Tag: design

Raphael Navot at Friedman Benda Gallery

Paris-based designer Raphael Navot’s furniture, now on view at Friedman Benda Gallery, begs to be touched. The gallery explains that the soft, curving forms of this couch, titled ‘Entwined,’ demonstrate the concept of comfort as something experienced both mentally and physically.  Though velvet upholstery resembles the surface of rock, and Navot intends to harken back to what the gallery calls the first furniture, ‘a pile of rounded rocks,’ the sheer tactility of the sofa’s sweeping curves makes softness irrelevant.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 10th).

Raphael Navot, Entwined, velvet, bronze, fiberglass, 3D-milled foam, 36.75 x 56.25 inches, 2022.

Beatriz Milhazes at Pace Gallery

Made recently but rendered antique-looking by strategically distressed paint, Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes’ paintings at Pace Gallery exist to celebrate the histories and abundant possibilities of design.  Scrolling stems, chains of periwinkles and clusters of Klimt-like gold circles in this painting join colorful wave forms and triangular patterns in creating strong horizontals, broken by large leaf-like forms at the center of the canvas.  Does nature compete with design?  A merger of organic and geometric shapes in the vertical strip at the center of this painting suggests a harmonious and dynamic relationship between the two.  (On view in Chelsea through Oct 29th).

Beatriz Milhazes, Azulão, acrylic on linen, 75 inches × 63 inches, 2021 – 22.

Anila Quayyum Agha at Sundaram Tagore Gallery

Inspired by Islamic art and architecture, Anila Quayyum Agha’s pattern-based practice celebrates the intricacies and pleasures of floral and geometric design.  Her installation Beautiful Despair, commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, literally immerses the viewer in patterns that are projected from a central cube onto the floor, walls and ceiling of a room at Sundaram Tagore Gallery.  With the piece, Quayyum Agha commemorates those lost to Covid (including her sister) while expressing hope for the future.  (On view in Chelsea though Oct 8th).

Anila Quayyum Agha, Beautiful Despair, lacquered steel and halogen bulb, 60 x 60 x 60 inches, 2022.

‘Ghana boy’ tunic in ‘The Clamor of Ornament’ at the Drawing Center

Featuring multicolor embroidery and emblems from urban life, ‘Ghana boy’ tunics like this one currently on view at the Drawing Center were worn by Malian workers who’d migrated to Ghana’s coastal cities.  The garments might depict tools of a trade (e.g. a barber’s scissors), fashionable clothing or vehicles (motorbikes to airplanes) and speak to the experience of the wearer.  On view in the Drawing Center’s wide-ranging design exhibition ‘The Clamor of Ornament:  Exchange, Power and Joy from the 15th century to the present,’ this tunic demonstrates self-fashioning between cultures.  (On view in SoHo through Sept 18th).

“Ghana Boy” style tunic (back), unknown artist, Mali, cotton cloth with multicolor embroidery, c. 1960s-70s.
“Ghana Boy” style tunic, unknown artist, Mali, cotton cloth with multicolor embroidery, c. 1960s-70s.

Mattias Sellden at Friedman Benda Gallery

Swedish designer Mattias Sellden’s eureka moment, when he settled on his signature use of minimally processed planks of wood to create dynamic furniture items, came from a simple aversion to altering a piece of wood he admired.  Calling the creations now on view at Friedman Benda his ‘little wooden friends,’ Sellden allows his audience to find use-value in the constructions or simply enjoy them as they are.  (On view through August 12th).

Mattias Sellden, Sunset Giraffe, curly birch, birch, varnish, pigment, 50.5 x 23.5 x 17.75 inches, 2021.