Every two weeks, T&C puts together an assortment of the best design news and happenings— everything from interior projects that pique our interest to auctions of note and must-have products.
Is Roche Bobois This Season’s Hottest Art Gallery?
Is Roche Bobois’s New York Showroom the newest it gallery in Manhattan? Maybe until October. To mark the French design brand’s 50th anniversary in New York City, it has decked its flagship location in artist Joana Vaconcelos’s Amazonia installation.
APEX OUTDOOR Ottoman
roche-bobois.com
$2005.00
Roche Bobois’s luxury furniture is placed between Vaconcelos’s sculptural work, which was seen as a part of her Valkyrie series at the Uffizi Gallery in October 2023, and previously at the Versailles Palace in 2012. The exhibition at Marie Antoinette’s former home made her the youngest artist and first woman to exhibit work in the space.
Together, the brand’s furniture pieces and Vasconcelos’ artwork create a whimsical setting that’ll leave shoppers with perhaps both a new appreciation for art and a new couch.
The installation will be up until October 31.
Nassau County Museum Opens Seeing Red: Renoir to Warhol Exhibition
Beginning July 20, All American Hamburger Drive-In won’t be the only reason to make a stop in Nassau County on Long Island, as the exhibition Seeing Red: Renoir to Warhol will be on view at the Nassau Country Museum of Art.
The exhibition is a survey on the color red, and how it’s been used across the mediums of fashion, art, and design. Interestingly, the exhibition has a few heavy hitters: An archival design of Ferragamo shoes originally designed for Marilyn Monroe; a 1970s dress by Japanese designer Hanae Mori; Vivienne Westwood’s Animal Toe Shoes; and works by Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Willem de Kooning, and Jeff Koons. Thought these names couldn’t be grouped together? Think again.
According to Alex Maccaro, the exhibition’s curator, the exhibition comes at a good time since Pantone’s Fall color trends include many shades of red. “Red has been a universally impactful color throughout the centuries, beginning in Classical Antiquity and continuing to this day,” he tells T&C. “Red will be everywhere, and it will be fresh in the eyes and minds of many of our visitors who will come to see the exhibition.”
The Noguchi Museum to Honor Writer Jumpha Lahiri and Lee Ufan
The Noguchi Museum, where Loewe’s Craft Prize Exhibition took place last year, has announced the honorees for its 11th Isamu Noguchi Awards: writer Jumpha Lahiri and artist Lee Ufan.
The award is meant to echo artist Isamu Noguchi’s spirit of innovation and experimentation through his work including sculpture and design (hello, Akari Lamps). Lahiri has written several novels, including The Namesake and Unaccustomed Earth that speak on the Indian-American experience while touching on universal themes. Artist Lee Ufan, who recently launched the second edition of LVMH’s Art & Environment Fund, is best known for his unconventional and avant-garde techniques. The two will officially be awarded this October, joining past honorees like architect Norman Foster and artist Hiroshi Sugimoto (whose portrait series of Henry VII’s six wives is currently at the British National Portrait Gallery).
Three Questions With… Lindsay Fuori, Set Designer of Inspired by True Events
What happens when a play’s star shows up before a performance in an unhinged state? Do they ask someone to take their place, or do they accept that the show must always go on? In Inspired by True Events, a new play by actor and writer Ryan Spahn which opens on July 17, it’s the latter. But at what cost? Spahn’s star must improvise on and off stage, and viewers witness the woes (and thrills) from the actors’s green room, designed by Lindsay Fuori, instead of the theater’s seats. Below, Fuori walks us through the unusual set.
T&C: How did you design the green room for this play?
Fuori: Every theater has its version of a green room. Sometimes it’s a full room and other times it is just a corner. When I read this play, I immediately began scouring my memory for details of every green room I’ve walked through. If only I had made it a habit of photographing those spaces, I would have had all the research I needed! Then again, this piece called for the specificity of a community theater green room. I spent a lot of time diving deep into the internet rabbit hole to gather photos of real green room spaces. Then I compared that research to the unique needs of the play and the qualities of the physical space we have been given to transform.
T&C: What were some design notes that you find important to making a green room feel authentic?
Fuori: My priority from the start was to work with the existing architecture to make it feel as though the space had always been a green room. This is something I think about a lot in my design work… what is the story that architecture can tell? I want to be able to see the years lived, evidence of people existing in this space, evidence of changes that have been made, or neglect accumulated over time. Humans are habitual. We leave a story behind in every space we inhabit. To that point, painstaking detail was key to designing this space. Color, temperature, and texture were my primary tools to make the space feel true, however, I often had to stop myself from over-designing. Little details like wear on the edges of furniture, or opening night notes taped to the mirror, are what ultimately make the space feel authentic.
T&C: Why do you think a setting like this is interesting for audiences?
Fuori: Intimate experiences are having a moment, aren’t they? I think this gets to the root of why people are drawn to theatre to begin with. There is something so unique about experiencing a story live with a group of strangers in a moment that will never be repeated. These intimate environments take that to the next level. When you are close enough to read the text messages on an actor’s phone or see the sweat on their lip, as an audience member, you sink into the story seamlessly.
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