02.03.17

Sight Unseen Presents

Here Are the Immigrants Helping to Make American Design Great #Resist

When we heard the news last weekend of the immigration ban, we leapt into action. The ban affects us all on a broad scale — after all, who among American families didn't immigrate from somewhere? But when we began to think about our adopted family — which is to say the American design scene — and how much it might have been affected had this reactionary policy been in place only five, 10, or 20 years ago, we realized that we wanted to speak up.

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02.02.17

Up and Coming

Look Inside the Practice of Four Up-And-Coming Ceramicists

What we found at RCA's annual Work in Progress exhibition, in the Ceramics & Glass program, was a study in experimentation: clay that had been manipulated into terrazzo-like slabs, perforated bricks, stringy lumps, punched-in blobs, donut-like lamps, and meticulous geometrics, and almost nothing that looked like it had been turned on a traditional potter's wheel.

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01.31.17

Excerpt: Exhibition

Abstract Geometric Paintings That Fold, Like Origami, Into Three Dimensions

On view at The Hole now, "Fourteen Paintings" is the first New York solo show for Louisiana-born, Los Angeles–based artist Robert Moreland, who in fact creates work that exists more in the space between painting and sculpture — three-dimensional canvases made from drop-cloths, tacks, leather hinges, and acrylic paint, that are hardly paintings at all but rather painted objects that explore how line and color can be disrupted by volume.

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01.27.17

Fair Report

At the 2017 Maison et Objet and IMM Cologne Fairs

Neither the shadow of Milan nor the frigid, grey weather prevents us, each year, from being able to bring you all kinds of February goodness from the 2017 IMM Cologne and Maison et Objet fairs, which we’ve catalogued below. You’ll find such gems as a confetti-sprinkled carpet, a new design line out of Portugal, and no less than three distinct releases with patina-mottled surfaces that have officially triggered our trend-spotting sonar. Not a bad opening for what’s promising to be a turbulent year in all other regards.

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01.21.17

Saturday Selects

Week of January 16, 2017

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a Japanese design pilgrimage, a new Dutch museum in nature, a sweater for your chairs (trust), and two fast-casual restaurants whose design is on par with the coolest eateries around.

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01.20.17

Up and Coming

This Moscow-Based Studio is the Only Place Not Under Russian Influence

When you think of Moscow and its corresponding decor schemes, Scandinavian minimalism isn't the first thing that comes to mind. But take a look at the interiors in this post — with their exposed-bulb lamps, gridded pillowcases, herringbone floors, moody palettes, and splashes of pink, they'd be right at home in a Stockholm flat. In fact, they're the work of Crosby Studios, the Moscow- and New York–based furniture and interiors studio that debuted its first collection with us at last year's Sight Unseen OFFSITE.

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01.18.17

Sighted

A Flawlessly Appointed Interior, On View Now at The Future Perfect Los Angeles

If you're anything like us, you've probably allowed yourself to dream about one day having a home (and a salary) where you might be able to show off your Calico wallpaper, your Michael Anastassiades lights, your terrazzo Rooms tables, your Ben & Aja Blanc mirrors, and your perfect, rust-colored, velvet De La Espada chairs. If, like us, you fear that day might never come, now at least you can visit your idealized domestic vision in the form of Casa Perfect, a new, appointment-only Los Angeles outpost of The Future Perfect, housed in a mid-century ranch in the Hollywood Hills.

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01.18.17

Excerpt: Exhibition

In a New Show, Hilda Hellström Blurs the Line Between What is Real and What is Fake

When we first interviewed Swedish designer Hilda Hellström back in 2012, just two weeks after her graduation from London's Royal College of Art, the designer drew an interesting distinction between her work and that of her peers: While so many Hellström's age were obsessed with the properties of different materials, she was more interested in the possibilities of narrative. But a funny thing happened in the five years that have elapsed since then: Hellström hasn't been able shake her fascination with pigmented Jesmonite, the acrylic-based plaster she originally used in her breakout Sedimentation vases.

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01.10.17

Up and Coming

Five New Ceramics Collections We’re Feeling Right Now

Sometimes we get the feeling that we have altogether enough stuff. But then the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve happens, and we realize that we somehow don't have all the requisite items for serving food, displaying flowers, or generally decking out our dinner table in a manner befitting a design editor. So this round-up couldn't have come at a better time: Meet five new ceramicists creating work that's sculptural but functional, minimal but avant-garde, and generally chic as hell.

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01.09.17

Studio Visit

At 83, Vasa — and His Famed Acrylic Sculptures — Are Still On Top of the LA Art World

When our friend and sometime contributor Robin Stein emailed us to reveal that Los Angeles artist — and longtime SU obsession — Vasa Mihich was an old family friend, and ask if we might be interested in shooting his Los Angeles studio and archives, we jumped at the chance. What Stein's photos reveal is something that we, who often focus on design's newest and youngest practitioners, rarely have access to: a portrait of an octogenarian artist, still producing at a rapid clip, at the height of his career and his potential; a maker clearly in love with both his materials and his process.

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01.04.17

Sighted

The “It” Colors of the Season, According to AD France

A new AD France photoshoot, created by creative director Thibaut Mathieu in collaboration with photographer Peter Langer, focuses on this season's color palettes — which, according to them, include "soap bubble" shades, dense blues, golden hues, intense reds, and copper. It was too good not to repost here.

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12.30.16

Sight Unseen Presents

10 Insiders on the Best Design Moments of 2016

We come here every day to tell you about our favorite things — so for our last round-up of 2016, it seemed only fair that we spread the love. We asked 10 of our favorite design insiders to reflect on their best design moments of the past year — an experience they had, an exhibition they saw, a discovery they made, an interior they fell in love with — as well as the one thing they’re most looking forward to in the new year. Enjoy, and see you back here in 2017!

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