Seeing the Lights at "The Lamp Show"
A luminous duck, a softly glowing bowl of rice, and many more unconventional takes on lighting prompted long lines for the Brooklyn exhibition.
Does it need to light up? Not necessarily. What counts as a lamp is up for broad interpretation at The Lamp Show, an exhibition in Brooklyn that has earned a cult following for its playful takes on lighting. The show’s fourth edition opened last weekend at Head Hi, a combination café, design bookstore, and gallery owned by Alexandra Hodkowski and Alvaro Alcocer, who began organizing the show in 2019 (Dwell is a media partner helping to promote this year’s edition), putting out an open call for submissions. Anyone from a professional designer to an ambitious amateur could submit a lamp and they would consider it for the show.
Alvaro Alcocer and Alexandra Hodkowski , owners of Brooklyn design bookshop/café/gallery Head Hi, at the 2023 "Lamp Show." The annual exhibition is the product of an open call for lamp designs and known for presenting unconventional lighting. It runs through April 8.
Photo: Jonathan Hökklo
The now-annual exhibition has gone on to become a low-key sensation in the New York design world. This year’s version is the first to take place in Head Hi’s new storefront across from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and during the opening on Saturday, there was a line stretching around the block for hours to see the 52 lamps selected for the show (and to have first crack at buying one). They range from high kitsch—see a duck made of an ear of corn by Peter Treiber Jr. and a miniature zen garden with light-up rocks by Sina Erol and Clarisse Empaynado—to the more livable, including a handsome curved wood piece by Dwell 24 alum Gregory Besson and an off-kilter but delicate handmade lantern by Alayna Wiley, among them.
We spoke with Hodkowski and Alcocer about organizing the exhibition, which runs through April 8, their selection process, and what they think has lent the show its popularity.
Memory Lamp by Gregory Besson
Photo: Jonathan Hökklo
Why an exhibition focused on lamps?
Hodkowski: I’m not a maker at all, but one year I decided I wanted to make lamps as gifts for my family members. I don't know why. I started with one and really pushed it to the last minute. And it totally failed. I had an idea. It didn’t work. And I was like: You know what? I want to know how people do this. Let’s do an open call.
Alcocer: And light is warmth. Light is a mood. Lamps are companions. You have one next to your bed, perhaps, illuminating the room.
Points of Sail (James Langford & Larry Tchogninou), Jib desk lamp. "Made by a young Chicago based studio, this sailboat lamp is playful in color and concept. It is hard (steel) and soft (tensile), It actually has a fabric sail!," say Hodkowski and Alcocer.
Photo: Jonathan Hökklo
See the full story on Dwell.com: Seeing the Lights at "The Lamp Show"
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