A Gallery Conceived as a Dialogue
Parisian designer Laura Gonzalez has opened a new exhibition titled Landscapes at her Franklin Street gallery space in New York, marking a notable evolution in her practice. The show presents a curated dialogue between Gonzalez’s latest design pieces and the atmospheric paintings of French artist Fabien Conti. Rather than functioning as a traditional showroom, the space has been reimagined as an art gallery, emphasizing conversation between disciplines and blurring boundaries between design, art, and craft.
Gonzalez describes the concept as a “gallery inside the gallery,” where landscape is explored not as a literal subject but as an idea expressed through texture, pattern, material, and form. The exhibition reflects her continued interest in material experimentation while shifting toward a more contemplative, art-driven presentation. By pairing her work with Conti’s paintings, the exhibition invites visitors to consider how objects and images can respond to one another within a shared spatial and conceptual framework.
Lighting as Sculptural Centerpiece
At the center of Landscapes is a new series of sculptural lamps designed by Gonzalez, created specifically for this exhibition. Only eight editions of the lamps will be produced, underscoring their experimental and collectible nature. Made in Paris from ecological resin and set on marble bases, each lamp is unique in color, texture, and translucency due to the complexity of the material and production process.
The lamps are arranged as a clustered installation, forming a luminous core within the gallery. Their softly irregular volumes and shifting tones change subtly depending on the light, reinforcing the exhibition’s focus on natural variation and organic form. Gonzalez has noted that the unpredictability of the resin is part of its appeal, allowing each piece to develop its own identity rather than conforming to a uniform design language.
This emphasis on uniqueness aligns with Gonzalez’s broader approach to design, which often prioritizes craftsmanship and material expression over standardization. In Landscapes, lighting functions not merely as a practical object but as a sculptural presence that anchors the exhibition visually and conceptually.
Paintings and Furniture Shaped by Terrain
Facing Gonzalez’s lamps are Fabien Conti’s paintings, which form the second half of the exhibition’s central dialogue. Conti’s works are characterized by gestural brushstrokes, diffused color fields, and a sense of suspended movement. The paintings shift between cool greens and warmer gradients, evoking atmospheric depth rather than defined imagery. Their softness and radiance echo the organic qualities of the lamps, reinforcing the exhibition’s theme of landscape as sensation rather than representation.
Beyond lighting and painting, Landscapes also includes a selection of handcrafted furniture pieces that extend the topographic concept into functional design. Works such as the Quilt table, Relief chair, and Colline sofa explore ideas of elevation, layering, and erosion through line and volume. The Quilt table combines linear color fields across a resin surface with sculpted wooden legs, while the Relief chair features carved undulations that suggest terrain shaped over time.
Together, these pieces demonstrate how Gonzalez translates abstract ideas of landscape into tangible forms. Craft techniques, material choices, and subtle irregularities play a central role, reinforcing the exhibition’s emphasis on process and physicality.
A Shift Toward Material-Led Experimentation
Landscapes signals a broader shift in Laura Gonzalez’s practice toward a more experimental and gallery-focused mode of presentation. While she remains committed to interior design and functional objects, this exhibition places greater emphasis on artistic dialogue and material research. By collaborating with a younger artist and limiting production runs, Gonzalez positions the work within a space that values exploration over commercial repetition.
The exhibition also reflects a growing trend within contemporary design toward cross-disciplinary engagement, where designers operate simultaneously as artists, curators, and material researchers. In this context, Landscapes functions as both an exhibition and a statement about how design can engage with broader cultural and artistic conversations.Through its careful staging and restrained palette, the show encourages slow viewing and close attention to detail. Visitors are invited to move through the space as they would a landscape, observing subtle shifts in color, light, and texture. In doing so, Landscapes offers a considered reflection on how objects and images can shape shared experiences of space and material.
