For us the most exciting thing about the current global creative climate is that you really have to look hard to find excellence. Where it used to be clear at first sight what stood out, now a days - despite the great amount of different projects one encounters - the homogeneity is what often strikes us most. As we have stated before, especially in the ever-growing field of (or semi-) independent zines (that come and go) it happens too often that people seem to go by a borrowed or patch-worked vision, rather then bringing something new. Fortunately there will always remain gems to be found. The just launched Keith Magazine is one of those names, really impressing us when we caught the first glimpses of Issue Zero. Without knowing much about it, we know what matters most: Keith is one of the most promising new magazines we've found in a long time. Hopefully with a lot more to come from them in the future. [ Continue reading ]
We are big fans of Ghent, Belgium-based CASE STUDYO, which since its foundation has been producing numerous limited edition products/pieces of art with some of the most exciting creatives minds from all over the globe. We discovered the platform some years ago through Andy Rementer's People Blocks, after which the project really took off with everything they have been putting out flying of the shelves in no time. Two days ago CASE STUDYO presented its first collaboration with Los Angeles-based artist Cleon Peterson. The unique graphic aesthetic of the artist always roots in a 2D world of chaos, violence, sex and drugs, which the artist perfectly translated into a sculpture of 23 centimeter made out of white porcelain. Named 'Destroying the Weak' two violent characters symbolize the essence of Peterson's work: the struggle of power. [ Continue reading ]
After last year's impressive debut of the New York-based inspirational boutique of limited edition design, objects and art named Chamber, this month the second annual collection, given the moniker 'Human | Nature', opened its doors. Curated by celebrated photographer and filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman who, just as his predecessors Studio Job, has worked closely with Chamber’s founder, Juan Garcia Mosqueda, in shaping the year-long project. With his curation for Chamber Collection #2, Andrew Zuckerman explores the theme of how the natural world interacts with man’s living environment as expressed through objects of design, art, and various types of ephemera. Zuckerman’s collaboration with Chamber draws on a broad array of sources, including Japanese aesthetics, ethnographic art, and biomimetics, in the service of creating a collection of objects that reintroduce organic forms or concepts into designed spaces. When in New York city this is a must see! [ Continue reading ]
Two weeks ago, the London-based FOLD Gallery opened a new show by the extraordinary English artist Simon Callery named 'Flat Paintings'. With the new series the artist is suggesting that one of the defining characteristics of painting is now one of many characteristics in contemporary painting. Callery's works combined in the exhibition bear all the markings of their creation. Reevaluating the conventions of painting, the British artist who originally trained as a sculptor has recently worked alongside the University of Oxford's archaeological excavations in Moel y Gaer, Bodfari, North Wales where the landscape informed the surface areas of the large-scale works on show here. Canvases have been saturated in intense pigments, which have then been crafted, torn and stitched onto stretchers. Our favorite work is the large-scale work called 'Flat Painting Bodfari 14/15 Cadmium Red Deep': a mysterious patchwork in a tremendous shade of red, inevitably sucking in any gaze that is placed upon it. [ Continue reading ]
On the 26th of September the inspirational 'The Bauhaus #itsalldesign' exhibition opened at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein. The exhibition encompasses a multiplicity of rare, in some cases never-before-seen exhibits from the fields of design, architecture, art, film and photography at the Bauhaus. At the same time, it confronts the design of the legendary German school with current debates and tendencies in design and with the works of contemporary designers, artists and architects. In this way, the exhibition reveals the surprising present-day relevance of a legendary cultural institution. Bauhaus artists and designers featured in the exhibition include Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feininger, Walter Gropius, Wassily Kandinsky and many more. Contemporary participants include the works of Olaf Nicolai, Adrian Sauer, Enzo Mari, Lord Norman Foster, Opendesk, Konstantin Grcic, Hella Jongerius, Alberto Meda and Jerszy Seymour. We can't wait to visit this extraordinary overview. [ Continue reading ]
We just became familiar with the extraordinary work of the recent Royal College of Art London graduate Eden Barrena. With her work, the Spanish-born artist explores the relationship between the self and the other, and in the estrangement and conflicts that this encounter generates. Using print, drawing and bookmaking in order to collect these confrontations and transmit the amazement to the viewer. Sometimes, these are small stories very well localized in a determined context, but in other occasions her work remits to phenomena that expand through history: migration, cultural identity, racism, colonialism and the discovery of the alien. We love the raw and dynamic aesthetic in her images, mostly consisting of minimal depiction on blank backdrops achieving maximum effect. Keep an eye on this incredible talent! [ Continue reading ]
In recent years a growing number of brands, institutions and (digital) platforms have seen the potential of engaging its community beyond their core activities - with fashion being the ultimate tool to turn following into ambassadors. Magazines, museums and galleries, to name a few - whether with help or alone - have successfully moved into the world of global (street)fashion, which has become a greedy monster searching for new brands to lend its temporarily hype to. Next to these somewhat foreign players on the market, there is no limit on new ‚traditional’ fashion brands coming to life either, making it rather hard to (continue to) stand out - with an overal lack of creativity/lending of ideas being the other evident reason.. A new name which in our eyes has succeeded in creating a brand with a durable potential - based on Parisian cool translated into on-point graphic design-based collections for males and females - is Club Pétanque, which was founded last year, inspired by the elegant all-French sport of Pétanque. [ Continue reading ]
