Felipe Pantone and Etai LA Unite for LA Exhibition This Summer

Felipe Pantone and Etai LA are joining forces for their first ever exhibition together, and it lands in Los Angeles this July. Parallel Practices: Tailored Structures and Kinetic Surfaces opens at albertz benda LA on July 17 and runs through August 8, 2026. The show marks a genuine crossover moment between two distinct but converging creative practices.

Pantone is best known for his optical, kinetic wall works that play with color, rhythm, and the sensation of movement. Etai Drori, founder of Etai LA, operates at the intersection of luxury fashion and design, building a reputation around high-craft custom work since launching the label in 2023. On paper these two practices should not overlap. That tension is exactly the point.

What Parallel Practices Brings Together at Albertz Benda LA

The exhibition centers on a new body of collaborative design objects developed by both artists. Etai sourced mid-century furniture from across Los Angeles, digitally remapped each piece, and then worked with Pantone to design custom fabric elements produced by Italian textile house Limonta. The objects go through a process of deconstruction and reconstruction, emerging as something that holds onto the original logic of the furniture while carrying Pantone's visual systems into the material.

Pantone's wall-based works anchor the show conceptually. Their optical effects, built on repetition and chromatic contrast, create a visual language that carries directly into the printed fabrics used across the collaborative pieces. The gallery space, a mid-century modern home, ties the whole environment together. Furniture and wall works are arranged as an interconnected system, not as separate objects.

Albertz benda has been developing this kind of domestic-scale, cross-disciplinary programming at its LA location since 2021, and this show feels like a strong expression of what that space is built for.

Why Creators and Culture Watchers in LA Should Pay Attention

Collaborations between visual artists and fashion designers are common enough that most feel decorative. This one reads differently because neither party is playing a supporting role. Pantone brings a fully developed system of image-making. Etai brings a fully developed system of material construction. The show documents what happens when those two systems negotiate rather than blend.

For independent designers, artists, and label creatives in LA, the structure here is worth studying. The collaboration preserves each artist's authorship and methodology while producing something neither could make alone. That is a harder balance to strike than it looks.

The private opening is July 17. The show stays up through August 8. If you are tracking where art and design are intersecting in LA this summer, this is the room to be in.