As many contemporary designers increasingly identify as artists, making one-off furniture pieces that turn into collectible artworks, so the two creative disciplines mix and traditional boundaries dissolve. Design galleries show paintings; art fairs exhibit chairs.
The concept of ‘art furniture’ is not new, having emerged in the 19th century with the Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts movements and seen successive waves of exploration since then. Seating, in particular, has long been a vehicle for artistic expression that moves beyond function; alluring for its deep engagement with the human body, artists turn to the format as sculptural medium. Today, it feels like furniture has become a connective thread between the design and art worlds.
So as the behemoth Frieze contemporary art fair comes to London (on until 18 October), we scoured the booths of international galleries – squeezed into tents in Regent’s Park – to find the furniture bringing design to the party. Here are our seven top picks.
‘Bosa Bosa Chair 11’ (2026) by Rio Kobayashi
London-based Rio Kobayashi has garnered a following for his playful furniture pieces that often transform vintage finds with experimental carpentry and decoration. ‘Bosa Bosa Chair 11’, shown with Kate MacGarry, saw Kobayashi repair an antique oak swivel chair and decorate it with mini black and white brushes tied together with blue and red thread. The effect is part mohawk, part crazed broom.
‘Bosa Bosa’ means ‘messy hair’ in Japanese. ‘I liked the idea of repairing and transforming an old chair while adding something like hair to it,’ Kobayashi tells Wallpaper*. ‘Messy hair creates a particular sense of attachment – it can make you want to take care of someone or something.’ Kobayashi has also carved away parts of the chair, removing the dark varnish finish to reveal the raw wood beneath, and punching two holes in the backrest.
‘afterimage of beginning 026-642’ (2026) by Choi Byung Hoon
This ash wood and natural stone cabinet by Korean artist Choi Byung Hoon is presented by Busan-based Johyun Gallery. It appears as a stack of carefully balanced, sleek black boxes set in contrast with blocks of rough, organic stone; a dialogue between natural beauty and human intervention. Seoul-based Choi has carved out an important place in Korea’s art furniture market, and the gallery describes his work as merging the ‘practical object-ness of furniture’ with the ‘sophisticated aesthetics of art and a craftsman’s dexterity’.
‘Bent Around With Love Handles’ (2009) by Martino Gamper and Francis Upritchard
Turin-based Galleria Franco Noero presents an array of chairs by Italian designer Martino Gamper, including ‘Bent Around With Love Handles’, which Gamper designed with his wife, the sculptor Francis Upritchard, for an exhibition in 2009. A four-legged metal base is combined with a curved, plywood patchwork seat and bright green modelling clay sculpted to become bulbous handles.
‘Survival: Protect me…’ (2018) by Jenny Holzer
American artist Jenny Holzer makes literal statements with her work, wielding text through installation and sculpture to offer political and social commentary. In ‘Survival: Protect me…’, presented by Kukje Gallery, the words ‘protect me from what I want’ are engraved onto a bench made from dark labradorite stone. But what if what I want is to sit on her bench?
Bench by Giuseppe Ducrot
Italian sculptor Giuseppe Ducrot makes work that draws on classical and Baroque styles, interpreting these through a loose and expressive contemporary approach. 'Panca verde' (2026), his glazed ceramic bench on show with Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, possesses a decorative grandeur, and wouldn’t look out of place at a palace or cathedral – which is apt, because Ducrot regularly makes pieces for churches and cultural institutions across Europe, including Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
‘Carbonated Express’ (2026) by Steph Huang
Steph Huang’s bar cart is not conceived as a design object, but the London-based Taiwanese artist did turn to the medium of catering furniture to explore systems of mass production and commerce in the food industry. The steel and aluminium ‘Carbonated Express’ cart – on wheels and with a wooden handle carved to look like a baguette – is part of a special presentation from London’s Public Gallery dedicated to Huang’s work, which also features a playful wall light made using a Perelló olive can.
‘Day Tracker’ (2025) by Anna Gonzalez Noguchi
A series of golden, powder-coated steel stools by Anna Gonzalez Noguchi is presented by Shanghai-based Gallery Vacancy. Each stool has a Japanese kanji character cut into its seat, which correspond to the days of the week – while also referencing elements or phenomena in nature. The work, which was showcased outdoors at the Liverpool Biennial last year, is dedicated to the Japanese-Spanish artist’s grandmother, who lives with dementia and regularly records the date and weather. The stools, presented at Frieze in a circle, can be connected or dispersed in different arrangements, reflecting the potential for confusion in those affected by dementia.