Principals

Zesty Meyers is a trailblazing figure in the collectible design and craft sectors, guiding the market and continually reshaping how we think about objects, preserve the past, and frame the future. In 1997, Meyers co-founded the design gallery R 20th Century in New York City with his long-term business partner, Evan Snyderman, which was renamed R & Company in 2014 and has become an international leader in collectible design, building collections for private and institutional clients in the United States and abroad. R & Company is known for reviving interest in modern icons such as Verner Panton, Wendell Castle, Joaquim Tenreiro, and José Zanine Caldas. At the same time, the contemporary program is focused on finding and mentoring talent who grow to transform the field, including Katie Stout, the Haas Brothers, Jolie Ngo, and Roberto Lugo. As CEO of R & Company, Meyers has spearheaded museum shows and events championing makers globally.

A commitment to research and preservation is central to Meyers’s work. Alongside its exhibition schedule, R & Company maintains a robust publications program dedicated to the study, appreciation, and preservation of twentieth- and twenty-first-century design, craft, and art. Meyers was instrumental in publishing Brazil Modern: The Rediscovery of Twentieth-Century Brazilian Furniture in 2016, the first internationally available inquiry into Brazil’s significant design history. He has also contributed essays to several publications, including the Objects: USA series and multiple artist monographs. A key part of each publication’s research process is the gallery’s extensive non-circulating library and archives, which span art, design, and architecture from circa 1900 to the present. The archives contain exceptional materials, including designer estates, media collections, and rare ephemera documenting modern and contemporary craft and design. Supported by the sales program, the gallery’s publications, library, and archives form an ongoing resource for research and scholarship, deepening understanding of the fields it represents and ensuring their continued study for generations.

Meyers’s interest in experimentation began well before the founding of R & Company. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1969, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Glass from Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) in 1993. He co-founded the glassblowing performance group the B Team while at the school (active from 1990 through 1999), pioneering a new approach to glass through live events that combined craft, fine art, performance, and spectacle. The B Team’s groundbreaking work is currently being chronicled in an upcoming documentary by the Corning Museum of Glass, while its archives are preserved in the museum’s Rakow Library.

Beyond his work at R & Company, Meyers is actively involved in arts advocacy and education. He serves on the Board of Governors of the RISD Museum and is a board member of ARCAthens. He also serves on the advisory council of the Spector Craft Prize and the National Council of the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and is a Friend of Homo Faber. Across his work in the gallery, in research and preservation, and within the broader arts community, Meyers has remained committed to fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, supporting emerging talent, and expanding the ways we understand and engage with art, craft, and design.

Evan Snyderman is the co-founder and creative director of R & Company. With a career rooted in the discovery, promotion, and preservation of design, Snyderman has played a central role in reintroducing major historical designers to contemporary audiences, including Wendell Castle, Greta Magnusson Grossman, and Verner Panton. Under Snyderman’s artistic leadership, R & Company has also championed a new generation of designers, including Jeff Zimmerman, The Haas Brothers, Katie Stout, Roberto Lugo, David Wiseman, Rogan Gregory, Joyce Lin, and Jolie Ngo—many of whom launched their careers with the gallery.

Snyderman has designed countless exhibitions and fairs over the years and curated multiple museum shows, including Greta Magnusson Grossman: A Car and Some Shorts (Arkitekturmuseet, Stockholm, 2010), Wendell Castle: Wandering Forms, Works from 1959–1979 (Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Connecticut, 2012), and SuperDesign: Italian Radical Design 1965–1975 (Italian Embassy, Toronto, 2017). A contributor to critical design scholarship, Snyderman has published texts on a wide range of twentieth- and twenty-first-century movements, including on the Italian Radicals and for the Objects: USA series. Snyderman also produced the 2017 documentary film SuperDesign alongside filmmaker Francesca Molteni and curator Maria Cristina Didero.

Born in Philadelphia in 1970, Snyderman earned his BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology (1992) and MFA from the Tyler School of Art (1994). Early in his career, Snyderman received a Wheaton Fellowship and gained a teaching position at Urban Glass in Brooklyn. He was also a member of the renowned hot glass performance group B Team. Today, Snyderman serves on the Board of Directors of Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado.