California dreamers

In the eighth-floor library of the Pacific Electric Lofts, the 100-year-old landmark in downtown L.A. built by Henry Huntington, a group of 21st century California visionaries has gathered for a session of show and tell. Jacek Ostoya, an architect from Berkeley, examines Elizabeth Paige Smith's hollow acrylic Parsons table filled with yellow powdered pigment that clings and clumps to the interior surfaces. "It's fantastic," Ostoya says. "It's like having this cloud of color, what would be a big mess outside of the box, contained in a functional piece of art." Thinking outside the box is crucial for California furniture designers, who are often influenced by the wealth of Modernist architecture and the casual indoor-outdoor lifestyle. Here, they have the freedom to experiment with space, scale, materials and functionality, and to express their ideas in styles that include minimalism and extravagance. The seven California artists here represent a sophisticated talent pool that will keep the state on the design map in the years to come.

JACEK OSTOYA

Maximum minimalism

At 40 he has already designed retail stores, airport facilities and restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, but architect Ostoya calls Mebel Furniture, his "micro architecture" business, his true passion. Along with his partner, millworker and Guggenheim Museum art installer Peter Breyshaw, Ostoya says their goal is "to make contemporary furniture with traditional New England techniques and craftsmanship."

The most interesting piece in their line is also the most deceptive and versatile. Composed of 20-inch-square walnut frames stacked onto steel rods, the Pivot screen is a room divider that "opens, closes, hides and reveals," Ostoya says. The individual modules can be arranged in a checkerboard fashion with spaces between the square frames that can be fitted with panels made from a variety of materials, including wood and rainbow-colored transparent or translucent plastic.

"Where I live it's always about the views," Ostoya says, "so it is a room divider that gives you the opportunity to create privacy or frame a view -- of the world outside or another part of your living space inside."

At Jules Seltzer Associates, the most established Los Angeles retailer of classic modern office and home furniture by manufacturers such as Herman Miller and Knoll, Mebel is a specialty line, available by inquiry.