A Guide To The Best of Southern California : HIGH STYLE : Bold Bolidist

MASSIMO IOSA-GHINI, based in Bologna, Italy, helped write a manifesto in 1982 that exhorted designers to “break the reign of the angular line” and “find once more the sinuous curve.” Bolidismo is derived from bolide, the Italian word for a fast-moving object (such as a speeding bullet), or an object whose appearance implies speed. Iosa-Ghini followed up his Bolidist manifesto with an appealing series of chairs, cabinets and table-top accessories for such marques as Memphis and Moroso. The pieces combine the exuberance of his early work as a set designer and cartoonist with a smiling look back at 20th-Century design influences--including futurism (the avant-garde movement preceding World War I that romanced the wind-swept, streamlined look of ships, bridges and airplanes); Buck Rogers (‘30s and ‘40s science fiction), and ‘50s moderne (furniture with skinny, pointy legs). On an architectural scale, he created Bolido, a New York nightclub and restaurant that boasts sweeping stair rails, murals of spaceships (or are they ocean liners?) and a bar seemingly poised for takeoff.

Iosa-Ghini’s Collezione Bolidista furniture for Moroso includes the Curva pullup chair (about $600), the big upholstered Balzo armchair (about $2,500) and the Plana bench (about $1,600).

Collezione Bolidista furniture is available at Palazzetti, 9008 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 273-2225.