Future Funky

For many years, Gaetano Pesce was a beloved but sectarian figure within the design world—a visionary supported by a small circle of loyal patrons and institutions. But in recent years he has become something of a celebrity. The furniture and homewares for which he is best known are often described as “goofy” and “wacky,” an aesthetic that is now synonymous with a resistance to the tyrannical minimalism that characterized so-called good taste for the first twenty years of the twenty-first century. Today, at design fairs, galleries, and even fashion shows, Pesce’s work has become hard to avoid. He has been the subject of profiles and interviews in outlets like T magazine and PIN-UP, where he has charmed a new audience of young people with his florid proclamations about the present state of affairs and what design ought to do.

Pesce’s architecture is undoubtedly formally progressive: he uses experimental materials and challenging shapes. We could even call him an aesthetic …