PDA Arts & Design Gallery, setting a new furniture trend in Naples

Husband-and-wife duo opened PDA Arts & Design Gallery, known as Public Display of Affection. The gallery showcases and sells 20 years of contemporary furniture designs.

Owners of PDA Gallery, Mike and Kelly Mahigel opened PDA Gallery in the Naples Design District this past fall, a collection not like anything found with the Southwest Florida area.

“We’re not here to tell people what to like, we’re here to help them find their own lane and find their own cool” said Mike Mahigel, “Help them express themselves just as they would through fashion or through anything else through furniture.”

The gallery tends to focus on unusual and Avant-garde vintage design by both well-known and underappreciated late 20th and early 21st century designers and artists.

“It was a very special and controversial period of time in design and architecture” said Mahigel, “But it’s one that’s not to be ignored, because there’s some extraordinary work that came out of it.”

The store front is considered having the largest collection of contemporary design, along with late-postmodern master Gaetano Pesce’s furnishings in the country, including his 350-pound, poured-resin Tavolone table.

“The designers we tend to focus on are the most famous Japanese architect live.” said Mike Mahigel “That’s Shiro Kuramata Furniture, the godfather of post modernism, Ettore Sottsass, the penultimate Italian radical designer, Gaetano Pesce” Mahigel added, “Many of the other designers that have worked with them or around them over the years.”

With over 20 years of experience collecting extremely collectible, high end avant garde design, the couple to continue to travel and ship their products around the world from galleries to homes.

PDA Gallery is not just a collection of the couples favorite pieces, but they offer design consultation services. An opportunity for their clients to create the perfect setting for their unique design furniture. The couple says they believe their collection can work in any space and celebrate the juxtaposition of architectural details by adding “jewelry” to the home.

“We act as anthropologists to discover the history, the narrative, and the thoughts and ideas behind each design and each piece” said Mahigel “These are heirlooms that you can pass down to your children, not furniture that’s going to end up in a landfill of changing times.

Exposure, education and bringing back creativity is part of PDA mission, emphasizing experimental postmodernism design from the 1970s to the early 2000s.

Some of the collectable prices range from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the designer and the amount of collectables.

“if you collect cars, or collect watches, collect art, anything like that, that helps you express yourself, this is just an extension of that.”

The couple moved from Minnesota to Naples with their two young children last summer. Ready to start an “early retirement” after a career in asset management and real estate. Ready to share and even introduce the designs to Naples.

“It’s becoming a bit of a cultural hub for the design district in Naples. And it’s super, super, super fun to meet the community.”

The gallery is located on 41 Ninth Street South, Naples, Florida. Open Monday through Friday 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., or by appointment.