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 Brian Thoreen, Héctor Esrawe, Emiliano Godoy
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 Héctor Esrawe, Emiliano Godoy, 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
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
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
Hand- Blown, Vintage Glass Vase
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A grand scale, vintage, hand-blown glass vase in a vibrant blue embellished throughout with a classic, silver leaf “macette”- spotting pattern.
Silver Leaf
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
Monumental Sandstone Vessel
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Monumental sandstone vessel with decorative handle details.
Sandstone
Ancient Marble Vessel
Located in Chicago, IL
A gorgeous ancient vessel carved from one piece of marble with subtle pink veins running throughout. Perfect for use as a vessel sink in a powder room,...
Marble
John Side Table by Meg Morrison
Located in Geneve, CH
John side table by Meg Morrison Materials: Ceramic Dimensions: W 24.5 x D 24.5 x H 50 cm Waterproof insert is required when using with water or fresh flowers. Hand sculpted ceramic...
Ceramic
Borrowed Form #10, Cast Silicon Bronze Vessel
By Henry Norris Workshop, Henry Norris
Located in Vancouver, BC
Borrowed Forms takes on loan shapes of the natural world and translates them into domestic objects. Rocks, charred wood, and forest debris from the Pacific Northwest are selected for form and texture, and their impressions are captured in poured jewelers wax. The wax leaves no trace behind as it peels away—an impactless intervention, as if nothing ever occurred. Each resulting cast bronze vessel...
Bronze
$3,424
H 12.6 in W 30.71 in D 14.97 in
Flower Table Attributed to Nils Jonsson and Produced by Troeds in Sweden
By Nils Jonsson
Located in Limhamn, Skåne län
Rare flower table attributed to Nils Jonsson. Produced by Troeds in Sweden.
Copper, Steel
$1,960Sale Price / set|30% Off
H 12 in Dm 6 in
Modern Ceramic Vessels by Jeremy Briddell, 12-Inch Height, USA
By Jeremy Briddell
Located in Dallas, TX
Beautiful ceramic vessels by Jeremy Briddell. Jeremy Briddell grew up in St. Louis Missouri but has lived in Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Omaha Nebraska and for the last 17 years Arizona. He did his undergraduate study at The Kansas City Art Institute with Victor Babu...
Ceramic
Nadine Saylor's Hand Blown Glass Vase, Flower Power
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderfully modern white blown glass vase with two blue flowers and red rim by Nadine Saylor (American, 20th Century), 2005. Signed and dated on bottom. ...
Blown Glass
J. Johnston Bronze Vessel
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Dynamic composition of curved and angled surfaces with lovely natural patina and warm, bronze tone. Signed.
Bronze
Urn by Rick Owens
By Rick Owens
Located in Geneve, CH
Urn by Rick Owens 2007 Dimensions: L 34 x W 34 x H 57 cm Materials: Bronze Weight: 37 kg Available in Black finish or Nitrate (Dark Brown) finish. ...
Bronze
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
Green Lava Vessel 1
By LAKE BELL
Located in Sherman Oaks, CA
With a nod to the spontaneity and privileged imperfection that is the human condition, all of my pieces imbue an energy of function and whimsy. The Green Lava 1 slipware vessel embo...
Stoneware