoned fabricator, launched his first furniture collection under his label Rest Energy. The collection is called Wet Wool and features a variety of seating typographies and small tables draped in resin-drenched wool positioned alongside sculptural, engraved mirrors.
Engstrom layered the wool over the metal and wood pieces and let the resin harden the wool in the position that it rested in.
The contrast between the hard resin and the soft fabric created an interesting visual effect and strengthens the fabric. Engstrom showcased the selection in a small indoor space attached to the back of his home in Pasadena.
Object Permanence by Leah Ring and Holland Denvir
In its space in Downtown Los Angeles, design consultancy Denvir Enterprises hosted an auction to support local charities by selling piggy banks created by local designers. The exhibition was curated by the firm’s founder Holland Denvir and Leah Ring of interior design studio Another Human.
It featured a variety of different interpretations of the piggy bank. They ranged from a wooden piggy bank in classic style made by local designer Sam Klemick to a black tower clad with credit cards by Alex Hsu. Other designers involved include Ring as well as Constance Hockaday and Ben Tetro.
Natural Forms by LADF
At ROW, the festival put on a showcase of chairs that highlighted unusual forms and natural materials in an unoccupied showroom. Designs included a small cork seat by Alex Hsu and a chair with a seat made from the trunk of a salvaged California Pepper tree by Alper Nakri.
James Mitchell of Studio Big Moon created a quirky chair with walnut and brass inlays that highlights the flaws in wood, while designer Sam Klemick collaborated with designer Maggie Holladay to showcased novel ways of shaping fabric over wooden forms.
Open Studio by Ceramicah
For the festival, Cermamicah opened up its workshop in Arlington Heights for the public to see a variety of vases and sculptural table lamps. Founded by architects Micah Blyckert and Alexandra Cadiz, the studio creates highly textured works that show the natural quality of the materials.
Objects from the studio’s Raku collection were on display, with elegant and sometimes mottled glazing that gives the effect of wear or decay. While the Shino collection features smooth, rust-coloured lamps with hand-applied lime plaster and graphic detailing.
Black Light by ARRAY
Arts and activism collective ARRAY occupied a gallery space at ROW to host talks and show looping footage documenting its Law Enforcement Accountability Project (LEAP).
Founded by writer Ava DuVernay, The initiative brings together creatives to comment on the need for accountability in policing through awareness and community connection.
The film featured insights into the works of dancers, poets and food artists as they reckon with police violence with their art. The films also shed light on stories of police mispractice and murder that have overlooked by the public.
Remembrance by Jane Yang-D’Haene
Korean ceramicist Jane Yang-D’Haene had a solo show at gallery Future Perfect’s Beverly Hill location, which occupies the Goldwyn House mansion designed by American architect Arthur S Heineman.
The collection, called Remembrance, features a series of “furniture-sculpture” that takes cues from traditional Korean roofing.
“In an incredible artistic feat the vessels in this latter series are supersized versions of the artist’s signature moon jar,” said the gallery.
The Los Angeles Design Festival took place from 22 to 25 June throughout the city. For more events, talks and exhibitions in architecture and design, visit Dezeen’s Events Guide.
