Best Bets

Please take a (surrealist) seat

this powder-coated steel seat by the Brooklyn-based artist Serban Ionescu is one of around 50 chairs that will be on display at R & Company (64 White St.) beginning September 10. The exhibit, curated by collector Raquel Cayre, is the latest among a handful to focus on surrealist seats. In April, the Future Perfect displayed a selection at its new New York showroom, the design fair Object & Thing popped up in East Williamsburg with a dedicated chair section, and even the kids at RISD had their own weird-chair show this spring. As Eames and Risom fatigue have started to settle in among design-minded folks, a chair made entirely of striped pillows is a not-too-drastic way to infuse some wacky design into an otherwise not-so-daring apartment. Though many of the chairs in the show—like the Ionescu, whose back droops forward—aren’t exactly meant for reclining in and watching an episode of Succession. “I’ve always treated chairs, even functional chairs, like sculptures in my own apartment,” says Cayre. “It’s my opinion that a chair shouldn’t be reduced to just function.”