My Friends 
Design Blogs
- Always Mod
- Apartment Therapy
- Bloesem
- Bossy Color
- Damned Good Design
- Decor8
- Design Milk
- Design*Sponge
- Finkbuilt
- growers and nomads
- Housewears
- Hue
- Le Petit Cabinet de Curiosités
- Mocoloco
- Pan-Dan
- Patricia Gray
- Pigtown Design
- Print & Pattern
- Remodelista
- sfgirlbybay
- Sippican Cottage
- SoHaute
- Sweet Paul
- Tchochkes
- The Kitchen Designer
- The Style Files
Destinations
Detroit
Laughter
Archives 
- March 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
Dwell on Design
The third annual Dwell on Design Conference and Exhibition is set for June 5-6 in Los Angeles. You can register for both online at Dwell. The four-day weekend will constitute the largest design show in the West.
The unique two-part event will feature conferences, including sessions led by industry innovators, and a hands-on exhibition where attendees can explore a host of modern products and lifestyle exhibits. Special to the exhibition will be Dwell Outdoor—a “pop-up” community – with actual prefab exhibits, ready to see, touch and inspire.
The two-day exhibition will bring together design professionals and design savvy consumers under one roof for ideas, networking, and commerce. More than 200 exhibitors will be there to show their products and services. Designed to represent the very best in modern outdoor living, Dwell Outdoor’s 10,000 square foot exhibition will also be a highlight not to be missed. Dwell Outdoor drew broad attention in San Francisco in 2007, and three additional prefab structures have been added to Dwell on Design Los Angeles, never seen before.
If you’re interested in attending, you can save 20% off exhibit tickets by using the code: ADODED. Use the code: GRP22SP to save $50 off the Conference ticket price.
CCS Spring Show is Tonight
I scooted over to The College for Creative Studies this afternoon for a sneak peek at their annual Student Show, which gets underway tonight. CCS is a fine art school located in Detroit. It’s one of the best in the country. The industrial design department is known internationally as one of the best in the world.
The juried show is open for two weeks and most of the art is up for sale, with proceeds going directly to the students.
The show begins tonight. Early admission (your chance to get the best stuff) is at 5:00 PM. General admission is $50 and opens at 7:00 PM. You can buy tickets at the door. After tonight the show is free. You can purchase art throughout the event. Art is picked up when the show ends.
This year, you can charge your purchases. Otherwise, bring checks – you’ll need one for each purchase.
Todd Patrick Art Show
This Saturday night the Detroit contemporary home store, Mezzanine, is hosting an exhibition featuring the artwork of Todd Patrick. It’s a benefit for Art Road, a non-profit organization that works to bring art classes into Detroit elementary schools that currently have no art education whatsoever.
Todd is a local Detroit artist and architect who paints in intense colors on glass. He back-paints the glass and builds up his paintings in layers in reverse, a very complicated process that yields work that looks very polished – it’s almost luminescent – but very complex. The work features organic shapes that range from abstract to vaguely representational; it is boldly graphic but sophisticated.
The show runs from 6 – 10 PM. For directions and more information, call Mezzanine at 313 442 9000. I’ll see you there.
Spring Show at CCS
The College for Creative Studies will be holding its annual student show and sale starting Friday, May 16th. It’s always an amazing and popular event – the best work gets snapped up in the first couple of hours, but the sale runs for a week. I’ll be posting a preview next week. Oh, it’s also a fun party.
But it’s more than just a sale. You’ll also have a chance to view the creative work from other departments. Automotive design always gets world-wide acclaim. Of course, the interior design department turns in an excellent work. Be sure to take some time to view the animation films. They’re fun.
You can buy tickets at the school, through the mail, or at the door. Early admission begins at 5:30 pm and tickets are $350. Regular admission costs $50 and begins at 7:00 pm. The show is free of charge after opening night and runs through May 30th. The art stays up until then, so you get to see everything.
If you’re interested in buying artwork be sure to bring checks. All proceeds from the sales go directly to the students and checks are written directly to them. For more information, call the school at 313-664-7464. See you there!
Artist Heidi Marshall
Talented Michigan Artist, Heidi Marshall, has a show coming up in Charlevoix in a few months. I spoke to her recently about the show, which she’s preparing for at her beautiful, lakeside home in Harbor Springs (that’s at the top of the Michigan mitten).
“I’m working in pastels for this show,” says Heidi. “My work will feature people, animals, and landscapes. I try to interpret a bit of who and/or what they are – the essence and individuality that is unique to a person, object, time and place. Capturing this spirit in natural light is exciting. There’s something about being in light and color while you’re painting it. When things go well, it’s sublime.”
The show will be held at The Cycling Salamander, a fine art gallery just outside Charlevoix, Michigan. The show is called Pastels, by Heidi A. Marshall. It’s mostly Plein Air, and will include about 24 pieces.
The opening reception is June 28, 2008 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm.
Primary Season at MoMA
Speaking of New York (see today’s previous post), last Sunday, The Museum of Modern Art opened “Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today.” According to an article in today’s New York Times, “The show looks at contemporary artists for whom color functions as a ready-made — something to be bought or appropriated, rather than mixed on a palette. As Frank Stella famously quipped, “I tried to keep the paint as good as it was in the can.”’
