PRESS ARCHIVE
Photographed by Inez & Vinoodh, we present an exclusive portfolio, celebrating 50 exceptional individuals driving the current discourse on American culture and its dynamic, creative evolution. Unrivalled at what they do and impassioned by their disciplines, some are instantly recognisable and some are not. But whether they are icons, change-makers or cultural renegades, all are creative American voices at the forefront of their field.
May’s work has encompassed large-scale exhibitions, brand strategy, set design and creative direction. After working with brands from Yola Mezcal to Skims, it felt natural to set up on his own, and May launched creative studio Sized, which also boasts a multifunctional 5,000 sq ft event space, in Los Angeles, in 2021. He has since also established Sized Selects, an ongoing curation of design, furniture and art pieces from around the world.
‘I think today everyone's quite familiar with creatives who dabble, or who are quite proficient in many different fields,’ says May. ‘When I was coming into [the creative arena], it felt quite polarising in terms of interactions. Design as a whole was this other world that no one from the art world or fashion world really coalesced with, although they were inspired by it and bought and collected from it. But it wasn’t part of the same conversation.’
Dining out in a car park has never ever been so fashionable. We’re talking the latest pop-up venture of WE ARE ONA, a highly innovative Paris-based gastronomic collective, in Los Angeles. Set up in collaboration with Alexander May, founder of creative agency Sized, and the latter’s cultural exhibition series Sized Selects, the ephemeral eatery is totally in sync with this year’s edition of Frieze Los Angeles, and obviously, it’s geared towards the in-the-know crowds it pulls from across the planet. Opening today, the dining pop-up restaurant is situated at the Howard Hughes Headquarters, a listed Art Deco-style complex built in the early 1930s in Hollywood. Here, the WE ARE ONA restaurant is embedded in a striking showcase of no less than 22 black cars, ranging from contemporary gems to vintage classics and rare finds, all draped in translucent black fabric which renders them sculptural pieces. Designed by French-Canadian creative director and designer Willo Perron, the setting sees a WE ARE ONA‘s signature elongated dining table in a new design envisioned by modular furniture brand USM, and paired with matching chairs. Mind you, the space will be aptly lit—only by displayed cars’ headlights. The dinner, an eight-course culinary experience supervised by French chef Valentin Raffali, a rising star who helms the lauded Livingstone diner in Marseille, and comes with an equally tightly curated wine pairing (open through Mar 3).
Alexander May, the innovative Founder and Creative Director of SIZED, stands as a maestro of aesthetic fusion, seamlessly navigating the realms of fine art, design, and hospitality. Nestled in the vibrant city of Los Angeles, May’s multidisciplinary creative studio offers clients forward-thinking branding, content, and experiential services, while also hosting acclaimed pop-up exhibitions. His personal style, rooted in the influence of brutalist architecture, manifests in tones, textures, industrial materials, and elemental shapes. With a background steeped in fine art, May emerges comfort within clean, gallery-like environments, maintaining an unwavering commitment to a minimalist aesthetic.
SIZED has restocked its collection of Upcycled Antique Stools on its website. First premiered last month as part of the platform’s ongoing SIZED SELECTS curatorial releases, the pieces are all carefully hand-constructed in the company’s Los Angeles studio.
Alexander May, the founder, creative director, and curator at SIZED created the stools based on his mesmerization with African tribal stools. Once the form of the chair is complete from the carving stage, May would douse it in pitch-black India ink, before adding the silvery upholstery studs as finishing touches. As a result, each stool is unique in shape and size, while its minimalist and versatile appeal allows it to accommodate any space.
BOND, an exhibition presented by Dries Van Noten and curated by SIZED, delves into the art of physicality. Combining natural and manmade objects in this particular exhibition, curator and creative director Alexander May creates a global harmony, depicting the beauty in dissonance. The multidisciplinary creative agency and studio based in LA, has collaborated with over 1,000 different artists to showcase works from all around the globe.
The exhibition is viewable at The Little House gallery space at Dries Van Noten's Los Angeles flagship store, from April 29 to June 10.
