"I've always been a fan of Art Nouveau," explains the designer Amy Lau. "It appeals to me because it embraces its natural form." Lau is speaking to me in the midst of a frenzied week of preparations for the Salon Art + Design, where she's been invited to create an installation among the booths of venerable vendors who will be bringing treasures of art and design to the Park Avenue Armory for the show. When Lau's completed room was unveiled at Salon's opening night on Thursday, guests marveled at her dreamlike space, where period pieces of Art Nouveau furniture blended with contemporary design, Roberto Burle Marx jewelry, and more—even the fabrics and wall coverings were custom-conceived to fit into Lau's magical world.
"The great thing about Art Nouveau is that there’s no separation between fine arts and decorative arts; they're on the same plane," explains the designer. Indeed, from the custom Calico wall panels to a showstopping fireplace by Michael Coffey to art from Macklowe Gallery, the line between the functional and the decorative is nearly nonexistent here; instead, the focus is on the rich detail and reference to nature inherent in Art Nouveau style. "Art Nouveau is all about luxe," Lau proclaims. "And I'm showing that in many ways. We have an incredibly rare Tiffany lamp; Philip Hattier, the upholsterer, made the sofa, and it's meant to look like a butterfly cocoon. Rosie Li is debuting a new chandelier here, inspired by ginkgo leaves."
As Lau jumps excitedly from piece to piece in conversation—and on her Instagram, where she teased many of the featured items before opening night—her passion for the project is clear. What's also evident is the seamlessness between the historic and contemporary items. "All the pieces are connected and they all have this dialogue," Lau explains. "I think that’s the most important thing."
Of course, the most obvious connecting factor is the color scheme, a lush pinkish-purple. "The color palette was inspired by mineralogy," Lau explains. "That was a big inspiration in Art Nouveau. I was inspired by rose quartz, and I made up my own color—a watered-down Benjamin Moore, and I used that custom color on the wall and inset panels."
The color is meant to reference Louis Comfort Tiffany's Cypriote, a technique developed based on a piece of ancient Roman glass discovered in the Cyprus region. "Everything in it looks like refractures of light," Lau explains.
Representing the artful interpretation of light on the contemporary end of the spectrum is Dutch designer Germans Ermičs, whose colored glass table and chair cast kaleidoscopic patterns on the booth's white carpet. "Glass is usually super-cold, and it's a challenge to make it feel warm, so I do that with light," Ermičs explains. "For me, the work takes on a more 3-D shape with color; it becomes complete on the floor when the light hits." We imagine Louis Tiffany himself would have quite happily agreed.
See Lau's installation at Salon Art + Design through November 13. thesalonny.com
