DESIGN

The alchemist Bethan Laura Wood

A collection of oval-shaped laminate marquetry ‘oysters’ is spread out on the London studio desk of designer Bethan Laura Wood, who casts herself in the role of magician or alchemist of surfaces by creating luxury pieces out of inexpensive material. “I just love that with marquetry technique you can make this kind of cross section of the laminate. You see, we go from a basic kind of matt navy, to this aggressive surface, then to this bonkers glittered, to this one that’s meant to be like a wood, to this standard Memphis black laminate.” Read more

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ART

Shedding Light on the Absurd Erwin Wurm

Presently covered by the sleeve of his winter jacket, the tattoo on Erwin Wurm’s arm, “One minute forever,” evokes the series of action-based performative sculptures he conceived 21 years ago.  For a One Minute Sculpture Wurm offers a handwritten instruction and/or a suggestive drawing for the audience to follow. For example, a drawing that shows a person sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out accompanies Hold your breath and think of Spinoza. Read more

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ART

Portuguese Baroque Joana Vasconcelos

From her office on the top floor of a former cereal factory warehouse on the banks of the Tagus River in Lisbon,  Joana Vasconcelos coordinates all her studio’s activities.  Below her, on the ground floor,  two lions covered in crochet lace, assisted by some of her tallest sculptures, guard the entrance, Read more

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ART

Thumbs up David Shrigley

British visual artist David Shrigley attempts to rock climb on the Greek island of Hydra and within minutes he draws an appreciative crowd. While he may be improvising for a photo shoot, performing isn’t new to him. Shrigley was an extra in the film Trainspotting. Read more

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ART

The Imaginary Traveler Nicolas Party

“I look at art more than reality,” says Swiss artist Nicolas Party in his studio in Brussels. Party, who would rather go to a museum than on a hike, says that he is most often inspired by looking at images in books and in museums. Read more

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ART

From Time to Time Marina Karella

We all have a place we love to go. For the artist Marina Karella it is a studio in the Northern Dodecanese in Chora, a hillside village on the island of Patmos built around the fortified monastery of St. John the Theologian. Read more

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ART

Master of Materials Tony Cragg

Tony Cragg likes order. He likes to classify his sculptures, group them into families and think in terms of the relationships between those families. “I am very skeptical about throwing things at the wall and doing chance things, but art is full of this kind of sloppiness,” Read more

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DESIGN

A straight line is also a curve Ron Arad

Ron Arad’s iPhone screen displays an image of a painting, an elongated male figure in earth-toned colors reminiscent of a Modigliani. It is the portrait of his father at 23 painted by his mother when she was 21, younger than Arad’s youngest daughter… Read more

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ART

Natural order Urs Fischer

In the luminous studio, nude women recline gracefully on couches. One of them, gleaming in the sun that streams through the skylight, looks as if she has been dipped in liquid gold like the woman in Goldfinger. Another, partly veiled in white oil paint, … Read more

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FASHION

The curator Harold Koda

He wears a perfectly tailored suit, round glasses and polished shoes. With neither pride nor pretension, he stands next to three dress forms and smiles with modest assurance. He is showing three examples of design suffused with Asian references: an ethereal Valentino dress … Read more

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ART

Breathing Public Art Cecilia Alemani

It’s 10 am on the High Line in New York City, and two women in red cocktail dresses walk down the old railway turned greenway one after the other, each holding a book to her chest. Curator and director of the public art program for the High Line, … Read more

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FASHION

The outsider Mary Katrantzou

Walking into Mary Katrantzou’s London office, I encounter a happy Cyclops, a figure with a wide-open eye and long voluptuous hair wearing a dress from her 2009 collection inspired by perfume bottles. The portrait by artist/illustrator Craig Redman, who uses the name Darcel, … Read more

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ART

2859 words Dakis Joannou

In the brightly lit living room of his yacht Guilty, Dakis Joannou displays his new set of publications 2000 Words conceived by his good friend and curator of the 2013 Venice art biennale Massimiliano Gioni. “My relationship with Massimiliano goes way back. Read more

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DESIGN

Celestial map Nina Yashar

Enter Nina Yashar’s home and you enter Nina Yashar’s eclectic universe where Italian Grazia Toderi’s aerial photo of the myriad twinkling lights of London’s night sky is the centrepiece of her collection. In the photograph, the brightest city lights trace luminous geometries … Read more

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DESIGN

Paris from my window Jacques Grange

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette’s sparkling prose made her an international sensation. Although her fictional plots and characters are scandalous, her famous journal Paris from my Window is more subtle with its observations of nature and descriptions of the loyal tenants of the district of the Palais Royal. Read more

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FASHION

Wildflowers Christian Louboutin

Impressionist painter Claude Monet in his 1873 painting Coquelicots drew a vibrant splash of red poppies across the lush green fields of the French countryside. French shoe designer Christian Louboutin has created a similar effect in today’s fashion landscape. Did the designer have this particular wildflower … Read more

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