Hundreds of design fans gathered in droves on Thursday night at Heidi Cho Gallery on 23rd St. to see the opening of A to Z and Back Again, an exhibit that focuses on amazing designs of every day items such as beds, lighting and toys. The highlight was the unveiling of Kaws’ latest production piece the Dissected Companion. Other interesting items included cookies with edible nutrition labels, superbly designed glass creatures and crazy lighting rig that took up most of the room. Here’s the curator’s statement:

The subject of this exhibition is a series of back-and-forths, between design and craft, between how things are made and how they are sold, between production and consumption. And finally between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The show centers on a group of Brooklyn designers, many of whom began their careers by working within the Manhattan establishment, galleries, showrooms, and artists’ studios. Striking out on their own, however, they gravitated to Brooklyn, an environment conducive to their creativity and the examination of concept and process that invariably underlies their designs.

Having achieved a high level of sophistication—coupled with the advent of an informed consumer attracted to such qualities, the work of these designers has now returned to the city, to its boutiques, museums and the pages of its magazines. The exhibited pieces subvert the idea of craft as unsophisticated or subservient to design.

While all the designs on view were conceived as production pieces, by showcasing prototypes and limited editions the exhibition as a whole plays within—and comments on—the context of the gallery system, structured around unique, one-off items, and limited access.