Gabriel Hendifar

Co-founder, artistic director, and CEO of Apparatus, a New York lighting and furniture studio he started with Jeremy Anderson in 2012 after struggling to find suitable fixtures for his own apartment. Hendifar studied costume and scenic design at UCLA and spent about a decade in women's fashion before turning to lighting. Working from the studio's Manhattan factory, he directs collections built from marble, hand-patinated brass, porcelain, suede, horsehair, and lacquer, combining small-studio craftsmanship with production methods; the Operatic collection debuted in a historic New York theater, and another drew on pre-revolutionary Tehran nightclubs. Apparatus now employs about 110 people and operates galleries in New York, Los Angeles, and London, the last opened in spring 2023.