Familiarity in the Echoes of Past Movements

Verellen’s Gaston Dining Chair comes across as quirky and playful with its exaggerated splayed back legs and nearly knocked-knee front legs. The chair feels as if it is a serious play on the many great Scandinavian designs where the engineering takes center stage. In this case, however, the frame is exaggerated to a riff on vintage European wooden brutalist chairs. To complete the appeal, the curving cylindrical back is raised from the round pouf of a seat creating a void space that renders a romantic quality.

David Phoenix’s Hatton dining table for Hickory Chair was a study in how to elevate the design of an extendable table. Created from sash, the thick top is given generous proportion by the double quirk. When closed, the top rests on an airy pedestal of thin, diamond-shaped double legs that resemble a library table. When the table is open and leaves inserted, the pedestal breaks into two T-Shape bases and a refectory table comes to mind.

While the ‘80s were the heyday of the Memphis movement, Currey & Company’s Mister M table lamp brings its aesthetic to 2021, with its pairing of vivid crayon box colors and pure geometric shapes. As with Memphis, it beautifully rides the line between being art and being useful and proposes that it will be a classic in its reinterpretation. But unlike the oft-maligned and misunderstood craze, Mister M provides a much sought after accessibility for pieces that create a conversation in both the roots and forward thinking of their design.