Art has been a core part of Colbo since its inception. From collaborations with painter Jake Snowden, whose paintings still hang throughout our Next Door wine bar, to a weekend-long pop-up with our friends from the Copenhagen-based art + records space, Can Family, to artist Paulina Freifeld’s 2024 residency in the store’s backspace.

This fall, as we ring in our 5th year on Orchard Street (and one year of our Next Door wine bar), we’re excited to return to this root element of Colbo in the form of a weekend-long lighting + sculpture exhibition by San Francisco-based object studio, White Dirt, as part of the inaugural Art Week NYC—a citywide celebration of contemporary art bringing together galleries, museums, institutions, and cultural organizations across NYC.

In addition, we’ve teamed up with the leading contemporary arts publication, Artforum, to create a clothing capsule centered around the inaugural event. The capsule is exclusively available online, at our 51 Orchard space, The New Museum's gift shop, and our LA pop-up Space at 771 Virgil Avenue, which will now remain open through the end of the year from Thursday—Sunday, 10am–5pm.

On view from November 11–15, Soft Thoughts brings together a new body of textile lighting. Hand-stitched cotton, linen, and batting transform familiar shapes and architectural references into soft, sculptural lights. Forms often begin as simple gestures, a line, a fold, a knot. Like a toile, a first study of a garment, these lights are finished objects that still behave like drafts, holding onto something of the first gesture. The installation also extends to the wine bar, where White Dirt's porcelain JUGS are put into service.

Ahead of the exhibition’s opening, we chatted with Dana Harel, the artist behind White Dirt Studio about her cross-functional, multidisciplinary practice, the site-specificity of art within a retail space, and how to embody the spirit of a sketch in the final form—drawing parallels between the studio’s nonlinear approach to making objects and the process of making clothes.

Can you tell us a bit about your studio and your practice?

White Dirt is a multidisciplinary practice that moves between art, craft, and design. My background is in architecture, but I'm equally interested in the intuitive and tactile nature of making.

I don't really see boundaries between these disciplines. Materials often lead the way, and I like allowing the process, including its imperfections and unexpected discoveries, to remain visible in the finished work.

I think of my approach as sculpture-to-utility, creating objects that carry stories and sculptural presence while finding a place in everyday life.

We create objects that have an elemental function to them, but they're mainly structural. We work with a variety of materials; plaster, synthetic stone, glass, fabric, textile. Everything we make from scratch, and we make all of our hardware. So everything is customized to what we do. We'll do limited editions like ceramics, as well as lights and some furniture, and we also make one-of-a-kind pieces for commissions.

Where do you envision your objects and designs ending up? Are they meant to be used? Looked at?

They're absolutely both. They're both to display and to use, and sometimes that's the kind of balance between them, that they kind of hold their own without using them. That's why I perceive them as sculptures first. And then they become something of use.

Lighting is the easiest one because it already creates an atmosphere within it. We’re working with interior designers so definitely residential, and we’ve done some work commercially as well. Some lights for coffee shops, but more centerpieces—things that kind of transform the room.

Retail is something we are excited about. Now there is this user experience; people coming to look. When you come into a store to shop and discover a light on the rack; it’s something a bit unexpected.

And Colbo is kind of the perfect place to venture into that because it’s a retail space, but there’s the cafe, there’s music, there's the wine bar. It makes sense for objects that have multiple functions.

Exactly. The idea is for somebody that comes to look for clothes or coffee to suddenly encounter something new. So it's less about standing in front of a sculpture, it's kind of a process of discovering something more as you move through a space.

What was your first encounter with Colbo?

I was introduced to the space through a friend of a friend. I actually initially came for a food pop-up. There was a Japanese sandwich pop-up [back when Taku Sando made sandwiches for a pop-up Colbo did with Porter Yoshida], and I knew that Colbo carried some clothing brands I liked, so I was coming to see what it was all about.

How did you come to be tapped for this Art Week Exhibition?

Well, it's interesting. I met Tal and we knew we liked each other’s work, but sometimes it takes a little time to simmer. This was a body of work where I was trying to think like a fashion designer while I was making the objects, which Tal thought was interesting. And so then we were like, ‘why don’t we do something of that sort in the space?’

Soft Thoughts came about because drawing is a big part of my practice. I like the immediacy of drawing and how an idea can appear through a few lines without being complete or resolved. So I was trying to do the same thing with an object. How can I begin making an object and try to hold onto that freedom with every fold or stitch—this process of beginning a light and not overdoing it. Soft Thoughts speaks to that kind of quality, the idea that even something which takes a physical form can still feel very open, spontaneous, maybe a little bit like a sketch. It’s a physical quality of the material but it’s also a way of thinking. I feel more connected to a fashion designer in that way because it’s so close to the body.

The sketches are a sort of step in the process towards a 3D work but they’re also a work in their own sense. I’m interested in this idea of firstness. So often when we put something into the world we become obsessed with making it perfect, I’m interested in how to not be as precious and trust the process. I’m not a ceramicist per se, I’m not a glassblower per se, but yet I am working with all these materials and pieces and trying to find my own process with them, even with quilts and fabrics. I’m trying to find complexity with something I don’t even know how to begin with.

And this is true for almost any discipline—making music, cooking even, I think this resonates across many processes.

Exactly. I also like the idea of involvement with a space that’s not a traditional gallery space. I think that’s what makes it cool.

What is your vision for how people might interact with the work in the space?

I hope they approach it with a sense of curiosity, and maybe a little surprise too. I hope it brings a sense of calm. I’m also really excited to see wine fill the porcelain JUGS; I’m excited to put something really dark, like wine in them. I'm excited about staining them and serving people with them. Really, that's what Colbo is all about. Just letting people come in and mingle and hang out. So I love that this is serving the bar, too.

Where do you find inspiration? Is it from other artists? Nature?

I'm drawn to people like Allan Wexler, Lebbeus Woods, and Gaetano Pesce, whose work has such a distinct personality. There's a deep sense of humanity in what they do, alongside playfulness, experimentation, and invention.

I'm also inspired by architects who move fluidly between scales and disciplines, from drawings to sculpture, buildings to furniture and even the smallest details or hardware, bringing the same distinctive language to everything they touch.

Soft Thoughts is on view at 51 Orchard Street through November 15. Information about Art Week events and programming at Colbo can be found here.