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Gallery FUMI has announced a major New York residency at Galerie56 in Tribeca, expanding its international programme. The three-month collaboration launches with Materials of Joy: FUMI in New York, a group exhibition running from April 9 – May 23, 2026. The design exhibition forms the first chapter of a two-part exhibition series that will unfold during the London-based design gallery’s stay in the city through July this year. “Forgoing a singular theme, Materials of Joy showcases the core of FUMI’s ethos: a devotion to the conceptual while grounded in traditional craft in ways that haven’t been seen before,” Gallery FUMI notes in an official release.
Bringing together more than 15 contemporary designers and artists, including Max Lamb, Rowan Mersh, Sam Orlando Miller and Jesse Schlesinger, among others, Materials of Joy: FUMI in New York foregrounds material histories and hand-led processes, highlighting practices that push the boundaries of contemporary design while remaining grounded in artisanal techniques and traditional craftsmanship.
At the centre of the exhibition are several new works that articulate FUMI’s focus on technique and materiality. Miller presents Stella Stellata, a large-scale mirror that builds on his Stella Nuova series, introducing increased geometric complexity and questioning the notion of a fixed centre. “Many of the mirror works incorporate rotational symmetry that is subtly and deliberately disrupted by framing them within an ovoid form containing more than one centre. This approach questions the very idea of a fixed centre,” the contemporary design gallery notes.
Schlesinger debuts new sculptural and functional pieces that “fuse ancestral knowledge of trees with the sharp vernacular of contemporary America”, FUMI explains. The product designs combine carved wood with iridescent automotive paint, creating surfaces that shift dynamically with light and movement.
Athens-based studio Voukenas Petrides contributes Volumetric Console, cast in white bronze using the ancient lost-wax process. “In this labour-intensive technique, a wax model acts as a temporary intermediary between a gypsum mould and molten metal. The resulting form balances expressive structure with a refined sensitivity to materiality, light and spatial presence,” notes the design gallery.
Francesco Perini presents furniture pieces that seamlessly unite oak and Patagonia quartzite using refined Tuscan marquetry techniques. Further, ceramicist Johannes Nagel introduces new works featuring gold and lustre glazes, whose tonal variations are shaped by the interplay of heat, density and light.
Additional works by Emma Witter, JAMESPLUMB, Jochen Holz, Shinta Nakajima and Study O Portable round out Materials of Joy.
“Directors Sam Pratt and Valerio Capo have cultivated a strong US audience as part of their global strategy since co-founding the gallery. Presenting FUMI’s program in New York in collaboration with Galerie56 is the duo’s latest step in deepening its reach and presence in the States,” Gallery FUMI concludes.
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