Alberta and award winning furniture are not terms that most people group together, but an Edmonton design studio is well on the way to changing that. Hothouse Design Studio - formed 10 years ago in 1992 - is supplying their contemporary, leading edge furniture and furnishings to North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Japan. Their furniture is clean lined, modern and playful. The work has a timeless quality to it, which calls to mind the design classics of the German Bauhaus. Hothouse indeed pays tribute to major figures of early Modernism. The Mondrian Bed, named for De Stijl painter Piet Mondrian, utilizes the artist's characteristic asymmetric grid in the metal headboard.

Hothouse Design Studio came into being as a collective of recently graduated industrial design students from the University of Alberta in Edmonton. The idea was to share ideas, tools and marketing resources under a single brand name. Of the original partners Tom Sharp, Dennis Lenarduzzi and Tim Antoniuk remain. The firm now has a production staff of 40 and a 28,000 sq./ft metal fabrication and assembly plant. In 1996 Hothouse won a prestigious Canadian Virtu Design Award for their Beavertail Rocker, a very modern take on a traditional form.

Curated by Alison Miyauchi, a visual artist and historian of contemporary design, Hothouse Design Studio - On The Leading Edge features the internationally acclaimed design of this Alberta group. Works from their award winning Beavertail Rocker to the very latest design examples will be on display. The complement to Hothouse's production pieces are drawings and models illustrating the creative process involved.

Lucid Leaning Shelf, 2002
stainless steel and cherry veneer

Beavertail Rocker, 1995
stainless steel

Florentine CD & Magazine Racks, 1995
powder-coated metal