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Todd Merrill Studio

@toddmerrillstudio

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Rooted in intuition, material, and form, Curtis Fontaine’s abstract ceramic sculptures reflect a deeply tactile approach to making. Years spent apprenticing under American ceramic artist Toshiko Takaezu informed Fontaine’s sensitivity to form and technique. While Takaezu’s iconic closed-form vessels offer a point of departure, Fontaine builds by hand using coils, allowing each sculpture to take shape organically, free from the symmetry imposed by the potter’s wheel.

Evoking the natural world—from gourds and organic anatomies to sea life and ancient root systems—Fontaine’s works possess a compelling, almost corporeal presence. His distinctive glazes emerge through experimentation, intuition, and happy accident, lending each piece its own singular character.

Photographed in the Todd Merrill Studio Sculpture Garden at NOMAD Hamptons this past summer, Fontaine’s ceramics share the setting with totem sculptures by Paige Stewart. Together, the works offer a striking glimpse into the material exploration and sculptural vision championed by Todd Merrill Studio. by @toddmerrillstudio

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“Glass is transparent and becomes alive with light. I have been thinking about lamps and what they should look like for some time now,” says contemporary artist and designer Maarten Vrolijk, reflecting on his first venture into glass lighting designs. Vrolijk’s exploration into light continues his broader practice, where his diverse mediums—ranging from glass to ceramics, painting, and textiles—are all united by nature as a common source of inspiration. The result is a design that evokes an organic world, one that feels as though it could have emerged directly from nature itself.

Inspired by his renowned Sakura vessels, Vrolijk has expanded the design into the pendants, which offer a strikingly different interaction with light. While the vessels reflect light from the outside, the pendants emanate it from within, creating a transformative glow. Substantially larger than the Sakura vessels, the pendants range from three to four feet in height. The lamps organically take shape during the glassmaking process through a natural, fluid descent, that Vrolijk meticulously guides. The bases are elegantly rounded, creating a unique and captivating effect. The substantial scale of the lamps presents a considerable challenge; to manage the size and weight, Vrolijk works with a team of assistants. While precision is paramount, the artist strives to preserve the spontaneity that is intrinsic to the organic nature of working with glass. The resulting pendants are a true testament to Vrolijk’s mastery and vision. “Together they form a composition and tell a beautiful story. Just like an orchestra consists of various instruments, but together they play a beautiful piece of music,” Vrolijk reflects. taken in Todd Merrill Studio by @toddmerrillstudio

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Soon to debut at our booth D3 at the Salon Art + Design fair on November 4th is the Cloud Cabinet pictured here in Jordi Sarrate Mollá’s Barcelona studio. Sarrate dissolves the boundaries between furniture and sculpture, transforming the cabinet into an expressive, organic form with rounded corners, sculpted edges and an unexpected lightness. Hand-carved from felled Spanish oak and finished with oil, wax, and a natural indigo pigment, this unique work reveals the artist’s sensitivity to material, gesture, and the quiet beauty of imperfection.

Inspired by the organic forms of nature and the architecture and interior designs of Antoni Gaudí, the Cloud Cabinet also carries a deeply personal reference to Sarrate’s childhood memories of ceramic furniture in the 1970s. The cabinet’s surface is sculpted by hand, its undulating contours punctuated by Sarrate’s spontaneous, bubble-like forms. Across the doors, custom indigo ceramic tiles, commissioned from a local artisan, form sculptural compositions echoing a feeling of weightlessness. Handcarved blue Bahia marble feet add a final striking element. The cabinet celebrates the human hand at every scale, revealing a poetic presence that is at once tactile, architectural, and quietly ethereal. taken in Todd Merrill Studio by @toddmerrillstudio

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@mollyhatchstudio on the ideas and process behind Agency, her site-specific installation for @fullercraft’s Atrium Gallery. Saturday, October 17, 3–5 PM

Oversized ceramic bows, snakes, swallows, and arrows: Victorian jewelry motifs recast as symbols of independence and strength.

Fuller Craft Museum,
455 Oak Street, Brockton, MA
Registration recommended — link in bio.

Agency is on view October 17, 2026 – October 1, 2028.

