Is it art? Is it furniture? Is there a distinction? These are questions designer Brian Thoreen answers in his provocative work, which ranges from curved glass tables, weighed down by cast bronze blocks, to blown glass “melted” over angular handcrafted metalwork. Sometimes his designs are obviously quite functional and categorical, other times artistic merit outweighs function. Either way, his works highlight and draw on the power inherent in his chosen materials, and Thoreen thrives in the spaces in between.
Thoreen had explored a range of disciplines and mediums before committing to furniture design. He filled his 20s with experimentation with painting, fabrication, building, welding, architecture and fashion — but he always came back to making furniture. Thoreen studied painting in community college, though much of his talent in design is a culmination of experience he amassed through jobs along the way. He worked as an art installer at Kayne Griffin Gallery, a carpenter at Southern California architecture firm Marmol Radziner and also founded his own gallery MASA and experimental glassmaking collective, VISSIO.
While Thoreen has found a renewed vigor since relocating to Mexico in 2017, the 1960s and '70s Los Angeles art scene informs much of his work. Thoreen learned firsthand from many artists of the era including James Turrell, Ed Ruscha, Larry Bell and Robert Irwin. These visual artists, who were associated with the period's Light and Space movement, explored light in relation to geometric abstraction and minimalism, which resurface as themes in Thoreen’s furniture.
Thoreen’s Cantilever tables and Reaching Console in his sculptural Unsettled collection, which was exhibited at Patrick Parrish’s gallery in New York City in 2017, feature a sublime marriage of marble, smoked glass and cast bronze, and the components are not held together by the typical hardware associated with these kinds of structures — none of the pieces use fasteners of any kind.
With his prioritization of minimalism and the honesty of the materials, Thoreen endeavored to ensure that his pieces wouldn’t need any fasteners secured by screws to stand on their own, relying instead on what he knew about mass and space (a set of bronze counterweights is doing the heavy lifting on the collection's Console). As such, like each of the designer’s works, they’re striking statement pieces in any space — “unsettled” or not.
On 1stDibs, find a collection of Brian Thoreen decorative objects, storage case pieces and lighting.
$6,900
Burnout 4
By Emiliano Godoy, Brian Thoreen, Héctor Esrawe
Located in Mexico City, MX
Burnout sculptural vessels by Héctor Esrawe, Emiliano Godoy, and Brian Thoreen, are a formal study of entropy as expressed through sequential degradation of a wood mold by the glass ...
Glass
Burnout 4 Hand Blown Glass Decorative Vase
By Emiliano Godoy, Héctor Esrawe, Brian Thoreen
Located in Mexico City, MX
Burnout sculptural vessels by Héctor Esrawe, Emiliano Godoy, and Brian Thoreen, are a formal study of entropy as expressed through sequential degradation of a wood mold by the glass ...
Glass
Price Upon Request
Brian Thoreen Vessel 2
By Brian Thoreen
Located in Brooklyn, NY
One of three vessels developed as the material maquette's for Brian Thoreen's larger works. Comprised of a cast bronze bowl, grey marble and grey glass. Also available in brown or re...
Marble, Bronze
Price Upon Request
Brian Thoreen Vessel 3
By Brian Thoreen
Located in Brooklyn, NY
One of three vessels developed as the material maquette's for Brian Thoreen's larger works. Comprised of a cast bronze vessel, red marble and grey g...
Marble, Bronze
Price Upon Request
Brian Thoreen Vessel 1
By Brian Thoreen
Located in Brooklyn, NY
One of three vessels developed as the material maquette's for Brian Thoreen's larger works. Comprised of a cast bronze bowl, red marble top and bronze glass base. The height of a sma...
Marble, Bronze
Ctenophora Octagonal Vessel
By Lorenzo Franceschinis
Located in Tricesimo, IT
Ctenophora literally means "comb carrier" in reference to some archaic marine organisms that display radial structures. Most of my work is based on simple shapes, recurrent in natur...
