News

Sep 02, 2023

Zara Home and Vincent Van Duysen Partner Again, the Black Interior Designers Conference Returns, and More News

By Alia Akkam and Mel Studach From significant business changes to noteworthy

By Alia Akkam and Mel Studach

From significant business changes to noteworthy product launches, there's always something new happening in the world of design. In this biweekly roundup, AD PRO has everything you need to know.

In addition to dining room furniture, Vincent Van Duysen's latest collection for Zara Home spans tableware, flatware, glassware, and accessories.

Zara Home+ by Vincent Van Duysen is back for more

"I want my pieces to be in everyone's home, no matter who they are and no matter at what scale," Vincent Van Duysen told AD PRO last summer amid the launch of his inaugural furniture collection with Zara Home. Tomorrow, the Belgian architect and designer adds to the offering, expanding beyond last year's living room essentials to include a dining room assortment that draws from his archives. The range's dining table, leather-covered stools, and armchairs, are reductive in form yet augmented with craftsman details. Take the standout wooden cabinet, designed with architectural detail in its elongated handles and sleek built-in storage. Rounding out the collection—and the tabletop—Van Duysen also lends his modernist eye to new styles of tableware, flatware, glassware, and accessories.

Wallace Sewell introduces Sycamore and Hornbeam, two fabrics marking the label's foray into upholstery.

AD PRO Hears…

…that Wallace Sewell, the British woven textile maker known for its upkeep of traditional loom techniques, has debuted its first upholstery collection—wool fabrics the company describes as "elevated plains."

Third edition of Artist Plate Project unveils

For the third iteration of the Artist Plate Project, cofounded by Michelle Hellman in 2020, the Coalition for the Homeless has partnered with more than 40 artists and estates curated by Hellman—including Anna Weyant, Mark Grotjahn, Hilary Pecis, Louise Bourgeois, and Virgil Abloh—on these limited-edition fine bone china dinner plates. Produced by Prospect, the dinnerware rolled out at Frieze New York earlier this month, and the remaining designs are available through Artware Editions. The sale of each one supports such services as eviction prevention and emergency food and clothing for homeless and low-income New Yorkers.

The Jetson chair, designed in 1969 by Bruno Mathsson for Dux, is now available to shop in the US.

AD PRO Hears…

…Scandinavian mattress and bedding manufacturer Dux's furniture collection is now available in the US. Designed in collaboration with Bruno Mathsson, the series includes the tufted leather Pernilla 69 chair, the bowl-shaped Jetson chair, and the chrome-plated Karin armchair, among other modernist styles.

Memorial Day Sale: Join AD PRO and save $100 on an annual membership.

Ellsworth Kelly Day takes shapeThree leading New York City museums initiated an official celebration of American artist Ellsworth Kelly yesterday, on what would have been his 100th birthday. New York City mayor Eric Adams has declared May 31 as Ellsworth Kelly Day—a designation that Chicago and Austin will honor as well. Though Kelly was born in Newburgh, New York, it was Manhattan where he made some of his biggest creative moves, including his first-ever retrospective exhibition, which was held at the Museum of Modern Art in 1973. Kelly passed away in December 2015 at the age of 92 in Spencertown, New York.

The Black Interior Designers Conference to return in September

Founded in 2010, Black Interior Designers, Inc.—led by president Keia McSwain—offers personal and professional growth opportunities to the Black interior design, architecture, and maker community through its international membership platform. These abundant resources are most prominently showcased at the organization's annual conference, which, after a three-year hiatus, will take place in LA at the 1 Hotel West Hollywood from September 20–23. Complementing the robust line-up of panels (speakers will be announced this summer) will be a number of team-building and networking events.

AD PRO Hears…

…that Lissoni New York has expanded its US operations to include Lissoni Architecture. The comprehensive studio will be helmed by architect Piero Lissoni and CEO Stefano Giussani.

Visual artist Ebony G. Patterson's installation at the New York Botanical Gardens travels inside and outside.

The New York Botanical Garden unveils installation by visual artist Ebony G. Patterson

The seeds of visual artist Ebony G. Patterson's yearslong residency at the New York Botanical Garden have officially flowered. On view through September 17, Patterson's site-specific work, …things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting…, ponders the tensity between beauty and desire, as well as the opportunity for renewal after loss. The artist's regenerative installations, which continue through various sections of the Botanical Garden, take an inquisitive look beyond the surface-level beauty (in forms natural and beyond) and uncover the complexities unravelling beneath.

Sarah Burns, whose first solo show is on view through June 10 at Marta

Marta hosts solo Sarah Burns show

Prairie's Edge, Sarah Burns's inaugural solo exhibition at Marta (through June 10), the first presentation held in its new LA gallery space, is an exploration of craft as much as it is a journey into the New York artist and designer's past. First, there is the name, an ode to the Minnesota casino beloved by her grandmother, then there is the layout, a series of Room Groups that call to mind the displays her parents embraced in their Midwest furniture store. Burns, known for the Chinatown showroom Old Jewelry Store, has created playful furniture rooted in tradition and made with surprising combinations of materials like birch, steel, glass, and rubber. Consider the Game Table, embedded with cast plastic cups, the pine and enamel Napkin Lamps, or the swiveling Coastal Mirror that recalls the side mirrors on tractor trailer trucks.

The Decades exhibition, which chronicles 90 years of the Stool 60, is on view through September 15.

Artek's Stool 60 turns 90

It was 1933 when Artek debuted Alvar Aalto's three-legged Stool 60, yet the modernist piece of furniture, produced continuously over the decades, endures. To commemorate the 90th anniversary of the versatile Stool 60 (it works just as well as a side table as it does seating) crafted from Finnish birch, the Artek 2nd Cycle store in Helsinki is presenting Decades (through September 15). Designed by Lauri Johansson, the exhibition illuminates dozens of stools, most of which can be purchased, that reveal the subtle changes shaped by historic cultural and economic shifts. During World War II shortages, for instance, finger joints stood in for L-legs on the Stool 60. In the prosperous era that followed, however, luxe elm and mahogany veneers were commonplace, just as vivid lacquers defined the 1970s.

Studio Faith Blakeney's take on the Sierra chair

Croft House unveils Sierra chair series

Marrying industrial steel with fluffy down, Croft House's Sierra chair was an instant hit when it launched 10 years ago. To celebrate a decade of the minimalist yet cozy chair's appeal, the LA furniture maker and retailer invited 10 collaborators—Brooke Wagner Design, Jeff Andrews Design, Adair Curtis of JSN Studio, Linda Hayslett of LH.Designs, Max Humphrey, Noz Nozawa of Noz Design, Homan Rajai and Elena Dendiberia of Studio Ahead, Studio Faith Blakeney, Emilie Munroe of Studio Munroe, and Tali Roth Interior Design—to dream up Signature Sierra chairs, their own versions with custom upholstery and powder-coated paint hues. Among the distinctive riffs? Blakeney's juxtaposition of a trippy, rust-hued shag fabric with a copper frame and Munroe's summery patterned linen cushion backdropped by bright purple-pink metal.

Minotti releases The Grand Tour movie

Pegged to its 75th anniversary, Italian furniture brand Minotti has released The Grand Tour, a short and moody film highlighting both classic designs and new additions from the 2023 collection in five transportive locations. Just over six minutes long, The Grand Tour kicks off in a glass-walled urban apartment before the settings morph to an alpine chalet, tropical hideaway, lush Parisian hotel, and swank yacht, all united by the Minotti lifestyle. The reviews are in: It's a product preview that totally allures.