This Melbourne Exhibition Signals a Return to Romanticism in Design

We've been dancing around naming it for a while — or we've been calling it other, less expansive, more niche things — but it's official: Romanticism is creeping back into design. Following a similar moment in fashion — which saw things like Alessandro Michele’s peacock-y looks for Gucci or, really, anything from Harris Reed’s eponymous line — we’ve slowly clocked the appearance of flowing skirts around simple stools and lamps, intricately patterned floral wallpapers, deep oxblood-colored furniture pieces, and dramatic gestures like tapestries hung on apartment walls — all hinting at design’s turn to embrace its romantic side. A counter to the simplified geometries and washed-out hues of the Millennial aesthetic? A reflection of society’s current highly emotive state? Whatever the reason for this shift, the recent work of trans-Pacific duo BMDO marks a significant step in that direction, and their self-professed “playful, dark, social, and emotional” work is currently on view through this weekend at Oigall Projects gallery in Melbourne.
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Gaetano Pesce Vases and a Cabinet That Looks Like a Japanese Capsule Hotel: Inside Melbourne’s Newest Fashion Boutique

A jewelry cabinet that looks like a scaled-down Japanese capsule hotel, with chartreuse-colored compartments fronted by metal and glass doors; a glossy deep-red lacquer applied around the edges of the ceiling; a Gaetano Pesce vase: We’re all familiar with the adage "shop ‘til you drop,” but at the Melbourne boutique Stable, designed by Studio Manifold, you might actually want to lounge for hours.
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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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This Melbourne Designer Gave Himself Six Months to Develop His Very First Collection — And Knocked It Out of the Park

Zachary Frankel was working as a jewelry designer in Melbourne, Australia when he came across an image of a simple chair and was struck by how perfectly it seemed to do its job. “I was taken by how restrained and elegant it was,” he says. It ignited his curiosity in working with timber. After some time, Frankel devised a plan to find his own voice and broaden his exploration of materials. He’d give himself six months to create a collection with no commercial obligation; he’d make furniture just for the fun of it. If he liked what he made, great, he’d share it publicly. If not, he’d have half a year’s worth of getting better acquainted with his craft and it would inform where he would take things next. At worst, his house would be full of interesting experiments.
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Week of January 28, 2019

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: A primer on Bauhaus, an under-the-radar American midcentury talent, a holographic furniture collection, and plenty of sculptural travertine.
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Week of November 26, 2018

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week featured more than a few classic references: a lamp from South Korea inspired by Calder mobiles, a Melbourne cafe inspired by Jean Royère textiles, and a series of Italian rugs that channel Renaissance painters (pictured above).
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A Sydney Eatery Inspired by An Icon of Mexican Architecture

While New York restaurant design is currently all about the blue banquette, we spent the weekend swooning over the rustier, more terracotta hues of the seating at this airy new Mexican restaurant in Sydney. Called Fonda, it was designed by Melbourne's up-and-coming Studio Esteta and inspired by both Mexican architecture — particularly the work of Luis Barragán — and the restaurant's coastal surroundings.
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An Emerging Melbourne Artist on Still Lifes, Surrealism, and More

One look at Sean Meilak’s Instagram, and you’ll see why the Melbourne artist has suddenly become our new talent to watch Down Under. Meilak has a way of incorporating and transfiguring familiar visual references and echoes — from antiquity to Surrealism to the Memphis group — into works that quietly hint at something less obvious or known.
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Australian art director and stylist Natalie Turnbull

Why This Melbourne Creative Switched from Sculpture to Styling

A love of materiality and working with objects is what initially drove Natalie Turnbull to sculpture. But it was a break from the art scene that finally set the Melbourne-based stylist and art director on her own path. In 2012, when Turnbull moved to New York to intern with both Confetti System and Fredericks and Mae, she realized that these designers had created a career path for themselves that didn’t exist before they started — and that she, too, could do the same.
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Week of October 24, 2016

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a new lighting series by a beloved Brooklyn brand, a new New York outpost for a powerhouse gallery, and yet another amazing interior from Melbourne, pictured above.
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Melbourne design store Guild of Objects

A Must-Visit Design Store in Melbourne

Guild of Objects fills an interesting gap in Melbourne — a store that isn’t quite a gallery, but is far from a gift shop. Each object — handmade by an Australian maker and often one-of-a-kind — has a story behind it. Quality materials and an emphasis on craftsmanship are central to each piece — otherwise they wouldn’t be here.
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The Faded Pastels and Geometric Glamour of Ward Roberts’s Courts Series

If you're familiar with the work of photographer Ward Roberts, chances are you found his work, like we did, on Pinterest. After all, the New York–based photographer's images were practically made for social media, featuring as they do the aesthetic memes du jour: muted, pastel colors; graphic, geometric compositions; and architectural wonders seemingly devoid of any people. In Roberts's case, the backdrop common to all of his photos are the basketball and tennis courts of Hong Kong, where the Australian-born photographer was raised from the age of three.
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