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Four Group Shows From Melbourne Design Week Are a Peek Into the Best of What’s Happening in Design Right Now

Top: Relics & Remains, curated by Curtis Bloxsidge; middle: The works on view at Lost Profile Gallery include Nicole Lawrence’s polka-dot floor lamp and vases by Martyn Thompson; bottom left: Contemporary works on view at Stonygrad; bottom right: Table Manners. Photos: Matthew McQuiggan, Tomas Friml, and Sean Fennessy

Sometimes, when people ask what I’m currently digging in design, I freeze. After all, I’m asked to assess hundreds of pieces of furniture and decor each week, and I follow several thousand designers on Instagram. Aside from our once-yearly ranking of American talents, how can I be expected to think in that kind of macro, listicle-inspired fashion? However, I’ve been tempted lately to make my stock answer to that question: “Anything that’s happening in Australia right now.” And if the work coming out of the recently completed Melbourne Design Week is any indication, I don’t think anyone would fight me on this.

Four excellent group shows came through our inboxes (and I’m sure there are many more we missed.) For Relics & Remains, curated by furniture maker Curtis Bloxsidge, 11 artists contributed works meant to resemble what might remain on earth after a cataclysmic disturbance (whether environmental, political, or cultural) — in other words, things made from materials that have persisted since the beginning of humans making things: glass, stone, metal, clay, paper, wood, and textiles. (We particularly love Taylor Brooks’s delicate mesh curtain made from hemp, and Julian Leigh May’s spiked aluminum cabinet.) At Lost Profile Gallery, contemporary works like Nicole Lawrence’s Dot Lamp and Martyn Thompson’s speckled, wide-mouthed vases sat alongside historical works sourced by the gallery as well as a new, in-house line of jagged brass and onyx pendant lights.

Further north, in the historical village of Warrendyte, the exhibition Material Encounters staged works by 15 Australian artists and designers inside Stonygrad, an incredible, 1940s-era, artist-built home fashioned by the Russian modernist Danila Vassilieff using stone and timber found on the property. And Table Manners, curated by Object Massive, brought together new cutlery sets by a handful of designers, like Snelling Studio, Studio Kyss, and Studio Yeodong Yun, placed in conversation with historical pieces from the Kraftsman collection. (I would have loved to have seen this exhibition to contrast it with the upcoming Knife Fork Spoon from Dung Ngo and Marta Gallery in Copenhagen!) If the group show is the basis for any good design fair — and for me, it is — these four set the standard.

A Residency at a Famed Milanese Foundry Allowed Ben Mazey’s New Work to Shine

At C. Gallery in Melbourne, Ben Mazey is debuting the results of his residency at a lost wax bronze foundry in Milan, alongside new experiments in blown glass and terracotta. Photos: Simon Strong

Ben Mazey has been exploring shiny, metallic glazes for at least as long as we’ve been writing about him. In his wildly inventive ceramics, he’ll often apply a 22K gold lustre to a raku flower panel, or paint platinum stripes down the frame of his slumped rectangular ribbons. But in March of this year, Mazey was offered the opportunity to explore the vocabulary of metallics on a deeper level: He spent several weeks at Fonderia Battaglia, the famed Milanese bronze foundry that’s responsible for everything from Katie Stout credenzas to the doors of the Duomo. The results of that residency — along with new works that combine ceramics and blown glass, a first for the Australian-based artist — debuted earlier this month at C. Gallery in Melbourne, Mazey’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.

The most show-stopping works from Mazey’s time at the foundry are a pair of lanky totems — one a chain of linked O’s, the other a stack of bronze squares — with split personalities: One side is polished to a high shine while the other is patinated in hues that range from rose to cobalt. (The warmly golden tone of the bronze, Mazey jokes, matches his gold tooth; after all, he says, “all art is self-portrait.”) But those aren’t the only experimental or standout works on view. In the vein of his semi-viral fireplace from last year, Mazey is debuting a full stoneware curtain set, complete with valences and ties; blown-glass pendant lights that look like trumpet lilies passed through an extruder; and a series of tiles bearing the title of the exhibition: “If You Can’t See This, You Might Be Dead or Just Not Here.” Plus new experiments in terracotta and his usual assortment of glazed raku stoneware flags. (Can someone coming from Australia please bring me this pink and rust striped mirror??) On view through July 16.

Wake Up Babe, A New Status Hand Soap Just Dropped

Hand-shaped accessories and décor to remind you just how great you smell after using the new Nécessaire Hand Wash and Hand Lotion Duo

Scrolling through Threads the other day, a query that is extremely relevant to my interests stopped me in my tracks: “You know how most people have supermarket hand soap, and then the first level of rich is Aesop hand soap…. what is the next tier of hand wash after that?” People were duking it out in the comments, touting everything from Mrs. Meyers to Loewe, but I’d offer another, more recent entry to the market: The new hand wash and hand lotion duo by Nécessaire smells like sandalwood and black pepper, comes in a chic bottle situation, and is, by my estimation, the new status hand soap to beat. I’ve been using it since the beginning of New York design month, and couldn’t be more pleased. To further the idea that once you start using this, you’ll be obsessed with your hands, we made a, um, hand-y shopping guide for you to peruse.

