PAD London 2025: A Dialogue Between Art, Design & Collecting
events
As one of the most anticipated events on the global design calendar, PAD London 2025 once again transformed Berkeley Square into a sanctuary of beauty, dialogue, and craftsmanship. This year’s edition revealed a renewed sensitivity within the world of collectible design - where concept meets material, and tradition finds new form. Across sculptural furniture, radical experimentation, and poetic craftsmanship, galleries from Paris, Dubai, Mumbai, and beyond reaffirmed that design is not just visual language but emotional architecture. Through this lens, Designeers spotlights the galleries that defined this year’s fair — those shaping the future of collectible design while honouring its enduring soul.
Æquo Gallery (Gaia Pilens TEXTILE, Valériane Lazard CONSOLE, Florence Louisy Chair, Linde Freya Tengelder)
88 Gallery (Timothy Schreiber’s Metamorphosis Console)
1. Aequo - Craft, Culture, and the Poetry of Material
Returning for its second participation at PAD London, Æquō Gallery brought the spirit of Indian craftsmanship to Berkeley Square with quiet power and precision. True to its mission, the Mumbai-based gallery continues to traverse India in search of workshops where ancestral know-how endures, then places these crafts in conversation with contemporary design. Æquō unveiled works by Gaïa Pilens, Valériane Lazard, Frédéric Imbert, and Florence Louisy. Together, their collections celebrate material poetry, from repoussé metal and embroidered textiles to sculpted teak and Makrana marble, revealing the timeless dialogue between hand, history, and imagination.
2. 88 Gallery - Material as Sculpture
At 88 Gallery, craftsmanship meets sculptural imagination. The gallery’s presentation at PAD London celebrated contemporary collectible design through pieces that blur the boundary between art and function. Among the standouts was Timothy Schreiber’s Metamorphosis Console, a sensuous interplay of form and material, featuring a Cipollino marble top and a bronze leg that seems to emerge organically from the stone. Maria Vera’s Catharsis light sculpture added an ethereal glow, its fluid geometry capturing light like an emotional pulse, while Abel Cárcamo’s Capillas de Mármol sideboard in ash wood brought architectural clarity and warmth. Together, these works reflected 88 Gallery’s curatorial ethos: a devotion to material experimentation, sculptural balance, and the timeless poetry of design.
Friedman Benda
Achille Salvagni Atelier
3. Friedman Benda - Radical Vision and Emotional Resonance
Friedman Benda presented a captivating installation conceived by Faye Toogood, titled The Magpie’s Nest. Rooted in her fascination with collecting and transformation, the presentation reimagined humble materials (wood, paper, and found objects) into poetic expressions of form and memory. The installation brought together Toogood’s sculptural works alongside pieces by Raphael Navot, Andrea Branzi, and others, creating a dialogue between nature, craft, and contemporary design. A highlight of the fair, Friedman Benda was honoured with the Contemporary Design Prize for Toogood’s Maquette 208 / Paper Chair, a piece that captures her enduring exploration of material alchemy and emotional resonance. Through this collaboration, the gallery reaffirmed its position as a leading force in collectible design, where conceptual depth and tactile craftsmanship coalesce in visionary form.
4. Achille Salvagni Atelier - An Italian Mind Meets Japanese Stillness
Achille Salvagni Atelier transported visitors into a serene world where Roman craftsmanship met Japanese purity. The booth, defined by its Japanese-inspired theme, radiated harmony - a meditation on proportion, restraint, and light. Each piece reflected Achille Salvagni’s unmistakable design language: sculptural yet soft, rooted in Italian sophistication but infused with a newfound sense of stillness.
Founded by the Roman-born architect and designer, Achille Salvagni, the atelier continues to bridge architecture, collectible design, and artful living through works that transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. At PAD, the presentation stood out for its poetic fusion of cultures - an East–meets–West dialogue that distilled Salvagni’s mastery of elegance and timeless refinement.
This was a booth of quiet power - a Japanese haiku (poem) translated into Italian craftsmanship, where material, light, and emotion came together in perfect equilibrium.
Galerie Pradier-Jeauneau
Galerie Hervé Van der Straeten (KAWAII TABLE)
5. Jérémie Pradier - French Radicality, Fluid Craftsmanship
Pradier-Jeauneau Éditions reaffirmed its reputation as a laboratory of contemporary French design - where radical ideas meet poetic craftsmanship. Founded on an editorial spirit and a commitment to sustainability, the edition champions limited, numbered pieces that push the boundaries of material, form, and meaning.
The booth radiated a quiet confidence, its sculptural rhythm anchored by a sofa and coffee table inspired by ocean waves - pieces that felt fluid, sensual, and undeniably destined as future collectibles. A brief encounter with the mysterious Jérémy Pradier only heightened the intrigue, his presence infusing the space with the same magnetic energy that defines his creations.
