ATRA Takes Manhattan: See the Studio’s New Experimental Gallery in NYC

'Behemoth' sofa, covered in black Mongolian fur; remove the layer to expose a neutral, alpaca wool textile beneath. Photo by Waylan Bone

Since ATRA launched 12 years ago, the design and architectural studio has been wowing audiences with its craft. From winning Best in Show for the Curio presentation at Design Miami 2021 to showing at Salone del Mobile 2024, the firm has made a name for itself with minimal, sculptural forms referencing the past and the future. But, right now, ATRA's future looks like New York City.

In the former Vito Schnabel Gallery between SoHo and the West Village in Manhattan, ATRA has recently opened ATRA FORM, a gallery that allows the studio to maintain a more sustained presence than it can with fairs and to engage with collectors, architects, developers, and cultural institutions long-term in NYC.

"The city is a dense intersection of architecture, art, capital, institutions, and cultural production, and opening a space here allows us to enter that conversation directly and with intention," says Swedish-Mexican designer Alexander Díaz Andersson, the founder and creative director of Mexico City-based ATRA. "The practice has reached a point where ideas need to be tested continuously in a physical space, not only through projects or fairs."

Based on experimentation, collaboration, and research-driven design, ATRA FORM isn't set up like a typical gallery. Alexander says they envisioned the space as a "spatial reading" rather than a thematic exhibit.

"We’re interested in how people move through the space, how objects operate at different scales, and how material, light, and tactility register in real time," he says. "The works bring together different moments, logics, and material expressions of the practice, allowing visitors to experience the ATRA universe as a whole rather than as individual pieces."

Those pieces include the Chronos Hanging Vertical Light Sculpture, which is inspired by celestial bodies; the Nova Chair, the Beluga Lounge Chair, the Pyramid Chair, and the Atlas Continuum Table. Notice a theme? Yes, furniture is a large part of the gallery.

ATRA treats furniture as part of larger architectural and conceptual systems. The NYC gallery name, ATRA FORM, is taken from the studio's in-house furniture division, where Alexander oversees each piece from concept to completion. It's an important part of the gallery, and it looms larger than life in the space—literally—thanks to Behemoth, their oversized version of the Margot sofa upholstered in long-haired Mongolian sheep fur.

Another highlight of the gallery is the Morphus Experience Lab, which ATRA produced in collaboration with Morphus, a biohacking portal. The lab takes visitors on an experiential journey focused on introspection, mental clarity, and awareness. The partnership is a natural fit for ATRA, as the studio focuses on forms that explore the tension between intuition and structure, chaos and control.

Alexander says the gallery signals a change for ATRA: "It represents a shift from being a studio that produces objects to a platform that integrates research, exhibition, commerce, and architecture into a single system. This space inaugurates a new chapter for ATRA—an ongoing experiment where design, architecture, technology, and holistic practices overlap."

Although it's not a permanent gallery, Alexander is hopeful that a sustained presence in New York will allow for even more experimentation and research over time.

Atra Form Gallery, 43 Clarkson Street, New York, NY

—Dalene Rovenstine