The Memphis Group

This two-gallery show (at Chelsea's Koenig & Clinton and the Joe Sheftel Gallery on the Lower East Side) takes a trip back to the Reagan era with a collection of creations by Memphis, the Italian design group founded in Milan in 1981 by Ettore Sottsass (which got its name from Bob Dylan's song "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again"). Memphis created furnishings characterized by a blend of Art Deco refinement and Pop Art theatricality, as well as a pronounced flirtation with kitsch. Its designs were also notable for their juxtaposition of high- and low-culture materials, mixing marble, for example, with Formica in the same piece. Brightly colored and over-the-top, the Memphis look became one of the signature styles of ’80s postmodernism.