6. Hervé Van der Straeten - French Dynamism and Sculptural Mastery
A pioneer of French collectible design, Hervé Van der Straeten unveiled a two-part symphony at PAD London, a study in movement, material, and mastery. One series explored volume and rhythm through radical geometries, shimmering lacquers, and vivid Plexiglas, works that radiate optimism and kinetic energy. The other celebrated the designer’s cabinetmaking heritage with exotic wood marquetry, ebony and lapis cabinetry, parchment-upholstered furniture, and bronze and rock crystal lighting.
Our collectible of choice: the Kawaii Table, with a superposition of layers savagely sanded to bring out multicolored patterns, producing hypnotic effects. It embodies the gallery’s enduring dialogue between art and craftsmanship, reaffirming Van der Straeten’s legacy as one of design’s most poetic and uncompromising voices.
Sarah Myerscough Gallery (Christopher Kurtz Walnut Desk)
GAETANO PESCE AT Pulp Galerie
7. Sarah Myerscough Gallery - Material Intelligence and Contemporary Craft
A cornerstone of contemporary craft and material-led design, Sarah Myerscough Gallery returned to PAD London 2025 with one of the fair’s most poetic and intellectually grounded presentations. Founded in 1998, the gallery has long been a champion of artists working at the intersection of craft, design, and sculpture, celebrating material as both medium and message.
This year’s expanded booth brought together an extraordinary roster — from Adi Toch and Aldo Bakker to Eleanor Lakelin, Ernst Gamperl, and Julian Watts - each exploring form, tactility, and our evolving relationship with nature. We were particularly captivated by Christopher Kurtz’s exquisite walnut desk, which took centre stage: a sculptural study in balance and precision that seemed to breathe with quiet intelligence.
8. PULP Galerie - The Power of Nonconformity
Pulp Galerie delivered one of the fair’s most audacious and unforgettable statements - a booth devoted entirely to the visionary work of Gaetano Pesce. Sculptural and radical, the presentation was a celebration of nonconformity, where colour and form collided with unapologetic freedom.
From Pesce’s vivid resin furniture to the gallery’s signature curatorial boldness, every piece blurred the boundary between design and art, function and emotion. The booth embodied the spirit of Pulp Galerie: theatrical yet thoughtful, rooted in history yet bursting with irreverent energy. Founded in 2022 by Paul Ménacer-Poussin and Paul-Louis Betto, the gallery continues to champion collectible design that challenges convention - reminding us that furniture, at its most powerful, can be both object and experience.
BOOROOM Gallery
JCRD Design
9. Booroom Gallery - A Study in Stillness and Refinement
BOOROOM Gallery presented a booth that felt like a breath of fresh air: a study in stillness, clarity, and exquisite restraint. Founded by Irina Budtseva-Vinitskaya and Maxim Vinitsky, the Dubai-based gallery continues to explore the fine line between art and collectible design, curating works that balance material precision with emotional resonance.
Their presentation was a masterclass in quiet curation: new pieces by Ksenia Breivo, Charles Kalpakian, Rui Matos, Lena Solovyeva, Ariana Ahmad, and Kolya Dykhne conversed elegantly with José Zanine Caldas’s 1970s Canoe Chair, a rare historical anchor amid contemporary expression. The result was a booth that felt both fresh and timeless, a space where form met feeling in perfect stillness.
10. JCRD - The Warmth of Brazilian Modernism
JCRD Design captivated visitors with its soulful curation of mid-century Brazilian furniture, blending historical authenticity with curatorial elegance. Founded by Luiz Kessler, a Rio-born, London-based collector with an eye for design lineage, the gallery presented an ensemble that felt both scholarly and sensorial.
The booth unfolded like a living archive (an ode to Brazil’s golden era of design) featuring seminal works by Lina Bo Bardi, José Zanine Caldas, Joaquim Tenreiro, and Jorge Zalszupin. Each piece spoke to the organic warmth and sculptural clarity that define Brazilian modernism, crafted from native woods and infused with a sense of human touch. What we loved most was JCRD’s sensitivity of selection: a collection that transcends mere display to become a conversation between history, material, and emotion.
Æquō Gallery
As PAD London 2025 drew to a close, one thing was clear: the dialogue between art, design, and craftsmanship has never felt more urgent or alive. Across the fair, from Parisian ateliers to Mumbai workshops, Dubai galleries to Brazilian archives, a new generation of visionaries is reshaping the landscape of collectible design. Their work transcends function and form, offering reflections on sustainability, cultural identity, and the emotional intelligence of materials.
What united these presentations was not a single aesthetic but a shared ethos, one rooted in craft as a form of contemporary expression. Each booth, from Hervé Van der Straeten’s sculptural mastery to Æquō’s material storytelling and BOOROOM’s quiet refinement, affirmed that the most compelling design today is both human and timeless.
At Designeers, we see in this movement the future of global design culture: thoughtful, multidisciplinary, and emotionally resonant. PAD London 2025 served not merely as an exhibition but as a mirror to our collective creative consciousness, where beauty remains a universal language, and the art of making continues to bridge worlds.
Photography Credits
COVER IMAGE: Friedman Benda
Hervé Van der Straeten: PHOTOGRAPHY BY Michael Adair
Sarah Myerscough Gallery: PHOTOGRAPHY BY Stephane Aboudaram
