This Toronto Design Studio Finds Inspiration in the Canadian Wilderness

The Toronto-based design group Objects & Ideas works within a conceptual-meets-functional framework, and they talk about their work as an active excavation of the voice and soul of objects. "What we do is much closer to art than to mass production," says co-founder Bob Dodd. "Like everyone, we have to make money, and we have to make products people want to possess and cherish, but our furniture is definitely a vehicle to express our ideas and concepts. The best products have a soul and a presence."
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A Self-Taught London Designer On How to Make Furniture That’s Poetic But Not Pretentious

EJR Barnes is interested in the ways furniture can become poetic or dreamlike when reframed with unexpected materials, forms, and juxtapositions. His creations engage a wide range of materials and techniques — birch plywood, gilded silver leaf, lacquered oak, powder-coated steel, pressed cane, cork, paper pulp slathered in wheat paste, even faux fur or scruffy suedes. Through all of this experimentation, Barnes seeks a quiet sort of subversion.
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Four Emerging Artists Whose Work You Should Know Now

With the increasing blurriness of the line between design and art, it's difficult to have a comprehensive conversation about one without maintaining an awareness of the other. And so we make a constant effort to keep up with the art world, and keep an eye out for new talents that appeal to our aesthetic sensibilities. Today, we're sharing four up-and-coming international artists whom we bookmarked in the first half of 2019, and whose names you should know if you don't already — check out their work after the jump!
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The 21-Year-Old Cape Town Ceramicist Making Art Inspired By Gay Love

Under the name Nebnikro, Cape Town-based artist Ben Orkin makes lumpy and unusual ceramic vessels inspired by gay love. “I hope through my work to express the beauty of gay love in a world which mostly sees it as unnatural, destructive, and dangerous,” he says. His organic shapes are often symmetrical to reflect the connecting of two bodies — either physically or emotionally, or both.
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Italian interiors stylist Greta Cevenini

Meet Greta Cevenini, The Best Italian Interiors Stylist You’ve Never Heard Of

Greta Cevenini has been quietly circling behind the scenes of the Italian design world for the past few years, styling lookbooks for Spotti and cc-tapis and envisioning spreads for Icon Design; she most recently took the helm for Cassina’s new catalogue, which was released during Salone. Her work is quiet — cool and rich with light-touch visual references well before they become ubiquitous, leaning more on texture and subtle color variations rather than dramatic, scene-stealing statements.
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Colored Resin Meets Onyx in a Series of Textured Lamps Inspired by Mexico

In Elements, a colorful collection of imaginative light fixtures by Belgian-based architect Adrian Cruz, crystal resin light bulbs float, seemingly suspended, between resin plates, or balance atop slender pillars; some introduce raw materials like marble and onyx. “For me, the juxtaposition of onyx and resin [explores] the contrast between precious nature and modern man’s creations,” says Cruz.
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Patricia Treib’s Paintings Are Abstract, But Rooted in the World of Objects

In Brooklyn-based painter Patricia Treib’s expansive abstract canvases, frothy pastels and opulent jewel tones abut daring and clever interventions of palette — a sudden wash of matte elephant gray against a translucent seafoam green, or a block of deep mahogany propping up a pale blue stain. Her paintings are a pleasure to take in, with a healthy dose of art history and a deep interest in the world of material objects as well as the physical properties of paint.
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Designer, Painter, Sculptor, Architect — This Parisian Multihyphenate is About To Be Everywhere

The Instagram bio of Paris-based designer Garance Vallée once included the designation “HumanCreativeRomantic;” a quick scroll through her works, and painter, illustrator, jewelry designer, sculptor, and furniture designer could all easily be included as well. Vallée is a quintuple threat who recently completed her master’s degree in architecture and scenography, where she focused on concrete pieces, or what she considers “objects as small architecture.” But whichever medium she’s in, Vallée seems equally at home.
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