A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: highlights from the inaugural Matter and Shape show in Paris, two exhibitions of cheerful winter-busting paintings in New York, a colorful new look for De Sede (above), and a double-sided terrycloth shower curtain that would enliven even the dullest bathroom.

Discoveries

Gergei Erdei has either been reading The Song of Achilles (which I highly recommend) or recently returned from a trip to Pompeii. The London-based artist and designer’s inaugural Objects of Desire series comprises a set of six hand-painted folding screens, each decorated with scenes that appear to be lifted from Ancient Greece and Rome. Painted to “evoke the timeless allure of ancient frescoes,” several of the designs are figurative, including one painted with translucent glass paint over a gold leaf background, and another in the style of a 1960s Italian mural. A sequence of trompe l’oeil columns and a quartet of fighting leopards are also among the options, which are available from April 1.

The hexagonal, rippled metal forms of Studio Birtane’s Lost collection of lamps and vessels are crafted using a lost wax casting process. To create each piece, a cardboard model is submerged into melted wax multiple times, each dip adding another layer onto the base and creating various drips and textures. The models are molded, then cast in aluminum as one-piece items that are lightweight, durable and recyclable. The hexagon shapes of the pendant and table lamps, and small vase, also nod to the honeycomb from which the wax is sourced. Pretty neat.

Alexandra Arias’s Melt series of brushed aluminum and stainless steel furniture may look simple, but their cylindrical supports and wafer-thin horizontal surfaces are fused together by exerting several tons of compressive force onto the specially engineered contact points. This heat-free joining technique, which leverages the natural plasticity of aluminum, formed the Panamanian architect and designer’s thesis project as part of the Design Products Masters at London’s Royal College of Art.

The other Dune press tour! This time with less vintage Mugler, more tiny balls. This colorful collection of compact lamps by In Common With — named Dune, if that wasn’t immediately apparent — includes table, wall-mounted and sconce versions that each includes a glossy domed shade topped with an aforementioned tiny ball. The wall-mount design features a wavy stem that positions its shade upright, while the sconce sits vertically, an inch or so away from the wall. The photography was shot at the stunning Casa Monte in Oaxaca, which could be mistaken for a palace on Arrakis.

Immediately throwing out my translucent plastic shower curtain and replacing it with this patterned terrycloth design by New York-based print masters Dusen Dusen. Created as part of an ongoing collaboration with Coming Soon, this second version of the Curtina  trades the original’s sage green and vibrant yellow for pale pink and bright red, while retaining the same spotty pattern. The curtain is 70 inches tall, made from 100% cotton and double-sided, so can be appreciated from both outside the shower and in. 

Matter and Shape

There was plenty to enjoy from the inaugural edition of the Matter and Shape salon, which took place in Paris earlier this month during fashion week. Set within a temporary space designed by LA-based architect and designer Willo Perron in the Jardin de Tuileries, the show was helmed by creative director Dan Thawley and director Matthieu Pinet, who brought together big names like Rick Owens, Alessi, and Flos, as well as several emerging talents. A few immediate standouts were the imaginative cutlery from Danish company Griegst, pieces from BD’s Baton collection by Ronan Bouroullec, and works by Artment.dep and Atelier Ellery. We’ve also highlighted a few more of the best below.

Among our fave moments at Matter and Shape was a collaboration between creative studio Zaven and Italian ceramics brand Bitossi that “challenges the archetypal symmetry of traditional pottery.” Rather than rotating the clay into circular shapes on the potter’s wheel, the Curve Vases each represent only a quadrant of what would typical their final form. The designs have different jagged profiles and heights, and various glossy colored glazes, and look particularly great grouped together.

Another colorful collab at Matter and Shape came courtesy of PIN-UP Home and De Sede, in which classic 1983 seating was given a bold makeover. The ​​DS-2011 Harlequin series includes two two-seater sofas, an armchair and a stool, each with panels upholstered in a different hue. Green, blue, pink, yellow and white sections of the slender frames and cushions creates a patchwork effect, which was informed by the color experiments of Swiss architect Le Corbusier, as well as the vivid palettes of artists like Johannes Itten, Sarah Morris, and Peter Halley.

Also a shoutout to Ton Magazine’s Matter and Shape booth, which featured a wild and eccentric variety of pieces ranging from a lamp made using a Laurent Perrier bottle and a cheetah-print shade with wings, to stools reminiscent of diabolo toys, and a very cool spiral-shaped incense holder. Contributors to the display included Andu Masebo, Barnaby Lewis, Ben Burgis, LS Gomma, Madeline Thornalley, Miranda Keyes, and Ralph Parks.

Exhibitions

The title of Nathlie Provosty’s exhibition at Nina Johnson in Miami, Where they reverse the sea with the sky, refers to an optical mirage commonly experienced by pilots in which the two planes appear to blend together. Known as Fata Morgana, the phenomenon is explored by Provosty through her abstract oil on linen paintings, in which she similarly blurs and overlaps blocks of slightly varied colors, sometimes using subtly angled planes to exaggerate the effect. The pieces, which become evermore intriguing the longer you stare at them, are on view until March 30.

Verena Loewensberg’s brightly hued paintings, on show at Hauser & Wirth in New York, are just what we needed to pull us out of yet another cold spell that’s hit the city. Titled Kind of Blue, this is the first solo exhibition in the US dedicated to the Swiss artist, who was a leading figure and the only woman in the influential Zurich School of Concretists. Renowned for her “formal and chromatic flair,” Loewensberg applies blocks of color to rigid geometries  – some of which look like data graphs, while others are reminiscent of experiments with refracted light. On view through April 27.

Dubai’s Collectional Gallery and curator Yoko Choy have brought together seven artists and designers from East Asia to present Urban Fabric Series 001, an exhibition of 28 works that celebrate contemporary craftsmanship, and draw from the participant’s respective urban landscapes and cultural backgrounds. These include Cutting Lines by Kwangho Lee, a series of chairs “knitted” using 3D-printed plastic, and Remaining Things by Teo Yang, in which remnants of traditional Korean hanok houses are fused with modern materials like glass, rubber and marble to create furniture. Also featured are Kensaku Oshiro’s Crystal series of onyx tables, Studio Swine’s neon lighting piece, programmed with generative code, Kuo Duo’s signature material, and Tiffany Loy’s silk and cotton textiles woven on jacquard looms and stretched over aluminum frames.