Search:
| View
By Designer |
 |
| View
By Manufacturer |
|
|
|
Totem Design
shows off it's stable of Swedish designers.
May
9-11, 2000
 
 Totem
Design Group, New York's leading showcase for young contemporary
design and a proponent of the Swedish design renaissance in the
United States, is proud to co-present Stockholm
New York, a three day happening featuring the very best
of Swedish lifestyle, design, fashion, music, art, food and drink,
with Swedish lifestyle magazine Stockholm New.
Taking place at the recently opened Altman building in Chelsea, Stockholm New
York feature amongst other events a large live-in exhibition of the finest contemporary
Swedish furniture and interior design. Totem Design's David
Shearer takes his successful Swedish stable of designers, including
Pia
Wallen, Trio Claesson, Koivisto
and Rune, and Bjorn Dahlstrom to the Tomas
Sandell/Designed Exhibition Space. Stockholm
New York is the third leg
of an ongoing world tour for Swedish lifestyle that began in Milan in 1998 and
went on to Tokyo last year.
Swedish Design
Swedish design culture has been flourishing for over one hundred years.
As early as the late 1800s, Swedes were making a name for themselves
in the furniture
business, with an emphasis on simplicity of form and light colors. Strongly influenced
by the Bauhaus, Swedish designers--unlike their German counterparts, who were
dispersed or co-opted by Nazism—were able to carry on the democratization
of design throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
Since the 1940's, Swedes have established a tradition of production in textiles,
glass, ceramics, furniture and flatware that seamlessly merge craft and industry.
The emphasis on economy, in both aesthetics and cost, were a natural extension
of the country's post-war social ideals. Swedish functionality and austerity
proved to be lasting principles of twentieth century design. When the first of
the square, flourish-free Volvos were introduced, for example, many shrugged
the design off as an aberration. Their functionalism turned out not only to not
be an anomaly, but rather a persistent success: as other car manufacturers struggled
with the exteriors of their vehicles, Volvo's look stayed virtually unchanged
for 20 years. This type of classic simplicity permeates contemporary design,
from Ikea furniture, to Carlson's now-famous Absolut Vodka bottle, or to the
Berling typeface by Karl-Erik Forsberg.
 Today,
The Swedish Design Movement is rapidly evolving. Its members include
rising stars Claesson, Koivisto & Rune, and many are taking notice.
Last year, Wallpaper magazine dedicated an entire issue to the current
Swedish design scene. The International Contemporary Furniture Fair held
in New York this past fall featured a number of young Swedish stars like
Thomas Sandell and Bjorn Dahlstrom at the Totem design booth. And there
are a host of new wave Swedish companies like David
Design, Asplund,
Box Mobler and CBI, all of
which are distributed in the United States by Totem Design.
Stockholm New York
In between bites of Nordic cuisine and beats from imported DJs, visitors can
also catch art exhibits, a photography show of Sweden's leading photographers,
and a collection of classic Swedish design art objects from the past 300 years.
Thursday, May 11 will climax in a party with all New York invited to share in
all that Sweden has to offer.
|
|
