‘Forma & Estetica’ observes Italian design’s enduring influence via contemporary forms

From May 6 – August 16, 2025, Carpenters Workshop Gallery in New York opens its doors to Forma & Estetica, an exhibition that hums with the legacy of Italian design. In the gallery specialising in harbouring functional art and collectable design, the ongoing show gathers a chorus of past and present voices reflecting Italy’s enduring dialogue between beauty and utility, craft and industry, memory and imagination. Curated with soft pastels inspired by Palazzo Venezia and designed by Jean de Piépape, the works inhabiting the exhibition space seem to speak in hushed tones, offering reflections on the nature of design as both object and idea.

At the heart of the design exhibition are contemporary artists Vincenzo De Cotiis and Giacomo Ravagli, two Milan-based designers who embody the spirit of modern Italian design with reverence and rebellion in equal measure. De Cotiis, known for his architectural sensibility, presents nine sculptural pieces seemingly excavated from some futuristic ruin. His DC1909A chandelier recalls traditional Japanese chochin lanterns, but its brass and Murano glass materials push it into another era. In the DC2101 coffee table, time is etched into the hand-patinated bronze, reflecting a material history both industrial and intimate.

In contrast, Ravagli’s seven works channel the weight and stillness of stone. His Barometro Floor Lamp 3.3 Giallo Siena is a sculpture first, light source second. With its sharply faceted marble base and brass crown, the lamp design positions itself as a contemporary relic—one that draws on Renaissance ideals of proportion, while slicing through space with modern angularity. In his showcased product designs, he pursues an elegance in the tension of forms—the geometry emerges at odds with the stone’s solidity.

Interwoven throughout the presentation are works by 20th-century luminaries—masters who shaped Italian design into a global language. The Vetrocoke Offices Desk from 1939 by Gio Ponti, known as the father of modern Italian design, remains startlingly modern, balancing Vitrex glass and wood with ease. His Lounge Set, Sofa, made in collaboration with Italian designer Emilio Lancia, encapsulates the duality of rationalism and sensuality, formality and comfort.

Gabriella Crespi, another key figure in the Italian creative landscape, brings a sculptural and eclectic approach to furniture design, jewellery and lighting in Forma & Estetica. Her Kaleidoscope lighting design gleams with brass facets, casting a light that feels celestial. The work is reminiscent of cosmic influences and Crespi’s characteristic fusion of beauty and spiritual semantics.

These dialogues—between artists and artisans, the weight of history and the lure of innovation—are explored at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery through contemporary designs. Since its beginnings in a former carpenter’s workshop in London, the gallery has evolved into an international platform for collectible design that redefines the conventional boundaries of art and function. With its commitment to artisanal production and research, the gallery aspires to shape what it means to live with art.

Forma & Estetica becomes an extension of this ethos—a meditation on Italian design’s capacity to transform space, time and offer viewers a different perspective. Together, the showcased works—from furniture and lighting to functional sculptures—underline Italy’s enduring influence on design, tracing its journey from the early 20th-century to its contemporary evolution.

‘Forma & Estetica’ is on view from May 6 – August 16, 2025, at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in New York.