COLLECTOR: An upcoming Sotheby's sale will feature modern artworks in many different genres. Also, the Irish International Coin Fair is coming to the RDS in Dublin Designer Delo Lindo will exhibit limited-edition cutplastic tube bowls
Sotheby's sixth contemporary design and decorative arts exhibition, showcasing furniture, lighting, ceramics, jewellery, glass, metalwork and textiles by leading European designers, takes place later this month.
The selling exhibition from February 20th to March 1st at Sotheby's, Bond Street, London, includes new work specially commissioned for the event, such as cut patterned leather vessels by milliner Dai Rees and hand-blown transparent glass forms by Ritsue Mishima.
In the furniture section, where prices range from £150 sterling (€250) to £6,000, Polish designer Dorota Koziara is represented by three-metre-high throne-like chairs. Entitled Twelve Angels, they are made from dried branches and are described as "towering, gracious, dancing forms". Each chair costs about £4,500.
Further highlights of the furniture section include illuminated plastic wing chairs by Kazuhiro Yamanaka, an acrylic "sliced shelving system" table and seat by Alexander Taylor, and special editions of furniture by Asplund, a Swedish design company.
Work by French furniture designers Christophe Delcourt, Matt Sindell and Abdi features, as do designs by new graduates David Langburn and Stephen Richards.
The glass section, where prices range from £30 to £16,000, boasts innovative designs by leading European designers, such as translucent necklaces made of clusters of hand-blown glass balls by Venice-based Susanna and Maria Sent. Fellow Italian designers Massimo Micheluzzi's hand-carved, swirling glass vases and vessels in charcoal, reds and blacks, and Takahide Sano's "Mickey Mouse" glass jugs also highlight this section.
Internationally revered French designer Delo Lindo will exhibit limited-edition cut plastic tube bowls. Each piece is made from hundreds of pieces of plastic grey pipes, cut and glued into beautiful graphic shapes. Pierre Pozzi, who works with shredded paper, will exhibit a series of elegant bowls, hangings and vessels.
In the silver/metalwork section, where items range from £100 to £5,000, Germany's Tomasi will display large, chunky, padded vessels of silver and copper mesh in strong, angular forms, while Junko Mori, a recent Royal College of Art student will exhibit a collection of silver and bronze vessels, which appear as "mini explosions".
Prices in the lighting section range from £40 to £5,500. A chandelier by Bruce Munro comprises hundreds of fibre optics, while Italian designer Jacopo Foggini will exhibit a four-metre long jellyfish light and vast whirlpool wall lights in brilliantly coloured plastics.
The jewellery section includes items ranging in value from £50 to £21,000. Germany's Bernard Fruh will exhibit what are described by Sotheby's as his "pure golden lines" in rectangular brooch shapes, while Austrian Petr Dvorak will be represented by necklaces in a flash of red resins intermixed with precious metals.
Work by a group of recently graduated designers will be displayed.
Ms Rachael Barraclough, curator of the exhibition, said that although work has come from Ireland in previous years, there is none in this exhibition.
The Irish International Coin Fair will take place in the RDS, Dublin, on Saturday and Sunday, February 23rd and 24th. Members of the Numismatic Society of Ireland will display rare Irish coins, tokens and medals.
The Central Bank of Ireland will have a stand, displaying special euro and Irish currency presentation packs. Old money boxes and Irish banknotes will also be exhibited.
Leading professional numismatists from the Republic and Britain will attend, including specialists in Irish coins and tokens; banknotes, bonds and shares; British and European coins, tokens and medallions.
Dealers in world coins and banknotes will also attend. All experts at the show offer free valuations of coins, medals and banknotes. Admission €3 (accompanied children €2).
jmarms@irish-times.ie
