Opening Tonight

Friedman Benda opens tonight on 26th Street with new limited edition furniture and glass pieces by architect Ettore Sottsass, who turned 90 this month.

The exhibition is significant not only because the work hasn't been publicly exhibited en masse before — the Design Museum London showed three of the cabinets this past spring — but also because it's the ribbon cutting for the gallery. Design dealer Barry Friedman and Marc Benda, the director of Friedman's other gallery (Barry Friedman, Ltd.), are behind the venture. In opening a gallery that specializes in design at the center of the contemporary art world, they're better positioning themselves to make the most of the convergence of the fine art and furniture markets that's seen prices for the latter shoot up and coined the term "Design Art."

Think of it as the antidote to IKEA.