Join us in Copenhagen for the gallery’s inaugural participation in 3 Days of Design

Ark Journal’s Design/Dialogue
at 3 Days of Design

Den Frie Udstilling
Oslo Plads 1
2100 København, Denmark

Hours
June 10, 10AM – 6PM
June 11, 10AM – 6PM
June 12, 10AM – 5PM

Learn more about 3 Days of Design here.

Presented with generous support from Design Within Reach (DWR).

For information and inquiries, kindly email — information@marta.la

Los Angeles, CA & New York, NY — Marta and curator Dung Ngo are proud to present Knife, Fork, Spoon 3.0, an ambitious new project commissioning twelve contemporary flatware designs produced through 3D-printing, realized by some of today’s leading artists and designers.

Although 3D-printing has long been used for industrial prototyping and specialized components, its creative potential in design remains under-explored. Knife, Fork, Spoon 3.0 seeks to change that. New York-based design curator Dung Ngo and Los Angeles-based art and design gallery Marta have commissioned twelve new flatware collections from a global roster of practitioners, 3D-printed in stainless steel and presented for the first time at Ark Journal’s Design/Dialogue exhibition as part of 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The participants represent a curated group of established and emerging talents—artists, architects, and designers ranging from Misha Kahn and Jolie Ngo’s playful, idiosyncratic aesthetics to the research-driven approaches of architectural practices Johnston Marklee and Solid Objectives Idenburg Liu (SO–IL). The project also highlights global dining cultures through designers such as Nifemi Marcus-Bello of Lagos, Nigeria, and Minjae Kim of Seoul, South Korea.

Cutlery is an intimate part of daily life: a universal touchpoint that transcends culture and generations. Since the early 20th century, modern flatware has evolved far beyond utility; it embodies how design, technology, and culture reflect and shape our everyday experiences. Yet the manner in which flatware is made has barely changed in 150 years. Since the Industrial Revolution, production has depended on heavy industrial tooling and costly machinery that often limits innovation.

The 21st century introduces 3D-printing as a transformative alternative. This technology enables rapid prototyping, design freedom, and creative customization while allowing complex geometries impossible to achieve through traditional methods. Additive manufacturing reduces material waste, supports localized and on-demand production, and simplifies supply chains. These innovations were captured by the avant-garde architect Greg Lynn’s 3D-printed flatware commissioned by Alessi in 2007, but they were produced in very limited quantity due to the limited technical capabilities at the time. Two decades later, Lynn’s design will be part of this launch.

“If handmade flatware represents ‘Version 1.0,’ and industrial manufacturing marks ‘Version 2.0,’ then 3D-printing heralds Version 3.0,” says curator Dung Ngo. “These twelve designs are forward-thinking in both form and production technique, demonstrating that—like its social function—flatware is constantly evolving.”

In addition to being represented by and with Marta, all twelve designs feature in the concurrent exhibition Knife Fork Spoon: Everyday Tools, Extraordinary Design, opening at the Denver Art Museum in May of 2026.

For more information or to inquire about pricing, kindly send the gallery an email.

Dung Ngo is the founder and editor-in-chief of August Journal, a print magazine on travel and design, and the publisher of August Editions, a bespoke publishing house with a focus on historical and contemporary visual culture, and has published exhibition catalogues for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Palm Springs Museum of Art, and Japan American Society in Philadelphia. Ngo was the creative director and senior architecture and design editor at Rizzoli International Publications in New York from 2006 to 2015. He is the author of several books, including Bent Ply, a history of 20th century plywood furniture, and the forthcoming Knife Fork Spoon, a history of modernist cutlery design. He has been a speaker at numerous design conferences and a juror for the DoCoMoMo design awards in 2025. He was the chair of the Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Awards jury in 2023. Follow Dung on Instagram here.