Dries Van Noten’s Los Angeles outpost – found on the city’s La Cienega Boulevard and the largest of all the Belgian designer’s stores – is split in half. Divided by a parking lot, on one side is ‘The Big House’, the store’s retail space that houses the brand’s men’s and women’s collections; on the other, ‘The Little House’, a 1950s-era bungalow made to host artists, designers and craftspeople that Van Noten wants to spotlight. He has previously called it a ‘creative lab’.
Spring 2023 sees the arrival of a new exhibition at The Little House, which cedes control to Alexander May, a multihyphenate creative director and curator who runs LA-based creative agency Sized. May has gathered a series of emerging and established artists for the exhibition, titled ‘Bond’ (29 April – 10 June 2023), which he says is in part a continuation of Sized Selects, a monthly curation of artworks, design objects and furniture from around the world for enthusiasts and collectors to purchase. Speaking to Wallpaper*, May describes a desire to be ‘both hyper-local and hyper-global’ with Sized Selects, calling it ‘a way to engage with our collectors as well as our community’.
A monolithic arch made from bass speakers pulses and vibrates. It sounds like some otherworldly heartbeat but also like you’re waiting in line outside of a rave. Whether one sees it as a sinister techno-druid inter-dimensional portal or an innocuous assemblage of subwoofers depends on the beholder.
Kevin Stahl’s 2019 nine-foot tall sculpture, Transition, is just one of the perplexing—and perplexingly beautiful—pieces in “Industrialism”, a knockout group show in New York by the Los Angeles-based design and arts platform Sized. “It hits you in this really hypnotic way,” says curator Alexander May. “It also kind of sets the tone for the whole room.”
The dumbbell is an object we often have a love-hate relationship with. So many of us have a set sitting on display, perhaps in our bedroom, both a tool and a symbol of health or self care. But then we don’t use it for a while and it sits there, staring at us, judging. Sometimes even making us feel worse about ourselves as a reminder of our insecurities.
At the same time, it has a strangely sexual energy. Think: Olivia Newton John’s “Physical” (and its Dua Lipa remix) or queer physique photography of the 80s with men clad in crop tops, jock straps and short shorts, a dumbbell flexed by their hot and sweaty arms. The impact this weighted metal bar has on our own and others’ self-image is both powerful and complicated.
SIZED is a curatorial studio founded by Alexander May in Los Angeles, showcasing art that intersects with design.
For its debut in New York, SIZED proposed « Industrialism, » an exhibition that brings together artworks and objects highlighting the important correlation between design and our everyday lives, forever changed by Industrialism.
Taking over Donna Karan’s Urban Zen Space is the inaugural New York outing of Sized, the collectible design showcase spearheaded by creative director Alexander May. This edition sheds light on the current climate of global supply chain shortages and explores the importance of materials and our fraught access to them. Notable works include a series of Refuse Lamps by designer Rich Aybar, a vintage Lamborghini from automotive curatorial venture Morton Street Partners, and a series of 50 Hermès sterling silver cups fabricated by French silversmith mainstay Puiforcat. Mortlach Single Malt Scotch Whisky also peels back the layers on its Mortlach by Design program, unveiling three objects by designers Sabine Marcelis, Luca Nichetto, and Joe Doucet on the upstairs terrace.\
Los Angeles–based platform Sized mounted its second exhibit in Donna Karan’s striking West Village residential complex. Titled “Industrialism,” the display—curated by Alexander May and on view until May 28—brought together a wide array of collectible furnishings, artworks, and even a rare 1980s Lamborghini jeep (furnished by Morton St. Partners) to support its theme.
Last year, the curator Alexander May put his art platform, Sized, on the map by asking more than three dozen artists and designers—Michèle Lamy, Sterling Ruby, and Pierre Davis and Autumn Randolph of No Sesso among them—to respond to a one-word prompt: “design.” Now, he’s taking the concept from L.A. to New York, this time focusing on industrialism. Those featured in the exhibition, which will be on view from May 19 to 28 at Donna Karan’s cavernous Urban Zen Center in Greenwich Village, run the gamut from Robert Mapplethorpe and Le Corbusier to Casey Cadwallader of Mugler and Rich Aybar (formerly of Hood By Air).
