Collectible Design Galleries to Know Around the World
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From Milan’s most influential design institution to residential galleries in Miami and emerging collectible-design destinations in Dubai, Shanghai and Sydney, these are the spaces redefining how furniture, craft and functional art are collected.
Collectible design occupies an increasingly fluid space between art, furniture and contemporary craft. The most compelling galleries in the field do more than display beautiful objects: they provide context for the materials, processes and ideas behind them.
Some operate within traditional gallery settings. Others inhabit historic houses, converted industrial buildings or atmospheric residential interiors, allowing visitors to imagine how sculptural furniture and limited-edition objects might exist beyond the exhibition space.
Selected from recommendations shared by designers and creative insiders across the Designeers Destination Guides, these ten galleries represent different perspectives on contemporary collecting—and ten compelling reasons to make design part of the journey.
Nilufar Gallery | Milan, Italy
Gallery 101+ | Shanghai, China
1. Nilufar Gallery | Milan, Italy
Few galleries have influenced the international collectible-design landscape as decisively as Nilufar. Founded by Nina Yashar, the Milan gallery is known for creating unexpected conversations between historic furniture, contemporary commissions, lighting, textiles and decorative objects. Rare twentieth-century pieces appear alongside experimental work by designers shaping the future of the discipline.
The experience extends across two distinct Milan locations. The intimate Via della Spiga gallery offers a richly layered encounter with design, while Nilufar Depot transforms a former industrial building into a theatrical sequence of installations.
Selected by etereo design. Explore our Milan Design Guide.
2. Gallery 101+ | Shanghai, China
Gallery 101+ is part of a new generation of Shanghai spaces treating furniture and design objects as important expressions of contemporary culture. Its presentations combine modern furniture, collectible pieces, art and objects within layered interior settings. Rather than creating a strict distinction between gallery and showroom, 101+ uses domestic composition to demonstrate how design can shape the way a space is experienced.
For visitors, the gallery offers insight into an increasingly confident collecting culture, one in which contemporary design is not simply imported or displayed as a status symbol but placed into dialogue with history, craftsmanship and everyday life.
Selected by Studio ŪMA. Explore our Shanghai Design Guide.
Sarah Myerscough Gallery | London, United Kingdom
Dobrinka Salzman Gallery | New York, USA
3. Sarah Myerscough Gallery | London, United Kingdom
Sarah Myerscough Gallery has played an important role in elevating contemporary craft and material-led design within the wider collecting world. The gallery represents international artist-designer-makers whose work is grounded in exceptional technical knowledge. Wood, fibre, leather, stone, ceramics and experimental natural materials are transformed into sculptural objects that frequently blur the distinction between furniture, craft and fine art.
Its exhibitions demonstrate that traditional techniques do not have to result in traditional forms. Instead, craftsmanship becomes a starting point for experimentation, reinvention and contemporary cultural dialogue.
Selected by Carly Madhvani. explore our London Design Guide.
4. Dobrinka Salzman Gallery | New York, USA
Dobrinka Salzman Gallery specialises in collectible twentieth-century furniture, lighting and sculpture, with a strong focus on French, Scandinavian and American design.
Located in Chelsea, the gallery brings together pieces selected for their craftsmanship, provenance and ability to remain visually relevant beyond the period in which they were made. Sculptural seating, expressive lighting and rare furniture are presented alongside objects that sit comfortably between design and art.
For interior designers and collectors, it offers a focused alternative to the scale of New York’s larger design institutions: personal, knowledgeable and grounded in the pleasure of discovering an exceptional object.
Selected by Jessica Schuster. explore our New York Design Guide.
Michel Contessa Antiques | Miami, USA
Moderne Gallery | Philadelphia, USA
5. Michel Contessa Antiques| miami, USA
Michel Contessa Antiques is a premier destination in Miami for collectors and designers seeking exceptional 20th-century furnishings and objects. Specialising in French, Italian and American design, the gallery presents a curated selection of furniture, lighting, art and rare pieces, bringing together distinctive works with strong character and provenance.
The collection offers an eclectic yet considered perspective on 20th-century design, with pieces selected for their craftsmanship, materiality and enduring appeal. For those looking to discover singular objects beyond the conventional, Michel Contessa Antiques provides an engaging and richly varied destination for collecting.
