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Jul 17 2020
Surface
Design Dispatch
La Biennale looks back, Milton Glaser’s ode to Philly, and a shellfish waste lamp.
FIRST THIS
“Disruption of the process is when the magic happens.”
HERE’S THE LATEST

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The Venice Biennale Stages Its Own Living History

In May, the Venice Architecture Biennale announced that this year’s edition would be postponed until 2021 due to Covid-19—next year’s Art Biennale, in effect, would be delayed until 2022. Though the show won’t proceed as planned, not all programming is off the table. The Biennale will celebrate its 125th anniversary by staging “The Disquieted Muses. When the Biennale Meets History,” a landmark show about the Biennale’s fraught history across six departments: art, architecture, cinema, dance, music, and theater.

“Interdisciplinary collaboration is completely new for La Biennale,” says Cecilia Alemani, curator of the 2022 edition. “In particular, we will focus on when the institution clashed with different moments in Italian and world history, be it crisis and war, but also when it was faced with the introductions of new languages and transformations of the biennial itself.” The vast majority of the exhibition will draw from the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts in Venice, as well as Tate Modern and the Peggy Guggenheim collection, and will include letters, contracts, video, photographs, and sketches.

“The Disquieted Muses. When the Biennale Meets History,” which will take place from Aug. 29 to Dec. 8 at the central pavilion of the Giardini, will be organized into several rooms with displays designed by Formafantasma. One section highlights the work of the Futurists during the years of fascism between 1928 and 1945; another examines Peggy Guggenheim’s breakthrough show of her collection at the Greek pavilion, which was credited with introducing modern art to the then-traditional show. Despite the exhibition’s historical significance, its organizers currently have no plans to present it online.

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What Else Is Happening?

Check-Circle_2x The intersection where George Floyd was killed has become a site of global importance.
Check-Circle_2x Seeking to grow its vacation-wear business, Loewe has acquired the island label Paula’s.
Check-Circle_2x A study uncovers that Black business owners had a harder time securing PPP money.
Check-Circle_2x Preservationists protest a plan to redesign the Hirshhorn Museum’s sculpture garden.
Check-Circle_2x Former SFMOMA staffers are demanding a reexamination of its board of trustees.
Check-Circle_2x The late graphic design legend Milton Glaser leaves a resounding legacy in Philly.


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SURFACE APPROVED

At first glance, the paintings of Susan Vecsey evoke both Color Field masterworks and landscapes, though they’re neither one nor the other—each work toes a fine line between abstraction and representation. This quality informs “In Between,” a solo exhibition of 15 of her latest paintings at Berry Campbell Gallery in New York. To create her works, which were inspired by painters like Henri Matisse and Mark Rothko, Vecsey applies multiple layers of oil paint to linen surfaces. The results are compelling compositions that are filled with ideas about perspective, repetition, and arrangement.

FASHION

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ICYMI: Amoako Boafo’s Deeply Personal Collaboration With Dior

In December, during Art Basel Miami, Dior presented its pre-fall Dior Men collection across from the new Rubell Museum. The gargantuan temple of contemporary art, helmed by Mera and Don Rubell, had also recently named the Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo as its inaugural artist-in-residence. A rising star who is represented by Mariane Ibrahim Gallery and Roberts Projects, Boafo has garnered acclaim for his mesmerizing, large-scale portraits of finger-painted figures that, in his words, “document, celebrate, and show new ways to approach Blackness.”

Boafo’s work resonated with Dior men’s artistic director Kim Jones, who spent his childhood travelling through Africa and had been wanting to collaborate with an African contemporary artist. After an introduction by Mera, he travelled to Ghana to visit Boafo’s studio. “I could just see his work turning into things in front of my eyes,” says Jones, referring to Dior’s Spring/Summer 2021 collection. Called “Portrait of an Artist,” it’s the latest of the French label’s recent string of artistic collaborations, which have become a key fixture of Jones’s tenure.

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BY THE NUMBERS

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Amount Lost by NYC Arts Nonprofits Since March

A new study commissioned by New York’s Department of Cultural Affairs and executed by Southern Methodist University’s DataArts has discovered that local arts organizations have lost more than half a billion dollars since the coronavirus pandemic broke out in March. More than 25 percent of the 810 surveyed organizations, which include museums and performing arts venues, have reduced their workforce (resulting in more than 15,000 furloughs and layoffs), and 11 percent don’t expect to survive after next year.

THE LIST

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Member Spotlight: Glasfurd & Walker

Since 2007, Glasfurd & Walker has built a reputation for compelling brand creation and identities. Their designs are daringly different, driven by strong narratives and inviting at all touch points. From brand identity to art direction, digital and print design, signage and packaging, the goal is to make each brand stand out from the rest.

Surface Says: Visually impactful and stylistically in tune with brands’ identities, Glasfurd and Walker’s work—from packaging to graphics—expresses a oneness with what firms are looking for and what makes an audience react.

AND FINALLY

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Today’s Attractive Distractions

Put reality on pause with these examples of photoshopped architecture.

This website lets homebound users peek outside of the world’s windows.

Patrick Onyekwere’s hyper-realistic portraits are made using a ballpoint pen.

Faye Toogood’s new lamp uses a bioplastic derived from shellfish waste.

               


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