Forom Brings Playful Contemporary Design to New York With a New Pop-Up
For one week only, a Brooklyn-based design shop is bringing a selection of handmade contemporary furnishings and home decor items to Manhattan with Aire De Jeaux, a pop-up exhibition in Tribeca. Named for the Roman Forum, the ancient marketplace hub, Forom partners with an extensive list of European designers, many of which are on display, including Dagmar, Dusty Deco, Six Dots, and Made by Choice.
“A lot of pieces that we have are the kind of functioning arts pieces,” says Forom’s creative director, Jessie Yoon. “To make each piece stand out, we wanted to make it more like a gallery.”
To do this, she created a carefully orchestrated display that highlights each item but flows together organically. A striking stone plinth with a stainless steel crown by Forom is topped with a shapely Balloon Vase by Louise Roe. A modern armchair in a sumptuous brown fabric by Noom is paired with a Cappelen Dimyr hand-woven wool rug with floral motifs inspired by the decorative wall designs in Copenhagen’s historic buildings. In the beautiful loft setting of AG Studios, white-brick walls, dark-wood floors and large arched windows add to the relaxed gallery atmosphere.
Central to the exhibition is a sense of whimsy. “We try to make it kind of playful and simple because that’s also what we like most of the time,” Yoon says. “So we display it in a kind of playground theme.” Futuristic oversized floor lamps with round faces emerge from a sandy surrounding—an homage to the sand of playgrounds. The striking Ukrainian-made lighting pieces by Faina are inspired by the sunflower (Ukraine’s national flower) and are fully biodegradable.
Against one wall, a quartet of mushroom-shaped ceramic lamps in vibrant colours and patterns are the creations of the Brooklyn-based artist behind Streitcher Goods—a collaboration that came about as his studio is in the same building as Forom’s Greenpoint showroom—while armchairs with exaggerated curving legs by Dusty Deco beckon visitors.
The pop-up also marks an opportunity to highlight Forom’s new collection, Nature Revisited, which reimagines forms of nature in a modern reinterpretation. Nods to the natural world are recurring, from a lake-shaped chairback to the impressive stone form of the Poly Lounge Table.
“A lot of our pieces are inspired by nature,” Yoon says. “It comes from very something simple—ordinary pieces from everyday life, something like rocks or the waters or the clouds and the simple things from nature.” A collection standout is the Marea Lounge Chair, a low, wave-like modular chair made from stainless steel arranged at the pop-up in a group of four to resemble a playground slide.
Each piece in the show is a work of art, but unlike in a traditional gallery, visitors are encouraged to try out the furniture items. “I love to go to exhibitions,” Yoon says. “Something that, instead of just looking at, I can touch and sit in and try it. You feel more part of it.”
Forom’s Aire De Jeaux is open from now through January 18, at AG Studios at 52 Walker Street, Third Floor, New York, New York.
Photographs by Outsiders LA.