“Ten Large Color Panels” by Gerhard RichterAn entire wall is devoted to Gerhard Richter’s “Ten Large Color Panels” (1966-71/72), a 31-foot sequence comprised of ready-mixed paint bought from a hardware store. Looking at this brings on happy flashbacks to the color theory class I took while a student at CCS. I use the stuff I learned in that class every day.
Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today continues through May 12 at the Museum of Modern Art.
Images: Karen Rosenberg
Arts and Crafts Auction
I came across an interesting article in The Economist about an upcoming auction at Sotheby’s in London. If you’re a fan of the Arts and Crafts, and Gothic Revival Movements, here’s a chance to at least view one of the world’s most extensive collections.
The auction, scheduled for March 8th, is called The Best of British Design from the 19th and 20th Centuries – Paul Reeves. You can read the entire article here. But I’ll quote the basic details:
Rock and Rollers and hippies have long had a soft spot for the decorative appeal of William Morris’s Gothic Revival, with its fair-haired maidens in flowing robes and its air of medieval mysticism. So it is not surprising that when Paul Reeves decided in 1973 to break out of designing avant-garde clothes for David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and The Who, he started selling Arts-and-Crafts furniture to some of the most famous musicians of the day, including George Harrison and Roger Daltrey.
Mr Reeves has organized a week-long selling exhibition and an auction at Sotheby’s next month. They will show just what a good eye he has, and how crucial he has been in encouraging furniture collectors to buy British design from the Gothic Revival onwards, a turning point in western architecture and interior design. About 120 items from Mr Reeves’s personal collection will be for sale at fixed prices. Another 120 pieces from other collectors—many of whom originally bought them from Mr Reeves—will be sold at auction.
You can view the collection at Sotheby’s online catalog. It’s an amazing collection.
Trends from The Detroit Auto Show
I have a brief report on trends from this year’s Detroit Auto Show. I hope you will indulge me going off-topic a bit this morning. Cars rule here and The Detroit Auto Show is usually a lot of fun. this year, however, everything looked pretty much the same. There were 3 stand-outs. I liked the Ford Flex, Mini-Cooper’s new Clubman, and these cute Chinese electric numbers called Tang Hua Xiao Ya.
Other than that, I saw lots of burnt orange and blue/violet exteriors. The latter ranged from a pretty pastel to a more saturated hue. There. I promised to keep it brief. Do you like burnt orange? In my opinion, the auto world should go bright orange or skip it.
IMM Cologne Awards: The Best of the Best
Five products were singled out for awards as The Best of the Best at the IMM Cologne Show. Here’s a look at the winners.
Kitchen-40, by Leicht-Kuchen, (above) was singled out because of its ability to integrate the kitchen with living areas. The Series 6910 sofas (above right), from Polstermobel, won for its clean lines. Gecko (above left), an adhesive textile product from Creation Baumann, comes in different styles and colors, and can be applied to any pore-free surfaces, such as glass.
Plank won for its folding Miura table, designed by Konstantin Grcic (shown above alongside Grcic’s stool). Finally, Fredericia Furniture’s Stingray was selected for its striking, almost futuristic interpretation of the classic rocking chair.
What do you think? Are these designs “cutting edge” enough to be The Best of the Best?
New Exhibit at Detroit’s Museum of New Art
The Museum of New Art will open an exhibit called Blah, Blah, Blah on January 19th. The exhibit will attempt to “salvage the art object from such obsolescence and herald in a new aestheticism.” The show runs through February 22nd.
As a companion piece, the museum will also launch a competition in search of the first truly-new and original art movement in decades, let alone the century. The winner or winners of this first-of-its-kind contest will receive a full-blown exhibition spanning the Museum of New Art and all its galleries (to be announced at some future date). I’ll keep you posted.
The museum is located in Pontiac, at 7 North Saginaw. See you on opening night!
Fourth Annual Shop Detroit
If you’re lucky enough to live in Detroit (where the weak are killed and eaten) you won’t want to miss this weekend’s 4th annual Shop Detroit event. Things get underway on Saturday, December 1st and runs from 10 am to 5 pm. Check-in is at the Compuware Atrium at One Campus Martius.
They’ll have lots of activities, special discounts and promotions. To find out more, visit the official site. The best thing about Shop Detroit is that my favorite Detroit home store, Mezzanine, is in on the event. Owner, Joe Posch, has lots of accessories and tabletop beauties to make anyone happy on (insert your holiday here) morning. That includes the Alessi Mediterraneo bowl pictured above. So be sure to stop by Mezzanine and tell Joe that Jennifer from Design Hole sent you.
The Detroit Institute of Arts Reopens
Detroit’s first-class museum, known locally as The DIA, officially reopened its doors today after a 5-year overhaul. The New York Times wrote a nice review. In my opinion, reporter Holland Carter, got a few things wrong, such as when he stated that, “it could be on an open prairie rather than in the center of a city, so faint is the urban buzz around it.” There are, in fact, two other museums the next block over along with The College for Creative Studies, which, I suspect, was out for the Thanksgiving holiday when the reporter visited the DIA. I suppose if you’re comparing it to New York, we are the boonies. And Detroit has seen better days. But now we have our wonderful museum open again, and with a whole new outlook on the arts.