Nina Yashar of Nilufar Gallery always brings it to Salone del Mobile, and this season she has raised the bar even higher with a series of vignettes from her current darlings, under the headline ‘The Bright Side of Design’.

In Nilufar‘s cavernous Depot by the Lancetti tram stop in Milan’s Zona Farini, Yashar has invited Objects of Common Interest, the Greek-American duo of Eleni Petaloti and Leonidas Trampoukis, to install a spectre of iridescent acrylic pieces, each resembling parts of a whole but wholly functional on their own. The almost anthropomorphic presence is heightened by diaphanous drapery hanging between the objects from the steel skeleton of the former silverware factory.

Her co-curator Valentina Ciuffi, of Milan’s Studio Vedèt, says they are meant to explore the concept of light and magic through their materiality and geometry, like hardened jelly. The liquid resin solidified in the process can be melted back to its original matter. The title of the exhibition, ‘Poikolos’, refers to the Ancient Greek characterisation of a snake’s translucent, reflective skin when shed. The seats and tables absorb and reflect the light and shadow around them in situ.

But wait, there’s more. At Yashar’s gallery proper, on Via della Spiga, she explores high-end, avant-garde collectible design by bringing together several bedfellows experimenting with materiality and form. Alongside the otherworldly resin tables by Flavie Audi, she has invited French expressionist Audrey Large to showcase her fluid 3D-printed objects, like mutable Play-Doh moulds finished with silk and metallic sheen. And she displays a solar system of bulbous glass items by the Italian duo of Draga & Aurel, under the title ‘Space Couture’.

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