Represented by @toddmerrillstudio. taken in Brockton, Massachusetts by @toddmerrillstudio

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Opening October 27, “John Procario: Freeforms” highlights the contemporary designer’s sinuous ribbons of bent wood LED light sculptures and undulating furniture designs. The first solo museum presentation of Procario’s work, the exhibition features suspended light sculptures, sconces, seating, and freestanding works in which ash wood is bent by hand into open, looping forms and illuminated from within.

Procario's sculptures begin with a material pushed close to its limits. Using a process of freeform bentwood lamination, he bends thin layers of ash wood into curves that are then bonded into permanent forms, often working from no more than a rough sketch. The resulting works occupy a space between sculpture and design, asking viewers to consider how material, technology, and the human body can shape one another. Similarly, Procario’s Sculpted Sofas designs are completely informed by the shape and directionality of each work’s freeform wood base. Following an organic and intuitive creative process, Procario shapes surfaces through a slow-building practice that honors nature’s natural curves.

Tap the link in bio to learn more.

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Image 1:
Vertical Freeform VII (2025)
John Procario

Image 2:
Freeform Ceiling Sculpture I (2024) and Sculpted Sofa I & II (2024)
John Procario

Image 3:
Anthropose IV (2026).
John Procario and Alex Roskin
Photos: Courtesy of Todd Merrill Studio and the designer by @toddmerrillstudio

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Alex Roskin’s Rhyton is a sculptural object in polished bronze, resting atop a shou sugi ban oak base. Inspired by the curled form of a ram’s horn, the piece distills the animal’s powerful, organic silhouette into a study of line, volume, and balance.

Roskin’s work draws on the formal clarity of sculptors such as Jean Arp and Richard Serra, embracing clean lines and a purity of form while retaining a distinctly playful sensibility. As with his sculptural furniture more broadly, Rhyton evokes the forms of mammals as domesticated objects with enough personality and presence to suggest they might, at any moment, come to life and gallop away.

Rhyton refers to the ancient Greek drinking vessel, often fashioned in the form of an animal’s horn, linking the contemporary object to a long history of sculptural vessels and ceremonial forms. The bronze sculpture is not fixed to its oak base but simply rests upon it, allowing the composition to be arranged and oriented as desired. The work is equally compelling as a freestanding sculptural work or as a functional centerpiece for fruit and other objects.

As Roskin works on a commission basis, custom designs may be requested. taken in Todd Merrill Studio by @toddmerrillstudio

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In her studio in St. Ann, Jamaica, contemporary artist Laura Facey is bringing IN THE BEGINNING (2026) to life. This extraordinary new wall sculpture seemingly transforms cedar into textile defying its material origins.

Carved by hand from a tree felled on her own property, the work evokes the fluidity of woven cloth, with undulating forms that suggest threads interlacing, fabric folding, and a surface alive with movement, tactility, and softness although carved from solid wood.

Rooted in the symbolism of the primordial weave, IN THE BEGINNING explores the thread as an umbilical connection between humanity, creation, and destiny. Through the union of opposing forces, the work evokes our fundamental interconnectedness—the idea that each of us is woven into a greater whole.

This remarkable work is still unfolding. Its final color remains a closely guarded surprise, to be revealed when IN THE BEGINNING makes its debut at Todd Merrill Studio’s booth at Design Miami.

The work will be flanked by two new sculptures by Facey, to be announced later this month. This behind the scenes video offers a glimpse into the visionary practice of one of Jamaica’s most compelling contemporary sculptors, whose deep connection to the land continues to inspire a language of transformation, beauty, and renewal. by @toddmerrillstudio

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Christopher Russell’s new Heirloom Vessels collection comprises seven unique hand-built ceramic vessels that explore the enduring relationship between form, surface, and memory. Richly layered in shades of blue and green and accented with luminous platinum, the collection marks a new direction in Russell’s practice with his first use of a platinum luster.

For Russell, however, the inspiration for this collection is deeply personal. Reflecting on a chair that had belonged to his parents and was promised to him years before their deaths, he began thinking about the meaning of an heirloom as an object that carries not only beauty, but memory, history, and a sense of connection across generations. Heirloom Vessels grew from that reflection. “I got to thinking about what I would make that might become another family’s heirloom, and this collection is what I created as a result.” says the artist.

