In the gallery's debut presentation at Salon Art + Design, Ateliers Courbet will bring together a selection of designers and craftsmen with Pieters Maes' Editions Courbet collection acting as a focal point. The gallery will unveil its inaugural Editions Courbet collection with limited-edition furniture, exclusive to the gallery, by Belgian-born designer Pieter Maes. Materialized in collaboration with Dutch woodcrafter Rutger Graas, esteemed French upholsterer Jouffre, the stone artisans of Il Granito, and wood manufacturers of 3DW the collection reflects Maes' mature understanding of the materials, their nature, and respective craftsmanship techniques. The new designs are a modern take on timeless, archetypal forms executed with time-honored techniques.

With two series of Editions Courbet designs to be unveiled this year, at Salon and Design Miami/, Ateliers Courbet's ongoing program invites selected artists to create a limited series of designs inspired by the expertise gleaned from long lineages of craftsmanship creatively directed by gallery founder Melanie Courbet. The program reflects the original intention behind the gallery: to support today's rarefied artisans by initiating and promoting their collaborations with contemporary designers.

Through this exploration of 21st-century craftsmanship, Maes’ fluid forms in wood, upholstery, and stone result from the designer’s relationship with the European master artisans involved. Maes’ visceral appeal for archetypal forms has unleashed a personal body of work freed from the rational forms of the manufactured furniture design world where he excelled for over a decade. The designer’s vocabulary embodies his ongoing interest in the resonant quality of pure forms found in artistic expressions spanning from the Neolithic or Cycladic Periods to the primitive art expressions of modern artists including Isamu Noguchi or Brancusi among others.

Set in conversation with Maes' Fold Sofa, Palindrome, Palindrome Bench, and Ur Side Table the presentation will include a selection of works from Mauro Mori's solo exhibition at the gallery, Portraits, of hand-carved Albizia Rosa sculptural tables, the Monade and Frowning, as well as his Narciso cast brass mirror. Two lighting elements, the Monk Eye pendants, designed by Raphael Navot and materialized by the craftsmen of Ateliers Saint Jacques, and the Editions Courbet B Lamp by Thierry Dreyfus will illuminate the booth. The presentation will include an installation of porcelain works by South African artist Katherine Glenday, stoneware from Peter Speliopoulos along with London-based Valéria Nascimento's wall-mounted Black Drift triptych of hand-formed porcelain suspended on charred wood panels, and Bodo Sperlein's Contour side table.