1. Surrealist ‘70s Hand Chair, $4,500, 1stdibs.com
2. Terracotta hand sculpture, $750, thewindowla.com
3. Hand-blown glass hand by Luke Baldwin, $200, etsy.com
4. Large sterling silver Dalí brooch by Agmes, $830, agmesnyc.com
5. Mesh hand bag by Grace Ling, $590, gracelingofficial.com
6. Hand tote by John Sohn, $250, sohnjohn.com
7. Alberto Rack by Hermann Becker, price upon request, jacquelinesullivangallery.com
8. Vintage hand bookends, $87, etsy.com
9. Vintage folk art paddle, $95, etsy.com
10. Out of Shape wall light by Ia Kutateladze, $2,613, oblist.com
11. The Hand Wash + Hand Lotion Duo by Nécessaire, $100, necessaire.com

This Parisian Residence Used to Be Camille Pissaro’s Studio. Now, Its Color Palette Could Inspire a Whole Artists’ World

Martin Massé’s renovation of a 15th arrondissement duplex in Paris employs a tight palette of greens, pinks, reds, and yellows. Photos: Yannick Labrousse

Editor’s List

CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT:

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I missed the Milanese studio Redduo’s presentation in Milan but maybe if I had gone, I would have clocked that the interior designers also have a furniture and tableware line that includes everything from a cherry lacquered coffee table to this incredibly sweet buttery yellow jug. It’s flat on one side just in case you, like me, would want to display it on a narrow shelf in your kitchen!

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In our New York design month round-up, we mentioned enjoying the exhibition Placed, curated by Coryander Friend, but one piece I particularly loved was this William Morris–inspired floral chair by Dotan Appelbaum. From afar it appears hand-painted. but it’s actually made using marquetry, with each piece made from natural and dyed veneers. I love how marquetry has become such a thing amongst young designers — is it time for a little round-up?

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On view at Footnote Gallery in Ghent, in a show curated by Sofie Middernacht, is this excellent cabinet by Victor Verhelst and Niels Raoul Boone. The pocked, engraved aluminum surface is meant to resemble a quilt, and there’s also something slightly Stave Cabinet about it. We love a transcontinental synergy.

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Do you remember the goose from our viral TikTok home tour with Ryan Belli? Well, the goose — or perhaps his duck brethren — appears again in a new piece by Belli for the Los Angeles designer’s recent solo show at Marta gallery, Of Two Minds. On one side of a cherry cabinet is an aquatic bird, painted in acrylic on an inset panel; opposite, there’s another cast in bronze. The cabinet is a collaboration with Belli’s wife, Calley Benoit. (And yes I did forget that we featured this show last week, so sue me! I love it.)

News

On view at St Vincents in Antwerp is Marta Mei van Haaster’s furniture line made from the stems of hemp plants used in chemical remediation. Photos: Alexander Popelier

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It’s that time of year when Officine Saffi, the Milan-based nonprofit for contemporary ceramics, opens applications for its awards program, which includes a large cash prize and the chance to participate in one of six residencies in places like Portugal, Switzerland, or Norway. The entry period is until June 26, and the rules — including an explanation of this year’s theme, Forms of Belonging — can be found here.

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Speaking of residencies, on view at St Vincents in Antwerp is a solo show by Marte Mei van Haaster, who spent several weeks in the Netherlands exploring the effects of contamination by nearby chemical plants as well as its possible antidote: phytoremediation, a process by which plants are used to absorb environmental pollutants. The furniture in her collection is made from the stems of hemp crops that were used to extract PFAS, aka forever chemicals, from the soil (though the pieces themselves are free of toxins). Her tables, shelves, benches, mirrors, and tiles have a sort of grainy, wine-soaked aesthetic that renders them not only environmentally friendly but also beautiful. On view until August 21.

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One of my favorite jewelry makers, the Los Angeles-based studio A History of Frogs, just debuted a new website and released a new collection featuring rings, earrings, and several items from a personal favorite category: brooches. If I were buying myself something for my birthday next month, I’d probably pick this silver and pearl number, which AHOF describes as both “a regal shining crown and a silly hat.” A Gemini contains multitudes.

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If you’re in Copenhagen for 3Days of Design next month, I’ll be doing another panel on Thursday June 11, talking about The Book As Object as part of the Display/Displayed show curated by Rhya Johnston-Wallace at Simone Book Services. Please come if you’re in town!