Nameless Art + Design Show 2025 | Maine Antique Digest

New York City

The second iteration of Nameless Art + Design Show opened the evening of January 31 and spilled into the first weekend of the month, February 1 and 2, enticing collectors and those curious to see what the event was about. The show is held in a gallery space in Manhattan’s far west Chelsea, and the Friday night opening was a sellout. Many visitors left with purchases in tow.

The show is helmed by Adam Irish, whose shop, Old as Adam, recently moved from Providence to Warren, Rhode Island. His enthusiastic band of like-minded dealers, most of them under age 50, tend not to have websites, preferring to sell on Instagram.

The “who, what, where, why, and how” questions that journalists are taught to ask don’t always apply at this show. Although many objects, whose makers are for the most part not known, are seemingly what they look like, others are not. Utility is not the point. Rather, it is the inherent beauty and the questions the object elicits that draw collectors to this genre.

One dealer put a few sticky notes on the walls of his booth with the proverbial questions, as a reminder to visitors to ask or ponder them while viewing his offerings.

Nameless “features work by anonymous outsider and folk artists, and functional objects including furniture, lighting, and textiles by undiscovered vernacular designers,” read one of the show’s Instagram posts. Furthermore, “The collective project of 25 art dealers from around the country...offers diverse material...while balancing the appreciation of traditional craft with the drive to surface new discoveries.”

Further information is available online (www.namelessartshow.com).

Ryan Wagner of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, offered this quilt-top table with embroidered imagery, priced at $900.

Francis Crespo of Francis Crespo Folk Art & Antiques, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and his nephew Camilo stopped wrapping a sale to pose for M.A.D. It’s usually busy at Crespo’s booth, and he has recruited Camilo to lend a hand on the weekends since he was a youngster.

This 20th-century painted wood table was shown by South Road Art & Antiques and tagged $550.

Quinn Lake returned to the show this year and brought a “rainbow” bowl, tagged $180.

Adam Irish of Old as Adam, Warren, Rhode Island, asked $575 for this ambrotype in a cut leather frame, 4½" x 4", artist unknown.

A large magnet in its original painted box, circa 1900, was priced at $850 by Warren Battle of Battle Brown.

A large magnet in its original painted box, circa 1900, was priced at $850 by Warren Battle of Battle Brown.

Aarne Anton of Nexus Singularity, Pomona, New York, asked $2000 for this painted ring-toss game board in orange and black. When asked how he prices objects, he thoughtfully replied, “I think about what I paid, what I’ve sold things for in the past, who is collecting certain types of things. I keep an eye on auctions when I’m in the field, but I’m not selling a product that fluctuates with the cost of living. It’s a one-of-a-kind thing, and I’m looking at things as art.”

This folk-art carved wood bird with a hinged neck was sold by Warren Battle of Battle Brown, Hudson, New York.

This decoupage jug with a fish motif, decorated entirely with masking tape, 1930s or ’40s, found in New York state, was tagged $450 by Francis Crespo Folk Art & Antiques.

Standing desk with original paint, made from old crates and pine, found in northeast Ohio, priced at $1100 by Francis Crespo Folk Art & Antiques.

Janet West asked $350 for this wood “hole-y house.”

Trévon Warren and Zachary Allen of Portmanteau New York, Long Island City, New York, sold the cigar box ukulele, seen on the right. The vintage carved wood fiddle was priced at $500.

Dealers Cathy McLaurin and John Osorio Buck of Labor and Glean are moving soon to Liberty, North Carolina, from Lawrence, Massachusetts. Seen here is a dollhouse, found in central North Carolina, tagged $485. They exhibit at Brimfield, Field + Supply, the Liberty Antiques Festival, and the Threadbare Show.

Evan Grant of Bremen, Maine, asked $495 for this oil on panel, from Maine, circa 1880.

Dallas Dunn of High Tramp asked $250 for a pair of decorative metal objects (one shown), with the inscription “Made for Dr. James P. Gardner, Jr. / By Myles K. Hull / Roanoke, VA. May ’78.”

Shown by Portmanteau New York was this twig table with powder-blue paint, late 19th century, priced at $2600. The small-scale figure of a woman with a raised ax, from the 1950s, was tagged $300; the carved figure of a woman with a handbag, from the 1960s, was priced at $600; and the hinged copper box in the shape of a heart, mid-20th century, was priced at $300.