All Photos By Gail
Patti Warashina’s Kilns series subversively undermined the macho “cult of the kiln:” a phrase used to coin the sexist culture that surrounded kiln-building during the mid-twentieth century. As a ceramics student at the University of Washington, Warashina observed that kiln-building lessons were directed towards men, while surface decoration was the jurisdiction of women. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Patti Warashina, Gold Finger
All Photos By Gail
If you’re going to be visiting the Whitney Museum, walking on the High Line, or otherwise spending time in the Meatpacking District, make sure to find your way to Gansevoort Plaza, (located between Ninth Avenue and Gansevoort Street) to check out a new Public art installation, Bombora House, by Brooklyn-based artist Tom Fruin. An internationally known sculptor whose work has been featured across NYC, and written about here on The ‘Gig, Fruin’s work can be seen as a celebration of human behavior and everyday life.
“If you really want to understand what makes up the fabric of people and places, you often learn all you need to by looking at the floor,” says Fruin of his approach. Reusing collected fragments of street and retail signage, disposed theater props, plastics and metals, Fruin creates something beautiful from nothing. Fruin refers to this process as “quilting,” whereby discarded items are brought together to create a map of life. With Bombora House, Fruin conveys messages of hope, stability and joy in the sculptural interpretation of a home and a suggestion to look at our surroundings with a fresh perspective.
Continue reading Tom Fruin’s Bombora House in the Meatpacking District
All Photos and Story By Gail
Every March, the international Housewares Association (IHA) hosts its massive International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago. This year’s show runs from March 2nd through 5th, but in January, there was a press preview in NYC, where I was able see all kinds of new gadgets and come back home with a huge bag of products to try for myself. It’s great to meet so many cool people and learn about their innovative designs, and everyone has a lot of fun! Here’s a peek at ten of my favorite new products and services from the show! Continue reading Eye On Design: Favorite Products from the International Home + Housewares Show Press Preview!
Toiletpaper Paradise Installation View (All Photos By Gail)
Toiletpaper Paradise was an amazing, interactive art exhibit installed in the gallery at Cadillac House in Soho, NYC from February 9th to April 12th, 2017. The brains behind this fab happening are artist Maurizio Cattelan (whom you have read about previously on this rad blog) and his photographer partner Pierpaolo Ferrari. The exhibit, which was a surrealist wet dream of an apartment comprised of four rooms, was sponsored by creative media agency Visionaire and based on the duo’s image-heavy art publication, Toiletpaper Magazine.
Continue reading Eye On Design: Snake Upholstered Sofa and Chair By Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari
All Photos By Gail
In the exhibit The Arcades Project, Walter Benjamin challenges the notion that the past is a fixed object, waiting to be elucidated. He calls the present “a waking world, a world to which that dream we name the past refers.” The dream quality of the past suggests that is is mutable, a patchwork of images and symbols that can be understood in myriad ways.” Continue reading Eye On Design: Mobile Homestead Swag Lamp By Mike Kelley