Pattern Pulp

Paper Mache Trends in Paris




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I’ve been sitting on this for a while for no good reason, and today’s the day I finally get it out the door. The last few hours I was in Paris over the summer, I remember having to go to the bathroom. I was running around Le Marais like a mad woman, looking for a bar to pop into, when I realized there was a department store across the street. I dashed inside, ran to the eighth floor, then realized, with 15 minutes to spare before heading to the train station, I was upon a paper mache mecca.

Just like we have our Legos, our rubber band jewelry and embroidery sets in America, an entire tenth of this floor was devoted to children’s paper mache. There were robot, bear and penguin bases alongside decorative papers, paints, buttons and markers. Interestingly, it reminded me of a show I had seen earlier that weekend at a gallery lining the Place des Vosges by Hausey Leplat.

Leplat’s a sculpture artist who creates life size animals covered in burlap. They’re incredibly intricate, rough and emotive. It’s an interesting thing – this parallel of the art domain alongside the DIY craft world. It may seem coincidental, but after comparing palettes, themes and construction, the trend has legs, and hopefully, will be making it’s way overseas.

 

Tuesday's Gallery Picks




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This week’s gallery picks confront the instability in our world, lives and self.

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1. Threads of thought from diverse disciplines and intellectual perspectives are woven together through Krysten Cunningham’s work, with theoretical physics, traditions of craft, formal sculptural considerations, and notions of cultural hybridity all playing a part at Pomona College Museum of Art
2. Katherine Mann’s process starts with pouring inks and water, and then allowing the stains to dry. Mann then builds on these signaling marks to create an entire ecosystem combining disparate textures to produce a jarring vibrant environment at gallery nine5
3. Sherin Guirguis investigates post-colonial themes of political, cultural and social dogma and feminist activism within the framework of the Egyptian diaspora, both in the public and private spheres. Delving deep into the building blocks of culture and identity, specifically from the approach of a diaspora artist, she presents her interpretation of what it means to be defined by the transformative events of the moment at The Third Line
4. Robin Cameron is fascinated with the concept of productive failure, a territory of proposed conflict in which something— an object or an idea— that in itself is a lost cause, can find new significance at Lefebvreet & Fils
5.remix. post. connect. explores the impulse to manipulate, present or exchange aspects of self, through artworks in a range of media. The exhibition acknowledges that identity is unstable, and that one’s sense of self is informed by multiple, often competing, influences, including heritage at The University of Queensland Art Museum
6. Incorporating themes of memory and illusion, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov’s work commonly plays with the concept of a dual reality at Pace

Patriotic Merchandising in Soho




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When brands open shop in Soho, on Fifth Ave, Madison or Broadway, they’ve arrived (in a financial sense). Whether or not the flagship sales support the rent, the physical presence represents retail grandeur – and advertising in a way. Here, we have Broadway’s Converse store and Fjallraven‘s latest opening on Spring Street, both in Soho.

The wall displays are amusingly similar, it almost seems like one’s riffed the other. There’s patriotism, product placement, mood lighting and serious merchandising going on here and both brands are displaying DIY finesse. What do you think of the dueling flags? Does it bother you?

 

Friday Quick Links!




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1. Beautifully macabre shrines of saints via Colossal
2. Charmed by Sarah Fitzgerald’s art via Design Crush
3. Loving milleneufcentquatrevingtquatre SS14 collection via Miss Moss
4. Love how this light projects stars onto the wall and ceiling via The Fox is Black
5. Intrigued by this tearaway wallpaper via design-milk
6. How about chalkboard painted pumpkins? via swissmiss
7. Fun and festive framed confetti via Present & Correct
8. Make yourself a mini chandelier via design*sponge
9. Quick and classy DIY for cups via Poppytalk
10. Just in time for Halloween – DIY lace mouse ears via Honestly WTF
11. Digging Frances Berry’s quirky photographs via The Jealous Curator
12. Interview with Jai Vasicek at The Design Files

Contributed by Emily Gup

Steven Shell's Geometric Dresser




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It’s rare to see highly decorative furniture in America. We usually keep it plain, simple and modular. Be it Pottery Barn, Design Within Reach, Bo Concept, CB2, IKEA or even Blue Dot, hard surfaces rarely incorporate print and pattern, let alone bold texture. Last night, I came across this Steven Shell dresser on One Kings Lane. I wish I needed it, as I certainly want it. Reminds us of yesterday’s footstool and Moonish’s wall decor. Amazing, right?

 

Tuesday's Gallery Picks




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Exploring the interesting relationship between creation and destruction.

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1. Maja Lisa Engelhardt explores creation through great whales and winged fowl at Elizabeth Harris Gallery
2. Beguilingly beautiful, XOOOOX’s women convey a sense of melancholy and introversion and allude to the growing displeasure with the uniform, consumption-driven hype of the fashion industry at Mead Carney
3. Natalie Frank pictures people in various states of disintegration. Intimate portraits, surreal scenes, and large-scale constructed narratives poke at what it means to be human: the absurdity, desire, violence, and loss or claim of self at ACME Los Angeles
4. “I am interested in religion, gender and sex as each attempts to categorize the individual and define the individual’s place within a society: instituting roles, rituals and traditions. I am a painter that engages in sculpture and body performance for the making of objects” at Western Project
5. The multi-layered compositions of tilted bars and stripes in colorfully orchestrated cubistic spaces that have characterized Ned Evans’ recent paintings have been distilled in his latest work into more minimal equations at Craig Krull Gallery
6. Nina Tichava interested in the overlap of nature and culture and the patterns present in both; the tension between them drives my exploration of color, surface and materialit .at George Billis

Tracking Repetitive + Awesome.
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