Brazilian artist Lucas Simões has made a bold jump from gallery walls to living rooms with “Colendra,” his first furniture collection that’s causing quite a stir at Christie’s Los Angeles. The pieces are showing at the “Lightness & Tension” exhibition through September 19, and they’re exactly what you’d expect from an artist who’s spent years cutting up photographs and turning secrets into sculptures.
Simões isn’t shy about his inspiration. He’s channeling Joaquim Tenreiro, the Brazilian modernist master who pretty much invented the country’s mid-century aesthetic back in the day. But this isn’t some nostalgic throwback. Simões takes Tenreiro’s elegant curves and geometric precision, then cranks up the volume until you get furniture that looks like it could anchor a room or hold down a building.
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The materials tell the story. Steel frames meet Portuguese Brazilian quartzite tops in ways that shouldn’t work but absolutely do. Add polished concrete for weight and tempered glass for breathing room, and you’ve got pieces that feel substantial without being heavy-handed. The dining table especially commands attention—it’s the kind of piece that makes everything else in the room step back and take notice.
Four main pieces make up the collection: that show-stopping dining table, a bench that doubles as sculpture, a chaise lounge with curves that seem to move even when you’re sitting still, and coffee tables that work as smaller echoes of the collection’s DNA. Each piece walks the line between art object and functional furniture, never quite settling into just one category.
What makes Colendra interesting is how it refuses to play it safe. These aren’t pieces designed by committee or focus-grouped into submission. Simões approaches each one like he’s making art that happens to be useful, bringing the same eye for tension and surprise that marks his gallery work. The way materials meet and separate, how curves flow into hard angles—it’s the kind of attention to detail that separates real design from catalog furniture.
Curator Ulysses de Santi paired the collection with works by Edgar Jayet for the Christie’s show, creating a conversation between different approaches to sculptural furniture. The Beverly Hills location gives serious collectors a chance to see these pieces in person, which matters when you’re dealing with furniture this tactile and present.
Simões isn’t the first artist to try furniture, but he’s one of the few who seems to actually get it. His background in collage and experimental photography shows up in how he thinks about proportion and material relationships. There’s an artist’s sensibility here that you don’t usually find in the furniture world.
The collection works because it doesn’t apologize for being both beautiful and functional. Brazilian modernism gave the world some incredible furniture, but that was decades ago. Simões takes that legacy and pushes it forward, creating pieces that feel right for today while honoring what came before. Whether you’re a collector or just someone who appreciates furniture with personality, Colendra makes a compelling case for living with art you can actually use.
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