painting as portal

"art is our compass to the cosmos." 

jack whitten

jack whitten, the messenger
MoMA
photos mine or j li

 

dresses

at studio one eighty nine ...

reading light

Starlight... Museum of the City of New York
http://www.studiojoseph.com/project/starlight/

tall

at Noguchi Museum...

in a Chelsea garden...

Each week in Daniella Ohad's Design and Decorative Arts in NYC class series is a study in periods, styles and expressions of modern and contemporary design. On Wednesday, we were transported, literally, to a Chelsea garden to discover the work of Polish born, London based Marcin Rusak in his first U.S. solo show.

Here, the welcoming French gallery founder Renaud Vuaillat has staged the Flora furniture, decorative objects and lights in his residential studio setting.  As if stepping into a still life, we were met with a towering armoire installation of locally sourced flowers assembled by the artist/designer's sister that both introduces and accents the interior display and focus on floral imagery.

As Daniella highlighted, the strength of Rusak's designs is in their surface, infused resin over meticulously placed preserved flowers, leaves and grass collected by the artist and given form with materials such as aluminum, brass and steel.  

Each piece successfully merges art with design for dramatic effects, both solid and transparent, voluminous and sculptural. While contemporary pieces, they evoke a certain mood of ephemerality too, perhaps from the play of light and dark on flora and fauna within the subtly luminous forms.

Flora Noir is on exhibit at Twenty First Gallery through June 16th. 

Chelsea morning, outside Twenty First Gallery... 
https://21stgallery.com/pages/marcin-rusak
www.daniellaondesign.com 

Lost in My Life

Rachel Perry, Lost in My Life (price tag with bundle) 2017, pigment print
Yancey Richardson Gallery, http://www.yanceyrichardson.com/artists/rachel-perry
Collective Design Fair, New York  

new world

Outsider Art Fair...

Set in Stone

Or, crafted in concrete if you are designer Clodagh, focused on building, interiors and renovations...

In her own words: "There is a universality about the presence of concrete. Used for years as a building material, it is perfectly comfortable invited into a room as a piece of furniture. Warmer to the touch than stone and malleable as putty until it sets, it lends a powerful presence to a room."

Clodagh's love affair with concrete began when she left a fashion design career in Ireland.
"The reason I left fashion was that it was too ephemeral, and what I love about concrete is that it is eternal, and it takes on a gorgeous patina over time."

At Thursday evening's "Summer Soiree," Clodagh and Trueform introduced the Clodagh Collection, celebrating concrete forms and Clodagh's happy, new East 23rd Street Studio.

Railroad Concrete Bench

Studio view of the concrete jungle

Tables were staged with reclaimed wood accents, Tufenkian area rugs, Chista artifacts and flowers by Floreal.   Vegan fare was served.  Fresh, chilled Rose was enjoyed along with Clodagh's own homemade raspberry vodka.

Primitive Concrete Table

fresh refreshments...

The big surprise? One lucky raffle winner went home with new Doggie Dinnerware, well equipped to tackle the dog days of summer now upon us!

Clodagh and Trueform share their story...

Nomadic Coffee Table
Doggie Dinnerware

www.clodagh.com
www.trueformconcrete.com
(quotes from press release)