Recently in “Museum Exhibitions”

One of the fantastic things about getting stuck in Milan, while the Icelandic volcano spewed ash, was getting to visit two of the four Milanese House Museums, homes with a unique combination of period architecture and antiques, with the addition of contemporary design ...... old and new working in tandem, showing how contemporary furniture and objects belong everywhere!!!!

I was particularly taken with the Villa Necchi Campiglio, a residence built in the 1930's, designed by architect Piero Portaluppi. The interiors were created by a collection of important Italian designers and decorators of the period, including Albini-Palanti, Buzzi, Marelli, and Ulrich. After the war, an extensive collection of antique furniture was added. 

The collection "L'Abbraccio," a collaboration between world renowned architect-artist-designer Gaetano Pesce and Michela Barona's furniture company Le Fablier, at the Triennale Design Museum, is a stunning exhibition of extraordinary, whimsical, and exciting new work ...... and it totally reinforces Pesce's design dominance!!! The furniture collection consists of tables, chairs, bookcase, sideboard, cupboard, and wardrobe. "Although it is off-the-shelf furniture, each piece is crafted so that it has unique features." Materials include polyexpoide, polyurethane resins, and hard foams .... elements familiar to Pesce's work, but there is an addition of wood, which is part of the Le Fablier world. 

The individual pieces in this collection communicate "feelings of surprise, discovery, optimism, stimulation, sensuality, generosity, joy, and femininity." The exciting colors, materials, and textures ..... combined with humor and whimsey ....... and the energizing exuberance of the pieces, makes this one of the most exciting exhibitions in Milan!!!!! 

Adding one piece of this furniture to a room, would

The Tra la Briccole di Venezia exhibition at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan includes this charming piece from Paola Navone. Thematically the show is about the old wooden signposts embedded in the Venetian lagoon. Navone's description of her piece tells it's story far more poeticly than I can ..........

"Trees ravaged by time and water. An architecture placed between the sky and the sea.

Italian designer, Paola Navone's fabulous creation, "Theatrical Creations in Tones of Blue" was designed for Venetian glass company Barovier & Toso for their installation at the Milan Fair at  Zona Tortona. The installation is a series of rooms, featuring vignettes or scenes, created by stunning glass pieces ....... all in the "Yves Klein Blue."  Each unique design incorporates light, some form of repetition ....... and is magical on it's own, but as an installation it is extraordinary!!! 

Navone says, "I find inspiration in most thing. It's a mental attitude. If you look and touch you can always find something interesting-a shape,a colour, a texture. It's a 24 hour exercise to capture all of these elements."

I am awed by Paola Navone ......... not only is she amazingly talented, but she is incredibly prolific!!!! In the past two weeks I have seen three works by Navone ........ this installation, and an incredible installation at Few & Far in London ( to be featured next week!!) and a fantasy sculpture that is part of the exhibition Tra le Briccole di Venezia  at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan. This piece is so stunning that I am also writing about it tomorrow as a separate piece!!!!

In response to the recent opening of the Chris Ofili Retrospective at the Tate Britain a collective of young British artists were asked to create art inspired by the exhibition. Anonymous UK artist, graffiti painter, and shoe designer INSA created this fabulouuuuuuuus pair of 10" heels by incorporating Ofili's signature elements - beadwork, elephant dung, and hot, bright color & pattern!!!!!

"Using similar techniques and materials, beading, resin and painting, INSA pays homage to the style and significance of Ofili's early work. To produce the shoes INSA retraced the footsteps Chris Ofili made over fifteen years ago and sourced dung from the same family of elephants that produced the dung used in Chris's iconic paintings of the nineties. As a not to their shared influences, INSA's heels are entitled Anything goes when it comes to (s)hoes... a play on a lyric from the classic Big Daddy Kane track Pimpin Ain't Easy which is referenced in Chris Ofili's painting of the same title." Wall text - Tate Britain

This combination of my two favorite "accessorations," shoes & art, is outrageous!!!!! I adore Chris Ofili's work and am completely in-love with the permanent "chapel" installation at the Tate Britain. And next month, I get to visit it, and the retrospective ........ and now I get to see these shoes too!!!! STUNNING!!!

The ultimate Christmas gift for "the accessorator" is .........either one of these two hand-embroidered tapestries by world-famous artist Takashi Murakami!!!! Created in collaboration with Louis Vuitton, each is a limited edition of 20. The tapestries were hand woven in India, from New Zealand wool, using the lock stitching method, using about 20 knits per square centimeter.  They have been exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Vuitton store in Tokyo, Design Miami in Basel Switzerland, the Hong Kong Museum, the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin ........ and next month they will be at the Louis Vuitton store on the Champs-Elysées, Paris. The square carpet is titled "Pink Time" and the round carpet is"Flowerball," each is available in two sizes ......  unfortunately delivery time is 4 months ...... but you can always print this page and wrap it in a divine box!!!!

Obviously a "major gift" ........ the only response would be a gigantic "THANK YOU", in sky writing over Manhattan!!!!!!!!!!

Opening October 7, 2009, the Museum of Arts & Design (MAD) has an innovative new exhibition that is dedicated to the use of cut paper as a contemporary art form. Slash: Paper Under The Knife will include the work of 50 international artists, including Thomas Demand, Olafur Eliasson, Tom Friedman and Kara Walker. In addition, there will be several site specific works that will be built and installed during the show. Paper, a medium traditionally used as a surface, will become the focus of the artwork itself. The pieces feature a variety of treatments of paper....including burning, tearing, laser cutting, and shredding. In addition to a number of artists who use paper as a sculptural devise, there will be works from artists who modify books, creating sculptural elements. In addition there will be a section using cut paper in film and video.

I look forward to this exhibition focusing on materials and process. It incorporates my two favorite mediums.....paper and books.....DIVINE!!!! 

Museum of Arts & Design website