Walnut
Vintage Fused Glass Footed Vase, Hand Blown Art Glass
Located in Clifton Springs, NY
Sculptural vintage vase is decorated with free-flowing fused red and yellow glass designs on mottled pink glass background; colored glass encases clear glass core, with clear glass ...
Art Glass, Blown Glass
Iridescent Soffiato Vase by MVM Cappellin for Pauly & Co., 1921
By Cappellin, Pauly & Co.
Located in London, GB
Iridescence bulb shaped Soffiato vaseModel no. 1416, with applied multiple handles, close to and around the opening of the fluted mouth of the vase. A technique where the delicately hand blown vessel achieves a thin wall of amethyst colored glass to appear like a Hydria, a container once carried by the ancient Greek women filled with water from the fountains. The vase was designed by the company Pauly & Co formed in 1919. The vessel was created at the glass works of MVM Cappellin...
Art Glass, Blown Glass, Murano Glass
Anzolo Fuga Hand Blown Glass "Pavone" Vase, 1950s
By Anzolo Fuga, Arte Vetraria Muranese (AVEM)
Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Hand blown glass “Pavone” vase with colorful rod and murrhine by Anzolo Fuga for Arte Vetraria Muranese (A.V.E.M.), Murano, Italy, 1950s. Reference: Rosa Barovier-Mentasti, Anzolo Fuga, Murano Glass...
Murano Glass
$800 / item
H 18 in Dm 6 in
Handmade Ceramic Vase #531 Large (18"H) Blue Shino Glaze with Blue Tencel Fringe
By Karen Gayle Tinney
Located in Proctorsville, VT
Vase #531 by Karen Gayle Tinney An enlarged version of a standard collection classic. A generous size for larger branch arrangements, or as a sculptural statement piece. Hand forme...
Ceramic, Cotton
Rene Lalique art deco vase
By René Lalique
Located in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Rene Lalique art deco vase Circa 1915 Origin France Art deco style Excellent condition with no chips or restorations Forested glass technique Signed on the...
Art Glass
Large hand-blown glass vase, Italy, Murano.
By Murano 5
Located in Berlin, Berlin
Large hand-blown glass vase, Italy, Murano. Hand blow Murano glass vase with glass ornaments in green and blue-green, engraved with signature on base. Decorative piece, made on the ...
Blown Glass
$2,195
H 9.45 in W 5.91 in D 0.99 in
Cast iron relief by Anna Petrus for Näfveqvarns Bruk, Sweden, ca 1925
By Nafveqvarns Bruk, Anna Petrus
Located in Östermalm, Stockholms län
Striking relief by Anna Petrus, made from cast iron. Beautiful motif of grapes on a vine. Anna Petrus was a Swedish sculptor, industrial designer and dancer with a unique, powerful ...
Iron
$5,169 / item
H 13.78 in Dm 12.6 in
21st Century Federico Peri Linae Large Vase Murano Glass Crystal colour
By Federico Peri, Purho Murano
Located in Brembate di Sopra (BG), IT
Linae large vase, Murano glass, designed by Federico Peri, 21st century. The Linae vases — circular pots with a blunt rim are made in solid colour and thick blown Murano glass — are ...
Murano Glass
Neolithic Vessel
Located in Chicago, IL
Northern China has a settled history that goes back more than 5,000 years. All along the western reaches of the Yellow River settlements sprung up and some of the first evidence we h...
Terracotta
$360 / set
H 7 in W 2.5 in D 2.5 in
Vintage T.C. Wheaton Co Glass Embossed Apothecary Bottles Set of 4
By Tiffany & Co.
Located in San Diego, CA
Beautiful set of 4 vintage apothecary bottles with stoppers and embossed. Classic and unique, these beautiful bottles sparkle in vintage gl...
Glass
Hand-Carved Alabaster Cylinder Vessel / Urn with Soft Veining
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A beautifully understated hand-carved stone vessel, executed in a simple cylindrical form that highlights the natural beauty of the material. The surface displays a soft, creamy grou...
Alabaster