The Best of the 2017 Milan Furniture Fair, Part I

When you're on the ground at the Milan Furniture Fair, things can seem like a total blur — you're walking miles a day, eating on the go, drinking too much wine, and seeing more new things than your brain can actually process at once. Which is why we love doing round-ups like these — organizing all of our favorite things into one (or two or three) places makes us realize just how great last week was, what trends are emerging (we're looking at you fringe, rust, lilac, and fiberglass) and what an interesting place design is at right now.
More
New Apparatus collection

The Best Thing We Saw in Milan Today, Day 3

We don't mean to be biased towards our American compatriots for the third day in a row, but the new Apparatus collection is, in a word, stunning — translucent, cast-resin tables topped by ash slabs lacquered in a high-gloss, rust-colored hue; patinated brass lamps with bases sheathed in a buttery calf suede; and slip-cast porcelain pendants punctuated by dangling brass spheres.
More

The Best Thing We Saw in Milan Today, Day 1

Sight Unseen is on the ground at the Milan Furniture Fair this week and we’ll be bringing you loads and loads of coverage next week! But until our rounds here are done, we’ll be featuring quick hits from some of our favorite things that caught our eye. First up: We had to cross an ocean to find a collection designed in our own backyard, Matter-Made's gorgeous new line.
More

Week of March 27, 2017

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week was all about things we couldn't resist posting: a teeny tiny Milan fair sneak peek, lamps that are so bad they're good, an iridescent yoga studio, and an admittedly cliche interior full of zigzags and pink (above). Hey, we're only human.
More
Soft Baroque furniture inspired by Photoshop

Soft Baroque’s New Furniture Collection is Inspired by Photoshop

Called Hard Round, Soft Baroque's new series is about manifesting something physical from a purely digital realm — in this case, a series of sculptural furniture pieces constructed from lines derived from the Photoshop "hard round" brush tool. The "worms," as they're called, have been transformed from digital sketches into a series of charmingly lumpy wood, marble, or aluminum pieces that range from vases to shelving.
More
Estudio Persona

These Uruguay-Born, Los Angeles–Based Women are Poised for Furniture Stardom

Four years ago, Emiliana Gonzalez and Jessie Young moved to Los Angeles from their hometown of Montevideo. Back in Uruguay, they'd known each other only peripherally, but as creatives in a new city, they were drawn to one another. Gonzalez had trained as an industrial designer, while Young was a conceptual artist and a new mother who didn't have the energy to navigate a new art scene. After designing a few houses together, they moved on to products — first geometric walnut planters, then furniture — and founded Estudio Persona.
More

Design and Art Are More Connected Than Ever at New York’s Newest Gallery

Whither Johnson Trading Gallery? The New York design gallery — which in its heyday introduced an American audience to the work of contemporary designers like Max Lamb, Kwangho Lee, Katie Stout, Aranda/Lasch, and more (not to mention Rafael de Cárdenas's epic first furniture collection) — had been relatively quiet of late. Now we know why: Earlier this month, it was announced that while JTG will continue selling vintage work, the contemporary artists in their stable will be absorbed into a new program at one of our favorite art galleries, Salon 94.
More

30 Artists and Galleries We Loved During New York Art Week 2017

We can't quite put our finger on what it was that made this year's Armory Arts Week feel so fresh. Was it the new venues? After all, NADA moved from Basketball City to Skylight Clarkson North, while Spring/Break moved from the old Post Office to an ex-Condé Nast office at 4 Times Square. Was it the fresh blood — the fact that NADA was even there at all, after years of coinciding with May's Frieze Fair? Or maybe it was simply the weather — we made the rounds on a gorgeously sunny Thursday that made the views at Spring Studios' Independent fair even more glorious. Whatever the case, we found much to love
More

Week of February 27, 2017

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a plywood paradise in Topanga Canyon, a fashion presentation outfitted with contemporary design icons, and a series of tapestries that are way too chic to be acoustic panels.
More

We Already Can’t Wait For This Exhibition of Norwegian Designers in Milan

Where has a year gone? It feels like just yesterday we were swooning over the images from this stellar exhibition in Milan of Norwegian designers (and getting excited for our own inaugural show with some of those same talents). Now it's nearly Milan time again, and with it comes news of a brand new show of young Norwegians, this time curated by our friend Katrin Greiling under the umbrella "Everything is Connected."
More
Faye Toogood Friedman Benda

At Friedman Benda, Faye Toogood Channels Her Spiritual and Earthly Instincts

Since showing her first ​Assemblage​ furniture collection back in 2010, British designer Faye Toogood has evolved the series, adding pieces in new materials to each subsequent collection — from sycamore and stone, to resin and steel, to patinated brass and wire mesh, to fiberglass and plaster. Her latest range, ​Assemblage 5​, on show at Friedman Benda in New York in the designer's first solo U.S. exhibition, is inspired by spiritual objects but bound by her signature balance of elemental materials, invoking a strong sense of ritual and permanence.
More

This Contemporary Design Icon Looks Even Better Shot By One of our Favorite Photogs

It might be funny to associate a photographer with a single color, but when we think of Stockholm photographer Tekla Severin, pink is the shade that immediately springs to mind. Scrolling through her Instagram, there's definitive evidence that she has shot other colors, but in our mind Severin lives in some Bofill–designed paradise of rose tones and geometric lines. So it makes perfect sense that New Tendency, the ever-chic Berlin-based design brand, would hire Severin to style and shoot its pink Meta Side Table, released earlier last year.
More