New York, NY...Demisch Danant is pleased to announce the exhibition Maria Pergay: Secret Garden. Inspired by her recent exploration of arborial themes and leaf forms as decorative elements in furniture and accessories, Pergay has created a group of new works that display meticulous, jewelry-like handwork in bronze and patinated copper. These materials represent an exciting departure for the celebrated Paris-based designer, who has long been admired for her pioneering use of stainless steel and ability to bring to it an unprecedented level of sensuality.

On view through July 13th, Maria Pergay: Secret Garden revels in the designer’s preoccupation with fantasy and “a colorful imaginary realm where arbitrary standards dissolve and pleasure of the senses takes over.” Comprising a dozen major new pieces, the exhibition celebrates the 45th anniversary of Pergay’s now-legendary May 1968 breakthrough exhibition of stainless steel furniture at Galerie Maison et Jardin. At 82 years of age, Pergay continues to surprise by bringing innovation and fantasy to her bravura works in metal.

Among the objects on view in Maria Pergay: Secret Garden is Bronze Tree, a sculptural fixture more than six feet tall. This whimsical interpretation of a perfect tree in full leaf boasts branches articulated in hand-hammered cast bronze; its leaves have been executed in red patinated copper and bronze. Pergay gives this signature work near-magical qualities. Its vivacity of color and the detailed articulation of its fronds and branches, achieve degrees of delicacy and liveliness not generally associated with bronze and copper. Similarly, the Frozen Table in nickeled bronze and glass is made of sinuous, firmly planted roots that twist and torque upward into a glass tabletop engraved with the veined patterns of fine roots. Inspired by the dreams of a friend’s daughter, Siena's Coiffeuse, is a precious vanity for a young girl, adorned with a variety of dancing metal flowers and leaves that evoke the miraculous images viewers will associates with fairytales and the lapidary forest settings found in great animated films. Just as Maria Pergay’s earlier work defied stainless steel’s image as hard-edged and purely industrial, her latest explorations in bronze and copper ambush expectation and transcend the supposed limits of her materials.