Rafael de Cardenas has a story that exemplifies how his ever-growing
reputation for vivid, colorful, somewhat surreal interiors has spun out of
control: “We did a project in Kiev that was all chrome, black leather, bronze mirrors, that kind of thing. Like, pretty nutty stuff,” he recalls. “But the client thought it was too tame. They said to me, 'This isn’t what I was expecting.’” But if you’ve been inside his shrink-wrapped
Cappellini pop-up shop in New York for OHWOW last winter (or the New York
Minute II exhibition he designed for curator Kathy Grayson, currently on
show at Moscow’s Garage Center), you know that such expectations come with
the territory of being an inimitable, highly in-demand practitioner of
interior design that sometimes borders on Op Art. And de Cardenas’s first
furniture collection, which goes on display at
Johnson Trading Gallery
tonight through June 25, doesn’t disappoint. Inspired initially by a simple
Bruce Goff table, the series has the playful colors, geometry, and
modularity of “a set of kids’ wooden building blocks,” says de Cardenas of
the very limited editions. “There’s a fantastical quality about all the
pieces, especially when you see them together. It’s like a magic garden.”
Below, samples from the collection: