Best Collectible Design Galleries

Pioneers a New Way of Thinking

Making and Selling Limited Edition Designs

Whether they are established or newborn, collectible design galleries are going through a fortunate moment of valorisation and positioning on the market of the unique collectible object. As well as for the art world, fairs and opportunities for international debate have multiplied, with more and more enthusiasts or newbies interested in approaching the subject. And if until a few years ago their identity was rather uncertain, always hovering between art and historical furniture, today this group finds its place more and more recognizable, which is helping to close the circle of a more slow and intimate – albeit contemporary – which, until the arrival of the pioneering gallery owners who lead it, struggled to find its own mode of expression.top 30 of international design galleries.

Lokal, Helsinki

One of the very few independent initiatives related to collectible design in Finland, Lokal combines a gallery, an exhibition program and a curated e-commerce collection, thanks to the far-sighted vision of the founder Katja Hagelsam, who before opening it has gained a lot of experience as a furniture photographer and artwork. For her, bringing collectors closer to design means bringing something new into their world that can enrich them, because the project can take so many forms to define the present, which ultimately allows you to broaden your understanding of art in a more inclusive way. Especially today, when we all want to buy less but better.

Side Gallery and Casavells, Madrid

Telling that one of the best and most educated European gallerists, as well as the owner of one of the youngest galleries in the contemporary design scene, was a lawyer until very recently, may seem decidedly strange. Yet in the case of Side Gallery it went just like that. Luis Sendino, in just over three years, has transformed an independent reality born in a spontaneous and natural way into a successful business that is divided between the Madrid office, where the most established and international works find their home, and Casavells, the location in the countryside to give space to emerging young people at their first exhibition.

Sarah Myerscough, London

With exhibitions very focused on the material aspect of the design discipline, Sarah Myerscough’s gallery brings together objects capable of mapping productive and political social changes. Finely designed objects as much as they already seem part of a familiar landscape, because they are inserted, thanks to Sarah’s curatorial ability, in contexts in which the works contaminate and complement each other. In fact, after years of dedicating herself to the world of wood, where many works have gone to the extreme limit of the potential of this material, she has recently brought the discipline of design closer to agriculture first (with the Crop exhibition) and to geology then (with Tectonics).

Maniera, Brussels

MANIERA commissions to architects and artists collections of furniture and functional objects, however offering a digression from their usual use, crystallizing the practices of art (often inspired by space and the environment) and architecture (which has a close relationship with the visual arts) in some design practices, exactly where these disciplines meet. Led by a couple in life and work, the Belgian gallery founded in 2014 is already highly recognized on the international market for having edited many objects that deliberately seek the collision between these three sectors.

Chamber Nyc

The Manhattan gallery founded by Juan Garcia Mosqueda is an eclectic space overlooking the High Line Park and which over the years has hosted projects by courageous designers such as Maarten Baas, Marlene Huissoud, Soft Baroque, Fort Standard, Kiki Van Ejck, Irma Boom, Martino Gamper and Steven Holl. According to Juan, in recent years, designers have been dedicating themselves to what he considers humanity’s number one priority: reconnecting with the material world and re-establishing our connection with what surrounds us closely.

Atelier Jespers, Brussels

Atelier Jespers is a constantly evolving Belgian gallery: Jean Francois Declercq opened the doors of the home-studio-atelier designed in 1928 by Oscar Jespers, inaugurating it with an exhibition of works by Gerard Kuijpers and Ben Storms, but before this adventure he has been a furniture dealer for decades. Today, however, as a gallery owner, he thinks the market is too large and too fast. But in the contemporary era, objects no longer determine our lifestyle and the new goal of Atelier Jespers has become that of opening the eyes of the public to innovative proposals, focusing on an exceptional cultural educational program.

Southern Guild, Cape Town

The only African gallery in this selection, Southern Guild is actually an independent initiative for design from all over the world: leaving a sector without the expressive testimonies of an entire continent would be a truly unforgivable lack. Trevyn and Julian McGowan founded the gallery in 2008 and have since collaborated with many institutions and museums including the Vitra Design Museum, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

See..Ds, London

From See, the gallery’s own program of exhibitions and cultural dissemination and ds, the design selection that almost takes on the appearance of a concept store of limited edition productions, the London platform opened in 2016 by Nathalie Assi, former business- woman of the City. From a passion born in furnishing the home, today the space in the Kensington area enhances design as a pragmatic solution and constructive module of everything that surrounds us, collaborating with numerous international designers and curators.

Sirin, Copenhagen

Natalie Enge had very clear ideas when she decided to convert her concept store downtown, into a gallery that would focus on the works of young and emerging artists who explore the boundary between art and design. It is in fact thanks to this meeting that the way in which we furnish spaces can become more flexible and sustainable.

Functional Art Gallery, Berlin

The Berlin gallery located between the districts of Kreuzberg and Schoneberg has been led by Benoit Wolfrom and Javier Peres since 2018 – and is perhaps even the first of its kind in Germany. The two work with many established designers, such as Théophile Blandet and Finn Meier, and have edited works that have become iconic such as those in Greem Jeong’s Mono series.