For Salon Art + Design 2021, we are thrilled to be showing some of the most engaging artists from our roster: Chen Chen & Kai Williams, Ian Collings and Karl Zahn. We have specially curated this presentation with regard to the unique character of the works included.

Using natural undertones as a backdrop for such elemental pieces, we have sought to create a special ecology of artworks that show an interaction between mountains and skies; stone and air. The monolithic presence of Ian Collings’ stonework is both juxtaposed with and complemented by the ethereality of Zahn’s elegant objects, while Chen & Kai’s mirrors and table corroborate the entire composition, using stone and abstract imagery that is both airy and fluid. Under the canopy of the Park Avenue Armory’s magnificent and historical architecture, we have endeavored to make a world within a world.

We will be showing some exemplary pieces from Chen & Kai’s Transition series, which includes mirrors and reflective tables. With poured surfaces evocative of shan shui paintings, the Transition series stands up in the landscape of contemporary design as an instant classic. Ian Collings’ stone sculptures show the artist’s singular and undeniable understanding of materiality as an exercise in impermanence. They are clearly purposefully made while appearing to have always existed. We will be showing a selection of free-standing and wall-mounted pieces, all of which highlight Collings’ absolute literacy in his medium. Karl Zahn has produced a stunning new collection of illuminated sculptures, in which he has implemented LED lighting as both a light source and a sculptural element. Zahn’s work engages with the ideas of contour, shape and light as perspectival, modular aspects of the visual experience.

Salon Art + Design, produced by Sanford L. Smith + Associates, is returning for its 10th Anniversary to the Park Avenue Armory in New York City from November 11-15, 2021.