The subtle metallic glow of the platinum luster catches the light against Russell’s cool palette of blues and greens, recalling objects traditionally associated with ceremony and permanence such as wedding rings, candlesticks, and watches. For Russell, the platinum is not simply an ornamental accent; it becomes part of the collection’s larger meditation on the passage of time and the value we place on objects that endure.

Each vessel is entirely hand-built and individually decorated, embodying the balance of precision and chance that is central to Russell’s ceramic practice. As the kiln completes the transformation, carefully conceived compositions acquire an element of unpredictability, making each work singular. taken in Todd Merrill Studio by @toddmerrillstudio

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Previously exhibited at the studio’s NOMAD Hamptons booth at The Watermill Center, this group of Aurel K Basedow’s mixed media paintings are now on view at our Tribeca gallery.

Known as one half of the design duo Draga & Aurel, Basedow draws on more than three decades of experience across carpentry, craft, dyeing, and design to create richly layered abstract compositions that balance spontaneity with precision, chaos with control. Rooted in the spirit of Abstract Expressionism, his paintings unfold through successive layers of pigment, brushwork, geometric lines, photographs, drawings, and found materials, including fragments of Afghan, Moroccan, and Persian rugs. Resin, his signature material, binds these diverse elements into complex, collage-like surfaces that capture the passage of time and invite continual discovery. Both reflective and introspective, the works transform accumulated gestures and materials into dynamic visual landscapes, revealing new details and perspectives with every encounter. by @toddmerrillstudio

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Introducing Funkylicious by Jo Andersson, a Swedish-American glass artist whose vibrant, freehand creations celebrate the expressive possibilities of hand-blown glass.

Working entirely by hand and without the use of molds, Andersson builds each form through an intuitive process of adding hot bits of glass to a bubble and blowing each individual element outward. The result is a collection of sculptural vessels alive with vivid color, unexpected contours, and unmistakable individuality. No two forms are quite alike; each captures a moment of spontaneity, shaped through the artist’s own hand, skill, and experimentation.

Rooted in Scandinavian clarity yet full of exuberance, Funkylicious embraces the beauty of imperfection, the freedom of gesture, and the sheer joy of making. Each piece occupies its own space with a distinct personality, balancing luminosity and sculptural presence with a playful, irreverent spirit. taken in Todd Merrill Studio by @toddmerrillstudio

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Molly Hatch is turning a museum gallery into a jewelry box — and inviting you to step inside.

Opening October 17 at Fuller Craft Museum, Molly Hatch: Agency is a site-specific installation created for the museum’s soaring Atrium Gallery. Oversized ceramic bows, snakes, swallows, arrows, and celestial forms, each hand-thrown and hand-painted, draw on Victorian jewelry motifs historically tied to prescribed notions of femininity and male ownership, and recast them as declarations of independence, resilience, and collective strength.

In her words, @mollyhatchstudio is reclaiming that symbolism “as symbols of feminist strength and resilience.”

Her work is in the permanent collections of the @highmuseumofart and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (@mbamtl), and she has created nearly 15 installations for Tiffany & Co. Blue Box Cafés (@blueboxcafenyc) around the world. Agency was made specifically for @fullercraft and remains on view through October 1, 2028.

Hear from Molly Hatch about the ideas and process behind the installation on opening day: Saturday, October 17, 3–5 PM. Registration recommended — link in bio.

Represented by @toddmerrillstudio taken in Brockton, Massachusetts by @toddmerrillstudio

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Inspired by rolling landscapes, Sculpted Chaise II embodies John Procario’s signature language of fluid line, organic form, and visual movement.

Developed from Procario’s earlier furniture explorations and informed by his acclaimed Freeform lighting series, each chaise begins as a three-dimensional linear sculpture. The form is then slowly built, carved, and refined, allowing the natural curves of microstack laminated wood to guide the final shape.

Sculpted Chaise II brings an intimate, tactile dimension to Procario’s sculptural practice. taken in Todd Merrill Studio by @toddmerrillstudio

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