This Time Tomorrow

Gaetano Pesce, the 83-year-old master designer who has hovered at the intersection of experimental architecture and idiosyncratic design for the past six decades, sets his sights on Los Angeles.

BY JOSHUA GLASS

THE LAST TIME Gaetano Pesce set foot in Los Angeles, it was to debut a selection of cast-resin objects—spunky vases, flamboyant seating, and two-dimensional reliefs that he termed “industrial skins” for his 2016 exhibition “Molds (Gelati Misti)” at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Pacific Design Center. Much has changed in the nearly seven years since, including the permanent closure of the LA institution’s mausoleum-esque concrete space.

For his own part, the 83-year-old master designer has ascended to new heights in his dynamic practice, which has hovered at the intersection of experimental architecture and idiosyncratic design for the past six decades. Chaotically modern, the Gruppo N artist’s creations aren’t restricted by dimensionality, and find harmony, somehow, between organic materials and new technology. This past year alone, he staged “Nobody’s Perfect” at the Sea World Culture and Arts Center in Shenzhen, China, his debut solo showing in Asia; enclosed the Aspen Art Museum in a 3-D mountainous landscape; and collaborated with the fashion brand Bottega Veneta on a runway design and prismic Art Basel installation, “Come Stai? ”

Now Pesce returns to the City of Angels to open “Dear Future,” the designer’s first-ever solo exhibition with a Los Angeles gallery. The six-week show at The Future Perfect’s Arthur S. Heineman–designed Goldwyn House in the Hollywood Hills includes an array of never-before-seen works—including the blue and pink iteration of the “Nobody’s Perfect” chair and console table pictured in these pages—along with rarely exhibited objects on loan from Pesce’s studio archives and cult limited-edition pieces, including a cork rendition of the B&B Italia “UP5_6” armchair that was first shown at Miami Design Week 2021. But despite the exhibition’s career-spanning offering, “Dear Future”—as its name suggests—is not a retrospective.

“It centers on the future, a concept central to my creative practice,” notes Pesce. “It’s only fitting that the exhibition takes place in a metropolis that has become a creative capital of the world—a future-forward city where the arts act as a catalyst for critical conversations happening globally.”