I remember having so much FOMO when Sized, Los Angeles’s boundary-pushing gallery and curated platform, opened its first show a year ago. But lucky for us New Yorkers, founder Alexander May took things East for Design Week with the group show Industrialism in the West Village. An earthy composite table by Faye Toogood, a pair of lacquered wood and chain-link fence chairs by Paul Ludick, and even an entirely handmade vintage Lamborghini (courtesy of Morton St. Partners) are on display for art lovers to ogle (or purchase, if you’re lucky). —Julia Stevens, style editor
A series of limited-edition furniture collections are on show in New York, in an exhibition that celebrates the existence of the things we live around and how they came to be. From 50 sterling silver cups commissioned by Hermès and made by Puiforcat, to a monolithic table by Faye Toogood – the “Industrialism” show brings together works by designers, makers, artists and brands to explore the intersection of industry and creative practice.
The exhibition marks the first NYC outing of the collectable design showcase “Sized”, which is overseen by creative director Alexander May. Each of the designs are curated over two floors of New York’s Urban Zen Center, a community space founded by fashion designer Donna Karan. Emerging talents are placed next to well-established icons, and tables and chairs are flanked by more unexpected objects, such as a vintage Lamborghini (sourced by collectable car curators Morton St. Partners) and a giant amplifier.
Today, the studio announced its roster for “SIZED: VESSELS,” its second iteration featuring 200 works by international talents. Founder and curator Alexander May reveals why Los Angeles makes him tick.
When it launched its first edition in June 2021, the Los Angeles design world was a tizzy. “It feels like something truly special for the LA design scene,” a prominent fellow editor told me and advised I make it a stop while in town. Curated by creative director Alexander May, SIZED is a platform for art and design that brings creative communities together through exhibitions at its new permanent space in Hollywood. Today, the studio announced its roster of participating artists for the second iteration, titled “SIZED: VESSELS,” which opens on February 16.
I think everybody has felt rather enclosed recently – whether mentally or physically – and the vessel, as a medium for holding, references that contemporary conversation,’ says Sized Studio founder and creative director Alexander May on the theme of his new show opening this week as Frieze LA kicks off.
‘Vessels’ takes place at Sized Studio’s 7,000 sq ft new home in Hollywood. Over 200 vessels are on display, from artists and makers including Alma Allen, Rick Owens Furniture, Commune Design, Jim McDowell, Pia Camil, Grace Prince, Jonny Ribeiro, Kazunori Hamana, The Future Perfect, Donna Green, and Thomas Barger among many more. ‘It’s an exploration of material and form,’ says May. Sized’s inaugural exhibition in June 2021 showcased contemporary design objects and celebrated the power of in-person events.
Los Angeles-based curatorial platform SIZED opens an exhibition today devoted to the poetic function of the vessel, or hollow container, an apt metaphor for the collective longing of our times. The show will be on view at the SIZED.STUDIO space in Hollywood, its 7,000 square feet spread out over two floors.
Over 200 works by artists, architects, designers, and studios from around the world and a multitude of disciplines will be on offer, including works by Gaetano Pesce, a piece by fashion-cum-furniture designer Rick Owens’ studio, a carved wooden offering by Alma Allen, work by British furniture designer Max Lamb, and a contribution from Georgian atelier Rooms Studio.
On the floor of SIZED.STUDIO, the recently opened Hollywood brick-and-mortar housing creative director Alexander May’s consultancy studio, SIZED, May arranged loose barriers of aluminum piping to cordon off rectangular sections of the floor. These “Sites” are a tidy way of organizing his latest curatorial project, VESSELS, a constellation of more than 200 objets by artists, designers, architects and creative studios from around the world.
The idea for VESSELS was inspired by the Sōgetsu school of ikebana, the traditional Japanese art of floral arrangement. As a school of practice, Sōgetsu prioritizes open-mindedness and individualism in its expressions, which originally defied the rigid teachings of ikebana.
