WITH JESSE SCHLESINGER
Jesse Schlesinger is a San Francisco-based multidisciplinary artist whose work seamlessly integrates sculpture, site-specific installations, drawing, and photography.
WITH CHELSEA RYOKO WONG
Chelsea Ryoko Wong is a San Francisco-based painter whose vibrant works celebrate human connection and cultural diversity. Raised in a mixed-race family with Chinese and Japanese American roots, her art reflects a deep engagement with identity and representation. Her paintings, rich in vivid colors and dynamic compositions, depict joyful scenes of communal life—friends sharing meals, families enjoying nature, and diverse groups engaged in everyday activities. Through these portrayals, Wong emphasizes that “we all deserve happiness and to be portrayed as such,” creating a world on canvas where inclusivity and harmony take center stage.
WITH ELEANOR HARWOOD GALLERY
Eleanor Harwood, Eleanor Harwood Gallery. Eleanor Harwood discusses her journey from an art-curious student to becoming a prominent San Francisco gallery owner, highlighting how her experience curating at Adobe Books Backroom Gallery in the early 2000s helped shape her path in the art world.
WITH VERONICA ROBERTS, CANTOR ART CENTER
Veronica Roberts, Director of the Cantor Art Center at Stanford University.
WITH SUN AT SIX
Sun at Six is a furniture design studio interested in how spaces affect our everyday choices and how we interact with others. They are a family run studio with a commitment to maintaining classical Chinese joinery, the fading traditional art form of constructing furniture without nails and screws. Together they hope to celebrate their heritage and the beautiful history of Chinese joinery craftsmanship.
WITH WHITE DIRT
White Dirt develops functional objects derived from unique sculptural forms. Their work is informed by storytelling and curiosity at the core of our explorations. They embrace the raw qualities of the materials we work with as we transform them. Each collection seeks to balance tradition, history, and contemporary vernacular.
ANNA CASTELLI FERRIERI
Born in Milan in 1918, Anna Castelli Ferrieri was a prominent Italian architect and industrial designer who made a significant impact on post-war modern Italian design.
WITH THE LONG CONFIDENCE
The Long Confidence is a small design studio based in Berkeley, California, whose focus is making contemporary heirlooms driven by quality and curiosity. Their products use a mixture of traditional and contemporary construction methods designed for a lifetime of use.
WITH JEFFREY SPAHN GALLERY
Jeffrey Spahn Gallery, a specialist in ceramic art and 20th century sculpture with a focus on American, British, and Japanese studio ceramics. His Berkeley-based gallery holds one of the largest inventories of consigned pottery and ceramic sculpture by artists such as Robert Arneson, Ruth Asawa, Hans Coper, Shoji Hamada, Gertrud and Otto Natzler, Isamu Noguchi, Lucie Rie, and Peter Voulkos. With over 20 years experience in the field, Jeffrey has worked with some of the premiere museums, universities, public and private collections in the world.
WITH SOFT STUDIO
SOFT STUDIO is a plant-focused landscape design practice based in Oakland, California. Founded by Clementine Jang and Jessie Booth who seek a curious, collaborative and exploratory attitude toward design.
WITH YVONNE MOUSER
Yvonne Mouser is an Oakland based artist, designer, and builder whose work spans furniture design, product, spaces, fine art, and events. We had the chance to visit Yvonne and chat with her about her work and inspiration.
MARIA PERGAY
This month, we’re sharing the work of Parisian furniture and product designer, Maria Pergay — best known for her iconic and innovative metal furnishings.
LINA BO BARDI
The true embodiment of the word “multifaceted,” Lina Bo Bardi’s achievements spanned fields as: architect, designer, illustrator, furniture designer, editor, curator, educator, and activist.
MARCO ZANUSO
Zanuso’s work was characterized by a willingness to combine technology and industrialization with elegant, modern designs. He was known to experiment with materials that could be reproduced more easily than traditionally handcrafted designs.
JORGE ZALSZUPIN
Though originally from Poland, Jorge Zalszupin moved to Brazil following World War II. His story is one of beautiful timing, arriving in the country at the exact moment that Oscar Niemeyer was seeing success with modern architecture.
Zalszupin’s furniture designs fit perfectly with Niemeyer’s architectural ones, and a collaboration between the two artists quickly sent Zalszupin down the path to a long and successful career.
VILHELM LAURITZEN
Lauritzen’s design style adhered to classicism until the 1930s, when his travels through Central Europe introduced him to the concept of functional architecture, the idea that design should be based, first and foremost, on function.
JEAN ROYÈRE
Jean Royère’s professional career did not start in design. He was in the import-export trade industry when he felt called to learn cabinetmaking. The rest is history.
GIUSEPPE SCAPINELLI
Scapinelli was born in Modena, studied architecture in Florence, and then eventually moved to São Paulo, where he opened the design studio that would launch his career, Atelier Scapinelli.
Like Brazilian designer Sergio Rodrigues, Scapinelli not only embraced the typical woods of the region — jacaranda, imbuia, rosewood — but his modern designs also suggest influences of Brazilian culture.
SAM MALOOF
Sam Maloof was born in Chino, California with a natural talent for woodworking.
Following his service in the army during World War II, Maloof earned a position at a local college art department, where he began designing and crafting furniture. When his creations appeared in Better Homes & Gardens magazine and the LA Times, the custom orders came flooding in and never stopped.