Week of May 4, 2015

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week we survey some amazing recent design-art by the likes of Scott Burton and Nick Van Woert (pictured above), then cast our gaze forward instead of back, previewing some of the furniture and accessories set to launch during New York design week from folks like Matter and Umbra Shift.

Discoveries
nickvanwoert_2015pieceOne of the best stories we’ve ever done about art on Sight Unseen has to be our studio visit with Brooklyn’s Nick Van Woert two years ago, which was shot by Brian Ferry. Our love for his work hasn’t diminished a bit since — in fact, the two new pieces above, which we spotted this week on Van Woert’s blessedly user-friendly online catalogue, may be among our favorites yet. Both involve Plexiglas filled, sand-art-style, with signature Van Woert materials like kitty litter, coal slag, pulverized plastic, and joint compound.
bryanray_ether-forms_1Our assistant editor Ryland scored major points this week when he turned us on to the work of Portland artist Bryan Ray, which of course we were bound to like — Ray paints splattery, marble-y compositions onto wood and then staggers the strips until they look like some kind of weaving. So many good ones — see them all here.
rhodabaer2Ryland also turned us on to the glass sculptures of Maryland artist Rhoda Baer, whose work is inspired by the Northern Lights. We particularly liked this frosty blue totem — the color appears to only be applied to certain of the elements’ faces, so the overall piece appears more or less blue depending on which angle you view it from. Reminds us a bit of these recent tables by Nendo.
tankboys-stool-5We had to miss last week’s opening of the Venice Biennial, of course, since we’re hard at work on Sight Unseen OFFSITE. But we’ve enjoyed getting weird little snippets of things on view there, like these playful multicolored stools by the Venetian graphic design studio Tankboyz.marcusbenesch2Another thing we seem to have missed is the “Way Out” show at Spazio Borgogno during the Milan furniture fair last month, which included a pretty suite of color-gradient furniture by Markus Benesch.
guillaumedelvigne_vestatable2This marble and Corian table looks like something out of one of Matthew Barney’s Cremaster films, but it’s a recent commission by Paris-based designer Guillaume Delvigne for a private client, also spotted by Ryland on one of his sweeps around the web looking for new good things.

Exhibitions
etage_luuk_vd_broek-3Yesterday we excerpted a mind-numbingly awesome series of Sabine Marcelis lights at our new favorite design gallery, Etage Projects in Copenhagen, but the other half of that same show is a trio of sculptures in electroplated, galvanized zinc by Dutch talent Luuk van den Broek that we couldn’t not post as well. See all three of them at this link.PK 20342As soon as this whole New York design week business is behind us, we’ll be personally hightailing it to Chelsea to check out two shows that opened earlier this week at Paul Kasmin in New York: A sampling of Brancusi-inspired American minimalism at the gallery’s 27th Street location, and an 8-piece Scott Burton eye candy moment at its 10th Avenue location. Pictured above is Burton’s 1989 Two-Part Table, made from
lake placid blue granite.

NYDW Preview
icff_syrettelewThere’s quite a lot going on during ICFF this year, from the Ward Bennett show at Project No. 8 to a Jason Miller show at Heller Gallery to another Makers & Brothers workshop at the Standard. We’ll be chained to our own event in Chelsea next weekend, natch, but between this preview and our post-show coverage, we’re going to try to show you as much of it as we possibly can. Starting with this sneak peek of the new collection by Moving Mountains that will be on view at Colony starting May 15 — the Brooklyn studio’s Column Tables dovetail quite nicely with the triple-metal trend Jill wrote about after the Salone last month.
icff_colony_chenkaiAlso at Colony, Chen Chen and Kai Williams will be showing some of their latest work, including this charmingly clunky Rhino table that debuted at the AD Home show but that we hadn’t gotten our hands on a photo of until now.
icff_worksteadICFF this year snagged the Brooklyn studio Workstead, who aren’t just making vintage-inspired chandeliers anymore. They’ll debut an insanely gorgeous wooden credenza, side table, night table, and wardrobe, plus their new Orbit collection of table and pendant lights in brass mounted atop marble cubes.
icff_designmilkSeeing what’s new in American design is obviously the main event during New York design week, but sometimes while you’re scoping it all out, I mean, you just wanna be able to buy something. Our friends at Design Milk have you covered — they’re curating not one but *two* pop-up shops this year, one on the third floor of the Javits during ICFF and one at Wanted Design featuring jewelry (like the Les Geometriques earrings above) from their new online shop, Adorn Milk.
icff_sauderLast year at ICFF, the Ohio-based furniture maker Sauder — that mainstream company that usually makes totally affordable, totally unstylish staples for Target — launched a cooler, equally affordable diffusion line called Sauder Boutique that we got really excited about. But only this year are the pieces, which will be on view again at ICFF, finally going to be available for sale, via CITE in New York. This bookshelf is only $499, people, and there’s a full-on vertical version just for $100 more.
icff_umbrashiftLast year marked the launch of Umbra’s new sister brand, Umbra Shift, and this year it returns to the Javits with a new collection and a designer lineup that’s making us weak in the knees: Castor and Zoe Mowat, plus the folks pictured in the preview image above, Jonah Takagi (tables), Paul Loebach (lamp), and OS&OOS (tableware).
icff_matter_visibility2Same goes for Matter’s new collection, which has pieces by Philippe Malouin, Ana Kras, Henry Julier, Visibility, and Vonnegut Kraft. We’ll have a bunch more photos to share after the launch, but here’s a teaser with new desk accessories by Brooklyn studio Visibility, who will also be showing them in their booth at Sight Unseen OFFSITE.