09.16.20

Sighted

Three Monumental Works of Public Art You Can Experience Outdoors Right Now

Yesterday we got excited about the possibility of seeing art in person at a gallery or museum sometime soon. But for those who are still wary — or for those who simply can't — there are still plenty of ways to experience art "en plein air," and even moreso this fall: In New York alone, we found three new temporary installations, each centered around a single material.
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09.14.20

Up and Coming

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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09.12.20

Saturday Selects

Week of September 7, 2020

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: a new destination in Paris with a rooftop sauna, a Faye Toogood sofa that makes cement look downright cozy, and a modern collection of Judaica — i.e. a unicorn.
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09.11.20

Up and Coming

A Berlin Duo Whose Marriage of Art, Design, and Craft Is More Literal Than Most

When creatives describe their work as blurring the boundaries between design and art, it's rare that the effect is quite so literal as it is in the case of Berlin's Opt Studios — not only because it's the shared practice of a textile and product designer and her painter and sculptor husband, but also because the works themselves look like abstract artworks that just so happen to be hanging out on rugs and side tables.
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2018 Sight Unseen gift guide
12.04.18

Gift Guides

Iridescent Earrings and Ombré Bath Mats: The 2018 Sight Unseen Gift Guide, Part I

Welcome to the annual Sight Unseen gift guide! Today and tomorrow, we’ll be sharing our most covetable home, fashion, and beauty finds from around the web, from iridescent straws to ombré bath mats to the coziest shearling handbag we could find (it's like carrying a tiny Muppet). First up is Jill, who’s got you covered on last-minute gifts, from horsehair mirrors to Hawaiian-inspired fragrances.
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09.09.20

Excerpt: Exhibition

With Design Parade Postponed Until 2021, the Cities of Hyères and Toulon Took Their Exhibitions (Mostly) Outside

Like most international art and design festivals this year, the annual Design Parade — which typically takes place across two cities in the south of France and is on record as one of our favorites — was forced to postpone its summer edition until 2021. Somehow, though, these restrictions don't seem to have reduced the activity in Hyères and Toulon by much.
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09.08.20

Travel

Three New Design Hotels That Should Put Oaxaca on Your Post-COVID Travel List

Among the myriad reasons to visit the Mexican state of Oaxaca post-COVID — the mezcal, the pottery, the cultural diversity, the surfing, the fact that its fragile economy depends largely on tourism — are three new design hotels spanning the city to the beach: Grana B&B, Escondido Oaxaca, and Monte Uzulu. See all the pics after the jump.
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09.05.20

Saturday Selects

Week of August 31, 2020

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: little abominations that are anything but, Christian Siriano's winning (interior) designs in Connecticut, and an exhibition of ceramics and tapestries that are by turns comforting and confrontational.
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09.04.20

Excerpt: Magazine

We Want to Live Inside This Editorial On Conscious Consumerism

As our planet hurtles towards climate oblivion, it seems like literally the least we can do is engage in conscious consumerism. And this editorial — published last month in Elle Decoration UK and conceived collaboratively between London-based photographer Kristy Noble and stylist Katie Phillips — makes a pretty excellent case for it.
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09.03.20

Excerpt: Exhibition

Do You Love Your Toilet Paper Holder? Probably Not, But At a New Show, There Are 50+ Reasons to Change Your Mind

Toilet paper holders are, as a general rule, kind of the worst — which is why it's so heartening to see a whole exhibition devoted to them at Marta Los Angeles, on view from September 10 through November 1. Like so many everyday object shows before it, Under/Over — which features contributions from 53 studios — is both a cross-section of contemporary design, and a reflection of each designer's practice.
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09.02.20

Up and Coming

Guess This Is The Point Where We Crown Paper Pulp the “It” Material of 2020

Brazilian designer Humberto da Mata was born and raised in Brasília — which, with its swooping, Oscar Niemeyer–designed reinforced concrete buildings, could be considered the international seat of organic architecture. So perhaps it comes as no surprise that da Mata creates freeform work from easily moldable materials like hand-stitched upholstery, ceramics, and, most recently, papier-mâché (which, in case you missed it, appears to be *the* it material of 2020).
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