Favorite Picks: Wright: Modern Design

DAN JOHNSON's gazelle chair in sculpted aluminum

Wright opens their 2013 auction season with Modern Design, an auction featuring works by the most celebrated designers of the past century. These are my favorite picks.

EDWARD WORMLEY sofa for dunbar

POUL KJAERHOLM PK80 daybed

UELI BERGER, ELEANORA PEDUZZI-RIVA AND HEINZ ULRICH's organic sofa

ROBERT SONNEMAN Table lamps

Dezza sofa by GIO PONTI

coffee table by GIO PONTI

set of superleggera chairs by GIO PONTI

ARREDOLUCE floor lamp

Angelo lelli ceiling lamp

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE barcelona chair elevation for gerald griffith
(note the crisp and clean base intersection vs. knoll's below)

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE blueprint for knoll's barcelona chair

cloud sculpture by harry bertoia

a beautifully worn Jean Prouve compass table

A set of stitched leather chairs by jacques adnet

a rare desk organizer by paul mccobb

a rare set of donald knorr chairs for knoll with even rarer upholstery pads

A rare and intricate motion-notion clock by george nelson associates

Modern Design takes place in Chicago, March 28th.  See the full preview here.

RAW Gallery of Architecture & Design presents: Y_WG: The Quiet Influence

RAW Gallery of Architecture & Design presents Y_WG: The Quiet Influence. Curated by Craig Alun Smith, the exhibition (and forthcoming book) features an important collection of contemporary design by both emerging and established designers from the city of Winnipeg.

Excerpts from the curatorial essay:

Why Winnipeg? What is it about this place that fosters such a strong cultural community to flourish? How can a small Canadian city of only 700,000 inhabitants produce the likes of Neil Young, Marshall McLuhan, Gabrielle Roy, Lenny Breau, Guy Maddin, The Guess Who, Weakerthans, Carol Shields and Tyler Brûlé. The typical, “mytho-poetic” answer is that it has something to do with isolation and separation, a city on the vast open prairie landscape, alone at the centre of a cold continent. The myth tells of the remoteness and long harsh winters forcing the city’s inhabitants to band together for warmth and safety and somehow in this communal attachment, a great collective cultural conciseness is born. But that’s the myth, the one we tell because we don’t really know the truth. Could it be that the truth has just as much to do with broader interconnectivity? Winnipeg has always been a transportation hub, the gateway to the west. It has never truly been isolated. It is a city with a transient population; people come and go, we work and live in other cities but still call Winnipeg home, always maintaining a connection. Do these invisible connections allow the city to spread a tentacle like network out into the world connecting the city's cultural innovators to ex-pats and counterparts in major world centres? If it were simply a case of isolation creating great artists then Davis Inlet, Prince Rupert or Flin Flon would be the cultural capital of Canada.
......
Each generation of Winnipeg’s designers is forced to create its own path, to navigate on its own, to invent and reinvent itself over and over in order to move forward. We continually innovate, we continually create our own design language anew because with so few reference points to benchmark ourselves against we can not tell if we are failing or succeeding, Failure becomes irrelevant. We are always creating something new, our design vernacular continually shifts and we invent new languages based on our environment and understanding of place in the world. Winnipeg will always be on the periphery of the design world but this may be the advantage. Designers from established design centres such as Germany, Italy or Holland may have rich creative and cultural history on which to draw but this richness also forces them to design to specific languages in order to comply. German design and its functional, minimalist, Bauhaus-inspired aesthetic, Italian design, a balance between classical elegance and modern creativity, and Dutch design with its experimental, innovative, quirky, and humorous vocabulary – these are all national design identities but they are also limiting to some extent by the pressure to adhere to a specific design language. Canadian Designers and more specifically Winnipeg designers, have no such confinements. We can take inspiration from the outside world. We can take our inspiration from anywhere, and we do, because we have to, we have few reference points on the prairies. 

RAW Gallery of Architecture & Design is located at 290 McDermott Avenue.  The exhibition runs until February 16th.

Curated designers:
Roan Barrion
Ilana Ben-Ari
Michael Erdmann
Thomas Fougere 
Matthew Kroeker
Craig Alun Smith
Nils Vik

Competition winners:
Eduardo Aquino
Matt Barnlund
Ben Borley
Daniel Ellingsen
Stephen Grimmer
Evan Marnoch
Crystal Nykoluk
Zach Pauls
Claudine Perrott
Sean Radford
Renee Struthers

Many thanks to Jacqueline Young for these photos.

Spaces: Paris VI by Elodie Sire of D.mesure

An amazing Paris home by Elodie Sire of D.Mesure. Labeled simply on their site as project Paris VI, this family home features a wealth of elegant architectural details, complimented by the perfect mix of vintage mid-century, brocante, and high-end contemporary design. The most notable pieces are the pair of Warren Platner lounge chairs, and a Campana Brothers Boa Sofa.

My favorite feature: the incredible metal doors which I think are by Gilbert Poillerat.

See many more photos and project details at desiretoinspire.

Favorite Picks: LAMA's 20th Anniversary Auction

December is finally upon us. With it brings the best of the best in design artifacts, as the auction houses bring their finest consignments to the market to close the year.

We now head west to visit Los Angeles Modern Auction's 20th Anniversary Auction, taking place on December 16th. These are my favorite picks:

A rare chess table by ISAMU NOGUCHI, which is as much art as it is design.

A multi-colored set of HERBERT KRENCHEL steel Krenit bowls.

Octal-B by VICTOR VASARELY.

A lithographed Berlin Dream pendant lamp by JONATHAN BOROFSKY.

A Freeform walnut coffee table by GEORGE NAKASHIMA.

EDWARD WORMLEY's magnificent Listen To Me chaise lounge.

A classic ARREDOLUCE Triennale Floor Lamp.

EERO SAARINEN's Grasshopper lounge chair for Knoll.

A rare articulating MAA chair, home office desk, and rare plant stand, all by GEORGE NELSON ASSOCIATES.

A rare GRETA GROSSMAN coffee table win walnut and brass-plated stainless steel.

A rare bentwood leg Swan chair by ARNE JACOBSEN.


LAMA's 20th Anniversary Auction takes place December 16th.  See the full preview here.