Kicking off this week is the second edition of Frieze Los Angeles (Feb. 17–20), which debuted in 2019 and was the last major art fair to take place before the pandemic ground in-person events to a screeching halt. Joining stalwart editions in New York and London, as well as Seoul launching this September, L.A. will welcome 100 contemporary art exhibitors to the Beverly Hilton Hotel. But the wealth of satellite design shows popping up around the city are worth paying attention to. Check out our top picks below, and stay tuned for our preview of must-see artworks from the fair proper coming later this week.
The design industry thrives on the premise that there are endless ways to imagine any one object. Granted, the idea of introducing yet another interpretation of a chair — or a lamp, or a vase — can often pose a significant challenge. With so many people having already addressed the same problem, how can a designer ensure that their solution merits a place among the crowd? On the other hand, the wide variety of existing offerings can also be inspiring — a testament to even further possibilities.
This is the takeaway from two recent group shows dedicated to collectible design: Vessels, held at Hollywood’s Sized.Studio during Frieze Los Angeles, and the 2022 edition of Head Hi’s Annual Lamp Show, on display in New York until March 26th. Both exhibitions present an array of functionally similar objects in close proximity — and manage to make the objects’ differences feel all the more pronounced.
After past year cancellations due to COVID-19 surges, Frieze LA has returned bigger than ever. From February 17th through the 20th, the art fair has taken over the Willshire building in Beverly Hills, connecting an assemblage of artists with captivated attendees. While this cross-disciplinary event has brought creatives from all corners of the world to celebrate and rub elbows with buyers, office has looked outside of the tent this year.
Throughout Los Angeles, diverse galleries present exhibitions that bend realities, showcasing talent that does not exist on a single plane. With various crafts and stories to tell, office has round-up seven shows coinciding with Frieze LA.
Founded and curated by Alexander May, the brains behind creative enterprise Offsite.Studio which focuses on artist collaborations, the inaugural Los Angeles exhibition ‘Sized’ will feature works by over 40 artists and designers; all individuals and friends that May has known or admired for some time.
With all items available to purchase, the ‘collision of art and design’ will address our desire for collecting, says May. The eclectic mix of objects on display includes a pair of vintage stools on loan from Neutra’s VDL House on the same stage as a Sterling Ruby contemporary piece and a pre-Columbian urn.
Creative Director Alexander May tells us of the multidisciplinary approach that drives his LA studio Sized and its offspring, a 5,000 sq ft event space and an exhibition series
On Sunday evening, an intimate group of 30 gathered in Silver Lake, Los Angeles to fête the opening of SIZED, an exhibition of objects for the home and life curated by Alexander May. The exhibition, which opens June 15 and runs through June 27, features over 300 pieces from nearly 60 collaborators across 15,000 feet in a gallery near the Hollywood Forever Cemetery—including works by Michèle Lamy for Rick Owens Furniture, Vanessa Beecroft, Jordan Wolfson, and Luka Sabbat.
The soirée took place at the 1930s R.M. Schindler-designed home of Gina Correll Aglietti (co-founder of Yola Mezcal) and was co-hosted by Yola Mezcal and Sweetgreen. In attendance were SIZED collaborators like Beecroft, Sabbat, and Wolfson, plus the likes of Mia Moretti and Sophie Buhai. As guests arrived, there was a palpable excitement to be in-person again—a sentiment that reverberated throughout the night.
Remember buzz? Remember being excited about going out to see something new, live and in the flesh? The world may not be fully right side up yet, but signs of reemergence are popping up all over. Consider Sized, the ambitious exhibition of design and art set to unfold across a sprawling 15,000-square-foot venue in Los Angeles starting June 15. The brainchild of curator Alexander May, Sized presents a startling, centuries-spanning array of objects and artworks in a former storage facility for Paramount Studios.
