Daniel O'Toole Modern Times

Daniel O’Toole’s New Gradient Works Provoke a Distortion of the Senses

"Can an image feel as though it has a sound frequency embedded in it?" That is the question animating Australian artist Daniel O'Toole's latest exhibition at Modern Times, which closed this week in Melbourne. Called Cascade Rumble, and inspired by O'Toole's own experience with synesthesia, the exhibition features works that are intended to fully engulf the viewer and to "hum a frequency of sound that resonates in the mind."
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A Decadent Debut Furniture Collection By One of Our Favorite French Duos

There's something we really appreciate about the first collection of furniture by French interior designers Hauvette & Madani, and that is its unabashed embrace of a decadent party atmosphere, even in the midst of a pandemic. Inspired by a kind of 1920s salon / '70s-era cocktail party vibe, the collection — called Amuse Bouche — includes furniture, lighting, and accessories made from luxe materials like alabaster, smoked bronze mirror, silk, and carved oak.
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Paper Pulp and Oil Pastel Are Perfectly Paired in a Colorful New Collection

Seeking a distraction from the pandemic, Brazilian newcomer Barbara Bareca spent the better part of this year reimagining ordinary everyday objects by elevating them to a cheerfully colorful new level. Her debut "Gesture Object" collection comprises a selection of seven handmade wooden structures, including vases, a mirror, a tray, bowl, and bookends, each covered in a mélange of paper, glue, and water, then scribbled with an oil pastel for color effect and a textural finish.
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This Vancouver-Based Lifestyle and Floral Shop is At Once Unruly and Refined

The floral arranging element of the new lifestyle shop Cadine presented a logistical challenge for Vancouver-based interiors studio Ste Marie, but it also provided the main source of inspiration for the space. The gentle curves found throughout are meant to evoke a frond swaying in the wind, while organic forms typically found in nature are replicated in the material choices.
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This Mexico City–Based Designer Just Wants His Furniture and Interiors to Make You Feel Something

When I ask the Mexico City-based designer Andrés Gutiérrez what he hopes to achieve in his work, his answer, to be honest, makes me a bit emotional: “To make people feel something… If someone has a good time, or a better day in one of the spaces I helped to design, it’s all worth it.” How could you not catch feelings? Peppering his delightfully sensory portfolio are expanses of highly saturated tiled surfaces, an interior splashed in a hue best described as ube, and oversized wooden furniture with deliciously smooth knobs begging to be touched.
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The Designer Making Chairs From Discarded Puffy Coats

If you're like me — and by that I mean you spent a very cold, COVID-filled winter socializing outside — you might be ready to never see a padded puffy coat again. But I was thoroughly charmed by the work of South Korean designer Jinyeong Yeon, who uses padded goose down jackets, which remained unsold by fashion brands and manufacturers, as upholstery for his series of puffy chairs.
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Matthew Byrd Noguchi stone sculptures

Using Stone That’s Destined for the Dump, Matthew Byrd Creates These Interlocking, Noguchi-Inspired Sculptures

As a sculptor and stonemason, artist Matthew Byrd spends a lot of time driving around his hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. Much of that time is spent looking at old buildings for inspiration, noticing how one intersects with the roof of another, trying to figure out how he can translate those moments into his stacked stone sculptures. But his travels often have a more practical purpose as well — late at night, Byrd drives around scoping out abandoned lots or construction sites from which he can gather raw material that would otherwise be destined for the dump.
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Molecular Biologist By Day, Ceramicist By Night: How Science Informs Abid Javed’s Art

The Hong Kong–born, London-based artist Abid Javed became a ceramicist almost by accident: While studying for his PhD in biochemistry, Javed began searching for a medium he could dabble in to fulfill a desire to make 3D forms inspired by molecules. "I considered glass initially, but it seemed too technical to pursue as a hobby," Javed recalls. "Ceramics felt and became more intuitive." A hobby soon became a full-blown art practice; the resulting series is called Pleomorphs.
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Kristina Krogh’s Plaster Reliefs Are Like Zen Gardens For Your Walls

It seems there’s no ending plaster’s reign as material of the moment and, honestly, we’re not mad about it — especially after coming across Danish artist and designer Kristina Krogh’s wall-hung reliefs. Made of wavy lines of plaster mounted on wood and colored in a soft gradient with acrylic paint, each of the pieces in her latest series — which come in a variety of shapes from amorphous discs to more conventional rectangles — is an original work.
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