Editor’s Note
PAD London returns this week for its 15th-anniversary edition, showcasing leading galleries and award-winning design until October 15th.
The must-attend design event, PAD, is back in London until Sunday, October 15th, to present its fifteenth edition. This is an opportunity to discover around sixty of the most cutting-edge galleries in the field, some of whose projects have been honored with the fair’s prestigious awards.
A major rendezvous for art and design, PAD is celebrating a double anniversary this year: its 25th year in Paris last April, and its 15th year in London, where the fair is holding its new edition until Sunday. As usual, the international-scale event has brought together the crème de la crème of modern and contemporary creation: sixty-two galleries from Europe, Asia, and North America, twelve new exhibitors, and, of course, dozens of big names in the field. While treasures signed by André Sornay, Line Vautrin, and Sergio Rodrigues, among others, recall the richness of 20th-century design, pieces imagined by contemporary design stars such as Konstantin Grcic and Sabine Marcelis can also be discovered at the stands of this new PAD London. Not to forget jewelry, another historical sector of the fair, where creators such as Elie Top and Boghossian can be found. Once again, the fair demonstrates the strong ties it maintains with leaders in the design market, particularly those based in Paris, from Laffanour / Galerie Downtown to Carpenters Workshop Gallery, including Patrick Fourtin and Galerie Kreo.
No edition of PAD would be complete without its prestigious prizes. In keeping with tradition, the London fair awards four prizes this season, including the famous Stand Prize, which honors the most successful stand among the panel of exhibitors gathered on Berkeley Square. This year, it is the nomadic gallery Objects With Narratives, founded by Belgian architect brothers, that wins the prize for a remarkable proposal orchestrating the meeting of two designers – also friends – Mircea Anghel and Vladimir Slavov. Bathed in soft light, their furniture highlights ancestral materials and craftsmanship, such as cabinetmaking or stonework, resulting in creations of great finesse that stand out for the elegance of their lines and the quality of their wood.
Winner of this year’s Contemporary Design Prize, London’s Sarah Myerscough Gallery is no stranger to success at PAD. In 2019, in London, it won not one but two prizes – this one and the Stand Prize – a feat due in part to its virtuoso wood designers such as John Makepeace, Nic Webb, and Ernst Gamperl. An astonishing mahogany cabinet earned it its award this year: created by designer Gareth Neal, the piece is made from wood scraps aggregated to form cubes of a striking terracotta color, adorned with irregular marbling. An opportunity to (re)discover historical pieces, PAD London also features an Art Deco-style wooden bar cabinet, attributed to Swedish designer Otto Schulz. Finally, the Jewelry Prize goes to gallerist Elisabetta Cipriani, who for about a decade has invited renowned artists, from Rebecca Horn to Erwin Wurm, to imagine a wearable work that is then transposed into jewelry. A singular project that embodies the entire ambition of PAD: to show that from art to life, there is only one step.
PAD London, from October 10 to 15, 2023, Berkeley Square, London.