“It’s really a meditation on collecting, on how pieces of wildly far-flung pedigrees and periods can live together in ways that are mutually ennobling and energizing,” May explains to AD PRO. The exhibition design—with objects displayed on a sinuous strip of humble steel decking that snakes through the voluminous space—has its own conceptual underpinning. “This kind of steel deck is typically used for performances, so this is my way of giving these extraordinary things their own stage to perform their magic,” May continues.
From Tuesday, June 15 through Sunday, June 27, SIZED Studios in Los Angeles will showcase 300 objects from nearly 60 collaborators — artists, designers, dealers, and collectors — across 15,000 square feet.
As exhibition spaces reopen, this expansive, unexpected art staging is slated to be one of the most exciting events on the horizon. It also happens to be an unprecedented opportunity to purchase works for your home, designed by some of the most exciting creatives in art and fashion.
OFFSITE.STUDIO founder and creative director Alexander May will soon launch a momentous exhibition of artworks and design objects in Los Angeles, California. Curated by May, the presentation entitled “SIZED” will feature never-before-seen works by a leading group of artists, designers and collectors that explore “objects” functioning “as aura,” as per a statement.
Highlighted pieces to go on display include a couture sculpture by Sterling Ruby, furniture designed by Luka Sabbat, a Gallic chair by Michèle Lamy for OWENSCORPFURNITURE, terracotta head vases from Casa Ahorita, and more. The selected works will be mounted on steel decks at similar heights to create a stage. “May calls attention to the relationship that objects have to our more performative lives.”
Vastness, tall ceilings, white walls, and a mezzanine level is the house of Alexander May's new project, OFFSITE.STUDIO. This endeavor is a culmination of May's life work as a creative director focusing on large-scale exhibitions and music festivals, among others. While this project was newly established in 2021, this exhibit presents itself as years in the making. Low-rise stages occupy the space, providing a theater-like presentation that blurs the line between the old and new worlds. From structural interior pieces to ornate objects, 17th-century rugs and Michèle Lamy's Gallic chair for Rick Owens furniture inhabit the same space. This intentional intertwining of design styles allows the viewer to explore endless possibilities. While this exhibition draws on the allure of a gallery atmosphere and the cultivation of refinement, ‘SIZED' is a new approach to traditional art fairs. Focusing on minimalism and intentionality, May has avoided the overwhelmingness of modern marketplaces. This meditation on the consumption of goods and the relationship between individuals and objects has made this exhibition one-of-a-kind.
This month, Los Angeles added a new exhibition to its burgeoning roster of art and design fairs. The two week event, titled “SIZED: An Exhibition of Works for The Home and Life,” featured works from more than 60 artists and designers including Sterling Ruby, Jordan Wolfson and Michèle Lamy, staged in an airy Hollywood warehouse (formerly a prop storage site for Paramount Studios).
The exhibition, helmed by the curator and artist Alexander May, was born of a pandemic-induced meditation on necessity, excess, and how we engage with our spaces— a study that pertains as much to the space in question as it does to the bodies moving within it. For May, the idea of harmony between individual and object is present in every aspect of SIZED: “site is the beginning of any project. We can think about the body as a potential site just as easily as we can an empty storage facility,” he says via Zoom from the 15,000 square-foot exhibition space.
Several years ago, when planning a takeover of Selfridges in London, Rick Owens posed a question to his life partner, Michèle Lamy: Could the exhibition component feature a toilet? Those familiar with Lamy, the spritely 77-year-old boxer, rapper, and fashion and furniture designer, won’t be surprised by her response: “Why not?” After all, Lamy recently told W, “We build everything in our house, sinks and all.”
Had Owens been more directly involved in Lamy’s latest foray, it would soon find a home in Los Angeles. She’s among the 40-plus artists and designers to contribute to “Sized: An Exhibition of Works for the Home and Life,” which opens on June 15 in Los Angeles. It’s the latest unexpected art staging from the artist and creative director Alexander May, who’s been considering the future of art fair environments and ways that people collect for their homes. So, with a purposefully vague prompt of simply “design,” May presented a range of creatives—Lykke Li, Jordan Wolfson, and Luka Sabbat among them—with a 15,000-square-foot storage facility formerly used by Paramount Studios for a site-specific show.