Hasta La Ideas

This past weekend, as you might have heard if you’re in New York, marked the Architectural Digest Home Design Show, held at Pier 94. Lots of vendors, tie-ins with the NY Times who presented design seminars, and presumably a good deal of marketing tschotskes handed out. But our pals over at Conde Nast dropped us a line to let us know that maybe, beyond the ins and outs of the event itself, there was also an air of recession relief this weekend:

Maybe this is a sign of recovery? Record attendance on the first day of the 9th Annual Architectural Digest Home Design Show in New York. Over 6500 people walked through exhibits that featured home products from high-tech ovens to hand-painted wallpaper, a 30% increase over last year. According to Architectural Digest, 56% of readers surveyed are planning to spend an average of $43,000 on renovation projects in the next 12 months. Good news for the home improvement industry.

Certainly should mean something, we’re guessing, given that it was a nice spring weekend in New York and still this record number of people decided to head indoors for a trade show instead. Here’s a clip of the show in action:

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Transforming the Velvet Speakeasy in Montreal’s Old Port into a candlelit temple of worship embellished with gold walls and paintings, Kevin Ledo‘s mash-ups of religious imagery and fashion photography (previously covered here when it premiered in 2008) launches the first in a series of events christened “Velvet Renaissance.” Featuring work from the local artist’s series “The Guiding Light,” Ledo draws parallels between luxury fashion institutions and the symbolic worship of Medieval religious authorities with works bearing such tongue-in-cheek titles as “The Grace of Saint Calvin Klein,” “The Fall of Saint Prada” and “Saint Alberta Ferretti of Milan.”

Yesterday’s opening night turned the space into a multi-sensory experience with DJ Milton Clark lending eerie ambiance to Ledo’s works.

A monthly event, Velvet Renaissance invites a selected artist to showcase their craft using the Velvet Speakeasy as a canvas. The title of the event implies an underlying theme arts that echo that of the Italian Renaissance.

Not just limited to fine art, the line-up will also include graphic and fashion designers, as well as tattoo and audio artists. Following Ledo’s show, local designer Jean-François Proulx will unveil the “Velvet Book,” a quarterly publication and calendar, as well as the new Velvet graphic identity. The exhibit runs through 18 April 2010.

pimg alt=”softlab_devotion.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/softlab_devotion.jpg” width=”450″ height=”730″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p

pa href=”http://softlabnyc.com/” target=”_blank”SOFTlab/a is the New York-based multidisciplinary design studio of Jose Gonzalez and Michael Szivos. Their most recent installation opens tomorrow at a href=”http://www.areyoudevoted.com/” target=”_blank”Devotion/a – a new gallery in Williamsburg focusing on the intersection of art, science, new media, and design./p

blockquotea href=”http://www.areyoudevoted.com/exhibitions/” target=”_blank”CHROMAesthesiae/a is a flourishing landscape of color, blooming across the ceiling in high contrast-gradated clusters. This installation is an investigation on the spatial and chromatic perception of space. SOFTlab uses modularity as a core modality in order to generate complexity from repetitive form, allowing for rapid expansion or contraction of every piece created. With the motto, “everything changes,” the ability to adapt and grow conceptually underpins their entire body of work. This customizable installation is made of discrete, laser cut paper structures held together with binder clips: everyday objects are repurposed and precisely recombined. Forms evolve and shift color throughout the exhibition./blockquote

pOpening reception Friday March 19th at 7PMbr /
Devotion Gallerybr /
54 Maujer St., Brooklyn, NY 11206/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/events/chromaesthesiae_devotion_16197.asp”(more…)/a
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div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/2010/03/bodum-pressettore.jpg” width=”468″ height=”399″ alt=”bodum-pressettore.jpg”//div

pHere’s maybe the last thing I expected to find being launched at the Home and Housewares Show: a kettle designed by a href=”http://www.sottsass.it/”Ettore Sottsass/a for a href=”http://www.bodum.com/”Bodum/a in 1986, during the a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Group”Memphis/a period. Joslash;rgen Bodummdash;the co-owner of Bodum and son of company founder Peter Bodummdash;worked with Sottsass Associates on the design, and shows it off for us below, pointing out a few distinctly Memphis moments, and the manufacturing problem that kept this off the shelves until now./p

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pAccording to Joslash;rgen, the kettle had been designed as part of a line of Bodum electrics, but was not put into production with the rest because of an issue with the stainless steel spoutmdash;the plastic expands faster than the metal, creating cracking and breakage. Now, in 2010, they are finally able to circumvent the problem (how, I don’t know, Joslash;rgen ony revealed that they “found a factory that could do it”) and the kettle is being launched alongside e-Bodum, their newest line of electric appliances, expanded to non-coffee and tea items./p

pThis appliance line is a first in Bodum’s recent history, but as mentioned above, they’ve been in Bodum’s past before. Similarly, color: though the company introduced color at last year’s Home and Housewares Show, they also used color back in the 1960s. On this, Joslash;rgen pointed out, “Colors come and go. There are children of stainless steel, then children of color.”/p

pimg alt=”bodum-electrics.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/bodum-electrics.jpg” width=”468″ height=”305″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” /br /
eme-Bodum line of household electrics, including a juicer, drip coffee maker, hand mixer, and coffee grinder./em/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/events/home_and_housewares_show_2010_bodums_bringin_memphis_back__16188.asp”(more…)/a
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div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/images/2010/03/nesci-generaldesk.jpg” width=”468″ height=”313″ alt=”nesci-generaldesk.jpg”//div

pa href=”http://www.wvvolumes.com/”Volume Gallery/a, opening its doors for the first time on March 19th, is a new, event-based design gallery with the specific focus of promoting young American design by providing a platform from which to present new work. I caught wind of their first show, a href=”http://hale-id.com/”emJonathan Nesci: THE NEW/em/a, when it was announced earlier this year, and have just received images of selected pieces from the collection, rolled out in preparation for this Friday’s opening. /p

pAbout the collection: blockquoteEach piece in THE NEW is born from Nesci’s observations of the world around us and the banal designs that inform our lives in ways many of us never stop to considermdash;the edge of a curb, the base of a street light, etc./blockquote/p

div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/images/2010/03/nesci-droplight.jpg” width=”468″ height=”313″ alt=”nesci-droplight.jpg”//div

pThe gallery, founded by Sam Vinz and Claire Warner, will occupy existing spaces, hand-picked to best fit the work of each show. For Nesci’s minimalist body of work, they’ve chosen to take over the a href=”http://www.andrewrafacz.com/”Andrew Rafacz/a Gallery in the West Loop. The location for the next show, with a href=”http://www.fferronedesign.com/fferrone_design_news”Felicia Ferrone/a, is to be determined./p

pAccording to Vinz, the gallery is bringing designers in part to the public, but also to the collector’s market, where emerging designers have very little representation. Here they gain an audience of not only collectors of contemporary and modern design, but also of contemporary art. /pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/events/volume_gallery_supporting_american_design_in_chicago__16184.asp”(more…)/a
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