Selected by Ransom & Dunn. Explore our Miami Design Guide.
6. Moderne Gallery | Philadelphia, USA
Moderne Gallery is one of the most important American destinations for studio furniture, ceramics and material-led design of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The gallery has particular authority in the American Studio Craft movement, presenting work by figures such as George Nakashima and Wharton Esherick alongside significant ceramicists, woodworkers and contemporary makers.
Natural timber, expressive ceramics and sculptural furniture are given enough space to disclose the marks of their production. The emphasis is not simply on rarity, but on material intelligence, integrity and enduring artistic conviction.
Selected by Leah Kaplan. Explore through our Philadelphia Design Guide.
Collectional | Dubai, UAE
Studio Gardner | Sydney, Australia
7. Collectional | Dubai, UAE
Collectional reflects Dubai’s rapidly developing position within the international collectible-design market.
The gallery and design platform presents limited-edition furniture, functional art and bespoke works by established and emerging designers from the Middle East and further afield. Its programme connects international design with the region’s growing community of collectors, architects and creative practitioners.
Collectional represents an important shift within Dubai’s design culture: from importing recognised international names towards building a more sustained platform for collecting, commissioning and discussing contemporary design within the region.
Selected by Omar Nakkash. explore through our Dubai Design Guide.
8. Studio GARDNER | Sydney, Australia
Studio Gardner is a Sydney gallery dedicated to collectible contemporary works by Australian and international artists and makers. Contemporary furniture, sculpture, lighting and material-led objects are presented alongside carefully sourced vintage pieces. The collection is connected not by one period or aesthetic, but by craftsmanship, material integrity and the ability of an object to bring character to a space.
Its light-filled residential atmosphere encourages a slower form of looking. Pieces are positioned with enough breathing room to be considered individually, while subtle relationships between furniture, art and decorative objects emerge throughout the gallery.
Selected by Jillian Dinkel. explore through our Sydney Design Guide.
Newhouse Gallery | Amsterdam, Netherlands
A La Turca House | Istanbul, Turkey
9. Newhouse Gallery | Amsterdam, Netherlands
Newhouse Gallery deliberately blurs the boundaries between contemporary art, photography, craft and collectible design.
Rather than separating disciplines into distinct categories, the Amsterdam gallery creates exhibitions in which furniture, sculpture and artworks inform one another. The approach encourages visitors to consider objects through context: how their meaning changes according to the architecture around them and the other pieces placed nearby.
The gallery supports both emerging and established artists, with particular attention given to Dutch makers and the continuing relevance of the country’s arts-and-crafts traditions.
Selected by Even Eleven. explore through our Amsterdam Design Guide.
10. A la turca House | istanbul, TURKEY
A La Turca House is a four-storey townhouse in Istanbul’s Çukurcuma district, where antique textiles, ceramics, furniture and decorative objects are brought together in an atmosphere that feels closer to a private collector’s home than a conventional shop.
Founded by collector Erkal Aksoy, the house reflects a longstanding interest in Anatolian kilims, Ottoman textiles and objects shaped by Turkey’s layered cultural history. Antique rugs and fabrics sit alongside ceramics, globes, metalwork and other curiosities, creating a collection that feels accumulated rather than formally arranged.
More than an antique shop, A La Turca offers a distinctive encounter with Turkey’s material heritage, where objects, interiors and history come together.
Selected by Özge Özturk. explore our Istanbul Design Guide.
Collecting Beyond Categories
What connects these galleries is not a single aesthetic, material or period. It is a shared belief that furniture and functional objects can carry artistic, cultural and emotional value.
Their programmes demonstrate how greatly the field of collectible design has expanded. An important piece might emerge from an established Milanese institution, a Hollywood residence, a Sydney gallery, a Dubai commission or a South African furniture workshop.
The environments in which these pieces are presented are equally significant. Architecture, light and neighbouring objects can alter how we understand scale, texture and purpose. By creating richer settings around design, these galleries invite visitors to look beyond function and consider the ideas, histories and human processes embedded within the objects with which we live.
Discover more galleries, makers, studios, hotels and architectural destinations through the Designeers Destination Guides.
COVER IMAGE: Studio Gardner | Sydney, Australia
Explore all Destination Guides here.
