A weekly recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: limited-edition Gaudí chairs, a cathedral-like eyewear store, and a boutique that’s part Milanese cafe, part Lower East Side laundromat.

Exhibitions

The absolutely stunning gardens of The Future Perfect’s Los Angeles mansion are playing host to a series of sculptural mirrors by Bower Studios. Placed amongst the perfectly manicured topiary, the freestanding standing pieces arch, curve, and curl to emulate floral forms and garden structures — while reflecting and almost melting into the surrounding greenery. The exhibition was originally slated for Frieze LA in February, but was put on hold in order to immediately address the devastation of the LA fires by spotlighting artists who were directly impacted by the tragedies. It’s on view at the Goldwyn House until June 20.

California gallery Blunk Space is keeping it in the family for its latest exhibition, presenting handwoven naturally-dyed cushions by Christine Nielson, partner of the late sculptor JB Blunk, and stone furniture by Mariah Nielson, their daughter and the director of her father’s estate. For the show, titled Soft Rock, Mariah has cut, polished and assembled 14 new works from salvaged granite and basalt: two tables, three benches, two stools, a pedestal, and a number of objects, while Christine’s new cushions are inspired by Navajo and Cherokee chief blankets, Northwestern Iranian Mazandaran kilim, and Peruvian forms. The hard, heavy stonework and soft, lightweight cushions sit in perfect contrast within the space that Blunk designed and built himself from wood in Point Reyes. Until June 7.

We all love door porn, and artist Marisa Takal is presenting nine portals that she has painted to “explode with hallucinatory color” in an exhibition titled Pathfinders. The show explores the door beyond its utilitarian function, examining its symbolism in terms of privacy, separation, limitation, and invitation. Attached to the white walls of Lubov gallery via hinges, the doors swing freely so that viewers can decide whether they’re standing inside or outside, and ponder what’s on the other side. None can be shut, liberating them from their restrictive purpose, and several feature window-like cutouts. On view until June 7.

Interiors

The butter yellow kitchen trend continues in this Barcelona apartment, with a side of cerulean-tiled bathroom too! The whole place, designed by Colapso Studio, is an exercise in soft subtlety that blends country charm with urban living. During the renovations, a volta catalana ceiling was discovered under the dropped tiles in the living room. Now exposed, this feature adds enough character for the furnishings to be neutral and minimal. Meanwhile, pale blue wardrobes complement the cream-colored bedroom walls, and a 292 Hill House chair by Charles Rennie Mackintosh provides a focal feature. Those yellow cabinet fronts are accessorized with simple chrome-finished handles, and a 1970s-style, black-tiled floor grounds the space. In the other rooms, oak parquet flooring was installed throughout to bring warmth and uniformity to the spaces.

The green-tiled bidirectional seating slash display element at the center of this Marbella shoe store is really hitting. Designed by El Departamento for footwear brand HOFF, the compact 100-square-meter space in La Cañada shopping center is intentionally residential in style. Aside from the statement seat and a matching checkout counter, neutral stucco walls, white-tiled flooring with oversized clay joints, and a coffered oak ceiling provide a matte backdrop for the products. An emphasis on craft is present through the materials and decor elements including organically shaped ceramic vases and podiums, altogether creating the impression of shopping inside an artist’s home.

If I see one more gorgeous Parisian apartment, I’m taking it as a sign to move there. This two-level gem in the Henri Martin neighborhood comes courtesy of French designer Rodolphe Parente, who used the building’s Art Deco style to inform many of the design decisions, and leaned towards contemporary furnishings to highlight the original details such as moldings and parquet flooring. A custom curved sofa and coffee table in the living room faces a ribbed fireplace surround that’s also bespoke, while ochre banquette and marble table in the kitchen were designed custom, too. The same blue-cheese stone for the table covers the countertop, backsplash, and cupboard fronts, while a softer-toned marble lines the primary bath. An elegant spiral staircase leads to a cozy library space with a pill-shaped plan, which connects to the bedrooms. Oxblood-hued lacquer makes an appearance in the office and the dressing room, and lighting, artworks, and objects are sourced from galleries across the city.

My all-time favorite fashion designer has finally opened a store in New York City (much to my credit card’s dismay). Dries Van Noten has brought his specific brand of Belgian chic to Soho, taking over a historic building with a demure black-painted facade on Mercer Street. Inside, stark black and white volumes are inserted against the original exposed brickwork, while crumpled metallic panels form vignette backdrops and wrap display podium bases. Polished concrete flooring and black track lighting lean into the building’s industrial past, whereas white marble baseboards and furniture add a touch of glamor. Artworks by the likes of Tracey Emin and Gaetano Pesce can be found between the narrow hallways, which benefit from 22-foot-high ceilings. 

An interior that blends Milanese cafe and Lower East Side laundromat sounds like it shouldn’t work, but at the first retail location for bi-annual style magazine HommeGirls, it does! Situated in New York’s Chinatown and designed by Rafael de Cardenas, the space features a Piero Portaluppi-inspired polished marble floor that contrasts the dry cleaner’s rack, upon which the capsule collection designed by HommeGirls founder Thakoon Panichgul is displayed. Fully mirrored walls at the back create the illusion of more space, and bring the street into the store. There’s also a deconstructed vintage suit valet that’s been reassembled with glass components, burl wood display shelves for presenting magazine issues, and a hand-painted gold leaf sign on the original aluminum and glass storefront.

Eyewear showrooms have really been stepping up their interior-design game over the past few years, and this space in Wenzhou has taken things up another notch. Using a 45-degree angle as a base geometry, locally based M-D Design Studio has created a mutli-faceted interior with origami-like walls that fold around shoppers at this Fang’s Glasses location. Warm ochre plaster with a textured finish covers these geometric surfaces, while triangular windows fill the gaps to cast shards of sunlight across the open-plan areas. There’s an almost religious quality to the showroom, exaggerated by a monolithic dark stone counter that sits at the center like an altar, and is used for product displays and client consultations. Also, a dramatic staircase carves a canyon-like path through the space, which also serves as a cafe and bookstore, and rocks and ornamental trees are scattered throughout.

Discoveries

A small stroke of genius: Casa Valle has teamed up with BD Barcelona to release a chair by none other than Catalan architecture behemoth Antoni Gaudí. The Batlló Chair was originally designed for the dining room of Casa Batlló – one of Gaudí’s most iconic works, built 1904-6. Available in an ebony stain as a limited run of 50 pieces, the chair’s sweeping forms are emblematic of the architect’s organic and ergonomic works, and is handcrafted by artisans in Barcelona. Each comes with a certificate signed by the director of the Gaudí Cathedra guarantees authenticity, and forms part of the Gaudí Collection of reproductions available through BD Barcelona’s Art Editions. The Batlló Chair will be unveiled on May 13 and remain on view at the Casa Valle design gallery during NYCxDesign.

These simple ceramic vessels with their top lips folded on both sides are by Simone Bodmer Turner. Named The Spade Vessels, the Goldilocks trio of vases have a matte finish and a subtle texture in a single tone — a signature of the artist and designer’s work. They join The Permanent Collection, her line of curvaceous ceramics, which was developed while living and working in New York. After relocating to Massachusetts in 2023 and finally opening the new ceramics workshop, Bodmer Turner’s forms have shifted from small-mouthed pieces that carry just a few stems — flowers in New York are pricey, after all — to wider-mouthed vessels that can accommodate “larger, messier arrangements” scooped up from the fields of wildflowers nearby.