Milan 2016: Italian furniture brand Gufram's 50 Years of Design Against the Tide exhibition shows classic products alongside more recent pieces by designers including Ross Lovegrove and Alessandro Mendini (+ slideshow).

The showcase at design boutique 10 Corso Como celebrates five decades of the manufacturer's polyurethane Pop Art products.

Objects are presented among a pool of blue foam cubes, which are observed by visitors walking along on a raised pathway through the middle of the space.

"Do not expect an explanatory exhibit, what you'll see will be the perspective representation of an undisciplined and unconventional way of thinking," said the brand's global creative orchestrator Charley Vezza.

Included in the show is Gufram's cactus coat stand – recently updated in psychedelic colours by Paul Smith – and the 1972 Love Nest designed by Gianni Ruffi.

Its 1970 lip-shaped Bocca sofa, designed by Studio 65, is being shown alongside a new version of its Pratone lounge chair, which resembles giant blades of grass.

Recent additions to its range of furniture are also featured, including Lovegrove's Softcrete modular seating, and Emanuele Magini's Blow daybed that resembles inflatable pool furniture. Studio Job's Globe cabinet, which features a bright yellow exterior that wraps around a central foam Earth, is also on display.

A "totemic and symbolic" seat by Mendini, made from polyurethane and designed to look like marble, makes its debut in the exhibition.

The piece was originally created as a one-off in the early 1980s for the cover of Casabella magazine, and has now been produced for the first time. Artist Kris Ruhs has also contributed a soft sculpture made in faux rusted iron.

Gufram was founded in 1966 by the Fratelli Gugliermetto brothers in northern Italy and became known for its Pop Art-influenced furniture pieces during the 1970s, as part of the Italian Radical Design movement.

Many of these are still in production, and feature in the collections of museums around the world including New York's MoMA and Met, Vitra Design Museum, Milan's Triennale, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

The Gufram on the Rocks: 50 Years of Design Against the Tide exhibition is taking place at 10 Corso Como's Galleria Carla Sozzani during this year's Milan design week, from 12 to 1 May 2016.

Other exhibitions taking place during the city-wide event include Nike's Nature of Motion installations by ten international designers, and The Shit Evolution showcase of products made from recycled poo. Check out Dezeen's guide to 10 unmissable exhibitions and installations at Milan design week 2016 »