The highly anticipated Design Council preview of the 2022 San Francisco Fall Show took place on Tuesday, October 11. Design Council members – and 2019 Show Vignette Designers – Cecilia Sagrera-Hill and George Brazil of SagreraBrazil Design kindly agreed to share their first impressions, and personal favorites.
Cecilia states: “There is always at least one piece at the San Francisco Fall Show, a piece that just simply takes your breath away and pulls at your heart strings. For me there are two so far: Lucy Glendinning’s Together I sculpture at Waterhouse and Dodd (left), the emotion in this piece is overwhelming. The other item that immediately caught my eye is the French Chinoiserie polychrome painted six-panel paper screen (right): the various scenes and storytelling around the exterior edge of each panel is something I have not seen before.”
George says: “My breath was taken away by the oversized, incredibly mesmerizing, abstract by David Leverett, entitled The Wound (1988), at Henry Saywell”.
Cecilia and George concur: “What we saw and loved this year are the various screens throughout the show. They are such a versatile piece, whether a room divider, behind a sofa, behind a headboard to create depth and be the artwork above the bed without having to hang it or simply as artwork either flat or folded. Their usage has endless possibilities. We love the idea of taking 18th century panels and transporting them to a 21st century high rise condominium – a space stripped of architectural detailing – to showcase the beauty of hand-painting and delicate detail work that can only be admired from close up. This series from Galerie Steinitz can be incorporated down a hallway to bring life to a transitioning space”.
“The 17th century Dutch Baroque polychrome painted and gilt leather 8-panel screen from Philip Stites is another showstopper”.
“At Galen Lowe, we spotted a beautiful 18th century Japanese Edo Period screen with colored medallions on a finely painted ground, each with a poem (left) and an equally stunning Japanese Meji Period three-circle screen (right)”.
“Lighting has endless possibilities – but when you stumble upon a beautiful 1950’s stylized sculpted hand grasping a circular section sconce – you can’t resist the texture, or the emotion of the grasping hands. You could place these in a beautiful contemporary space, but what if you paired them with a chinoiserie wallpaper to play off each other in a cozy space (a powder room perhaps)? A small and subtle tongue-in-cheek moment that make us all smile!”
“A great example of mixing eras is through accessories – at Hyde Park Antiques we discovered James Bearden, an artistic welder whose smaller sculptural functional pieces take center stage displayed upon antique Chinese marble top tables with antique mirrors above – just because one is contemporary/modern, and the other antique doesn’t mean they can’t live in the same home and live in harmony”.
Cecilia loves this “jewelry as art” from Kentshire: “Who wouldn’t want to wear these? I sure would!”
“Last but not least, there’s floor art – art that keeps your feet warm. Take a living room with modern/contemporary furniture and a pale color palette, mix in an antique one-of-a-kind area rug – art for your feet, and a perfect balance. Love the color palette of this Tony Kitz area rug”.
By Cecilia Sagrera-Hill and George Brazil, SagreraBrazilDesign