British designer Faye Toogood returns to New York with her evocative new collection Lucid Dream, now on view at The Future Perfect in the West Village and TIWA Select in Tribeca through June 21. The exhibition blurs the line between fine art and functional furniture, showcasing hand-painted works that evolve from intuitive gestures into bold, tactile statements.
Timed just ahead of the NYCxDesign Festival, Lucid Dream reflects Toogood’s meditative and experimental approach to furniture-making, as each piece in the collection becomes a canvas for painted improvisations rooted in emotional and atmospheric memory.
A Sculptural Dialogue Between Furniture and Art
At the heart of Lucid Dream is a desire to dissolve the boundaries between object and artwork. Each furniture piece—ranging from the iconic Roly Poly Dining Table set to selections from the Gummy collection—has been fabricated by small-scale artisans and completed by hand at Toogood’s London studio.
According to David Alhadeff, founder of The Future Perfect, the exhibition offers a sensorial entry into Toogood’s world: “It feels like stepping into a moody evening with Faye,” he said. The gallery’s townhouse space is transformed into a theatrical, living installation, where painted motifs wind across surfaces like fleeting thoughts.
These painterly expressions—marked by spontaneous brushstrokes and irregular shapes—imbue the furniture with emotional texture, grounding Toogood’s work firmly in both the art and design spheres.
TIWA Select: A Nocturnal Interpretation
While The Future Perfect presents Lucid Dream as a vibrant daydream, TIWA Select reveals the collection’s more introspective side. In the Tribeca studio, Toogood leans into nocturnal themes with crumpled lighting sculptures made from Japanese paper, each hand-painted with gestural linework. The pieces appear almost like illuminated sketches, flickering between form and abstraction.
Alex Tieghi-Walker, founder of TIWA, praised Toogood’s ability to reframe the boundaries of craftsmanship: “Lucid Dream really speaks to the power of handmade, one-off design. Faye is one of the few designers today who can anchor a concept across two galleries with such radical clarity and emotion.”
This two-part exhibition structure allows for layered interpretations—daylight and dreamscape, object and idea—positioning Toogood’s latest work as a poetic conversation with space and perception.
A Dream Made Tangible Through Craft
Lucid Dream is not merely a furniture collection; it is a meditation on making. Rooted in spontaneity and deeply personal mark-making, each piece offers viewers a moment to reconsider the boundaries of design and its relationship with the self.
As NYCxDesign invites the international community to explore new frontiers in creative expression, Toogood’s dual-gallery debut stands as a testament to design’s potential as a medium of emotional storytelling—one that is as much about process as it is about outcome.
The exhibitions are open to the public until June 21, 2025, offering a rare opportunity to experience a body of work that embodies both fine art nuance and tactile, usable form.