A three-day design show at the Brooklyn Navy Yard this weekend will feature raspberry stools, quintessentially Brooklyn stoops, glass lemonade sets and more.
BROOKLYN DESIGNS, the anchor fair of the citywide NYCxDESIGN begins Friday. Founded in 2003, the event celebrates Brooklyn’s creative community by fusing together design, architecture and art. Participants include designers, architects, builders, developers, industry influencers, educators, urban planners and consumers.
The show, presented by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, features more than 60 Brooklyn-based designers and includes installations, hands-on workshops, talks and design demonstrations.
Ahead of the event, which will take place in Building 77, we selected five Brooklyn artists to pay attention to this weekend.
1. Terri Chiao and Adam Frezza, Bushwick
Chiao and Frezza’s “Cloud Stool.” Photo courtesy of the artists
Chiao and Frezza, a married couple known collaboratively as CHIAOZZA, will be showcasing “Cloud Stools,” a pair of bulbous pink paper pulp seats reminiscent of raspberries. The chairs are part of a group exhibit showcasing outdoor furniture at the William Vale in Williamsburg.
“Generally, we like to be experimentally playful,” Frezza told the Brooklyn Eagle. “Always as a collaboration, we’re set up to play games with each other.”
The couple said they’re inspired by the gritty industrial elements of Bushwick, including a trash facility, a concrete factory and metal shops that they pass on the way to their studio.
“Work going on around us is very inspiring and the feeling that anything is possible,” Frezza said. “People doing so many different things makes it feel like there’s a lot of potential in the air.”
2. Steven Bukowski, Williamsburg
Steven Bukowski. Photo by Samuel Sachs Morgan
Few images are as quintessentially Brooklyn as a stoop. This year’s event will feature an exhibition curated by Cooler Gallery called The Stoop, where multiple artists will showcase their creations. Bukowski designed a planter for the project.
“The idea is that it’s a vernacular piece of furniture even though it’s an architectural element,” Bukowski said. “So we’re paying homage to that urban piece of furniture.”
“My work is very geometric and bold as of lately,” he added. “I’ve been implementing more color and more texture, which I have historically not really worked with. I hope that my work puts a smile on people’s face. I’m just trying to make fun, playful pieces that speak to the urban experience.”
3. Devra Freelander, East Williamsburg
Devra Freelander shows off “Neon Ranges.” Photo courtesy of the artist
Freelander, a self-proclaimed millennial eco-feminist driven by concerns of climate change, will be showcasing a new series called “Neon Ranges,” featuring steel sculptures of mountains based on photographs she took while visiting the Arctic Circle.
“This line of work is all about communicating the experience of those mountains through a digital lens,” she said. “I bend the shapes of them in metal wire and they sort of look like neon lights, but they’re really analog. They’re just fluorescent spray-painted steel.”
4. Doug Johnston, Kensington
Doug Johnston. Photo courtesy of the artist
Johnston, like Bukowski, will be showcasing some work on The Stoop.
“For me personally, I like to show something a little bit different from what people might know of my work,” he said. “Most of my work is basketry or sculptural vessels made with rope that I sew together.”
For BROOKLYN DESIGNS, he’ll be creating three small glassware pieces: two tumblers and a small craft piece, which he made at Urban Glass.
5. Sophie Lou Jacobsen, Red Hook
Sophie Lou Jacobsen. Photo by Clement Pascal
Lou Jacobsen wears many hats. She’s a product designer who makes objects and furniture, but she also does interior design and graphics.
“I try to approach objects and design with a very simple and fresh perspective,” she said. “I think about objects compositionally, really how the overall geometry is working with the function and how it can be made in the most simple way possible using the least amount of materials.”
At BROOKLYN DESIGNS, she’ll be showcasing glass pieces that are part of a lemonade set.
A past project by Sophie Lou Jacobsen. Photo by Charlie Schuck
SUNSET PARK — “As a resident of Marine Park, one of the great surprises I found biking around Industry City and visiting Japan Village was to discover Bush Terminal Park. I continue to be amazed at the serene hideaways that the city offers in some of the busiest places — and, still, with an iconic view.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — ‘A miracle that no one was killed …’ That’s what neighbors are saying about the collapse of the Hotel St. George marquee. Shown in this photograph are workmen beginning the removal and repair of the historic, old neon sign at the corner, referencing a relic of Brooklyn Heights’ past: the St. George Hotel.
ATLANTIC AVENUE — Exhausted shopper with cluster of bags and goods from mall at Boerum Place stops to look at huge construction site across the street. “Is that REALLY going to be a jail??” Her male companion is reassuring, “Nothing like Rikers … this is 21st Century.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Overheard in line at one of most popular pastry outlets on Montague Street: “Hope I can get them into a camp …” A mother with two pre-schoolers in tow was showing a friend the Dodge Y flyer for Healthy Kids Day on Saturday, April 18.
