Week of January 13, 2025

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: an LA pizzeria that references Italian modernism, silver cutlery with tiny-ball handles, and glossy furniture resembling Jell-o. 

Exhibitions

The lacquer on these designs by Marco Campardo is so deliciously glossy. Aptly named Jello, the series features low tables, stools, and a mirror all shaped like conjoined Tetris blocks and coated entirely in a singular color. Each piece is molded using cardboard and is patterned with horizontal striations from this process, highlighted when the light catches the shiny surfaces. Given their bold simplicity, it’s no surprise to remember that Campardo was a graphic designer before moving into 3D objects. The exhibition of the Jello series at Galerie Kreo in Paris will be on view from Feb 6-April 5.

Two boldly expressive paintings by Hans Hofmann anchor this exhibition that explores his legacy and impact as part of The New York School – an influential movement in the mid 20th century – through the lens of five contemporary abstract artists. The works by Hofmann, considered the father of Abstract Expressionism, include Yellow Volume (1947) and Untitled (1960-1965) and are shown alongside paintings by Strauss Bourque-LaFrance, Justine Hill, Matt Kleberg, Erin O’Keefe, and Jason Stopa. All reject conformity, as seen in Kleberg’s Cubist lines and curves, O’Keefe’s architecturally influenced play on perspective, and Hill’s backbent cutouts. On view at Dimin Gallery in New York until February 1.

The wobbly frames of Bennet Schlesinger’s paper lamp shades, which could be mistaken for models of early airships, add so much charm to a series that includes floor, table, sconce, and pendant variations. Even more character is introduced through the bases, which are hand-shaped from mottled clay into different forms to match each shade. At Galerie Timonier through January 25, the LA-based artist is debuting new work, including, for the first time, wooden furniture with ceramic pieces embedded into their surfaces, as if  sunken over time until they lay flush. Called I Too Am, the exhibition draws inspiration from Pier Paolo Pasolini’s poem of the same title. Photos © Marco Galloway

In his solo exhibition, From Pollen, at TIWA gallery in NYC, James Cherry presents a series of lights and sculptures created in two very different environments. Some were primarily produced in a hillside cabin within a Californian Redwood forest, during his residency at the Salmon Creek Farm queer arts program, while others were built or finished in his studio. What unites them is a material Cherry calls “makeshift fiberglass,” a composite that includes recycled paper and fabric that provides tensile strength when mixed with resin. This material is draped over forms built from foraged branches or steel rods to give them a ghostly appearance, and diffuse light sources within through their translucent skins.

How great are these ceramics by Renee So, who uses modern perfume bottles and their predecessors, snuff bottles, to inform enlarged versions of these vessels. The series is titled The Essence, and it includes recognizable recreations of contemporary fragrances like Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium and Burberry Brit, as well as historic containers for eau du parfums such as Colony by Jean Patou and Nuit de Chine by Rosine. Then there’s the recreations of the snuff bottles, which are whimsically shaped to resemble a nose, a poppy head, a buddha’s hand, and more. So’s pieces are on show at Lowry in Salford, UK, along with fellow ceramicists Aliyah Hussain and Paloma Proudfoot in the first of a series of exhibitions titled Local / National / International. See it before February 16.

These amazing marble masks that we first spotted at Alcova’s Villa Borsani exhibition in Milan last year were installed alongside tables made from interlocking strips of marble in a former 1930s Parisian butcher’s shop. The Testa dei Marmi statues, some of which are mounted on polished stainless steel stands, and the Tavole di Marmi tables are all made from offcuts sourced from Tuscan quarries. Architect Berenice Curt first came across the materials when renovating a 17th-century villa in Lucca in 2021, and since making the collections, has been exhibiting them in different spaces across Europe — each time with different scenography. This latest showcase took place in September 2024.

Interiors

I have always wanted a herringbone parquet floor. And now, I want a spiral staircase next to a full-wall bookcase and an emerald-green stone bathroom to match my velvet-lined bedroom too. This townhouse in London’s Belgravia is designed by Child Studio, and it mixes a variety of their custom pieces with vintage designs from 1900s Austria through to 1970s Italy. Behind the classic white Georgian facade, designers Alexy Kos and Che Huang have created an old-world atmosphere using mahogany, Verde Guatemala marble, paneled shutters, and of course, that parquet flooring. The double-height living room is influenced by Karl Lagerfeld’s library, the dining room is a trove of vintage treasures, and the bathroom is based on Charles Siclis’s seminal 1930s Villa Serralves. Dreamy.

The variety of amazing light fixtures was enough to make us fall in love with this pizzeria in LA, let along the claret-hued banquettes and the pistachio cabinetry. Wildcrust, designed by Jared Frank Studio, takes its cues from Milanese modernism to create a “West Coast” version of a pizza parlor – a totally separate visual language from the white subway tiles and stained glass lamps often found in those on the opposite coast. Back to the lighting: there’s pendants comprising stacked disks, inverted stepped-pyramid sconces, long lights with X-shaped profiles above the service counter, vertical translucent bars attached to the mirrors, and a single conical shade above a table in the corners. Against the black-and-white terrazzo, burgundy mosaic tiles and zig-zag trim, these all transform the former industrial space into a unique take on casual Italian dining.

Discoveries

I wish I’d known about this cutlery when I was putting my wedding registry together! Rows of tiny balls (they’re back again!) occupy the handles of these silverware items by Jessi Burch, a jewelry designer who’s branched out using her preferred material. The set of knife, fork, and spoon is based on Austrian architect and designer Josef Hoffman’s iconic Seven Ball Chair, produced by J. & J. Kohn from 1908. The balls arranged down the middle of the chair’s back reappear in the handles of the cutlery trio, which have a solid brass base and are coated in a heavy layer of sterling silver.

These wonderfully textured lamps by artist Zeynep Boyan draw their inspiration from the ancient civilizations of Turkey. The Monumental Collection, crafted during an artist residency at Luminaire Authentik, blends classical architectural fluting with hand-sculpted shapes and hand-brushed glazes for a time-worn effect. Each design features an organic sculptural knob that resembles an ancient artifact at the end of a bead chain, adding a haptic quality to the simple act of turning the light on or off.