What’s Happening: Saying it will eschew the lack of substance within most crypto art, a new NFT marketplace called Artwrld is attempting to introduce more renowned artists to the digital art sector.

The Download: Despite having taken the art world by storm and becoming a $40 billion industry over the past year, NFTs and crypto art have been widely criticized for lacking substance. (As a refresher, NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are digital assets that represent a range of tangible and intangible items, from memes and collectible sports highlights to virtual art and furniture. Each one is individually identified on a blockchain, the most popular being Ethereum.) The naysayers have a point: most mainstream NFT series—CryptoPunks, the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and CryptoSharks—consist of thousands of variations of a single image, and sell for six-plus figures despite mostly aesthetically underwhelming results.

Artwrld, a newly launched NFT marketplace, seeks to elevate crypto art by bringing more established contemporary artists into the fray. The co-founders, former Creative Time chief curator Nato Thompson, CEO of the Bluecadet design agency Josh Goldblum, and media artist Walid Raad, envision Artwrld as a place where renowned artists can explore the creative potential of NFTs beyond tokenizing existing works as a cash grab.

So far, the platform has drummed up interest from the likes of Shirin Neshat (pictured), Swoon, and Jill Magid, who are all slated to create one-of-a-kind digital artworks—their initial foray into NFTs—for the platform. Each will be released in “drops” ranging from thousands of unique NFTs to just a few. Before that, Raad plans to create a series of computer-generated birthday cakes for dictators, sheikhs, presidents, and 20th-century rulers, called Festival of Gratitude, during Frieze New York in May.

The crypto-art sphere might benefit from the presence of more seasoned artists. Detractors, however, note the market for new marketplaces is already very crowded. Platforms like Particle, Pace Verso, Aorist, and ArtOfficial have all launched in the past few months alone, joining OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, and SuperRare. That doesn’t faze Thompson: “More people getting used to a MetaMask wallet, more people understanding that NFTs are great opportunities for artists that are respectable is not a problem for us,” he tells Artnet News. An impending NFT recession, partially spurred by the war in Ukraine, global inflation, and interest rate hikes in the U.S., might be another story.

In Their Own Words: “We really have no interest in just taking people’s artwork and dumping it into a marketplace without any context, or monetizing something that was created for a different format,” Goldblum says. “We want to create work that really takes advantage of what Web3 can do.”

Surface Says: We continue to monitor the NFT art with both skepticism and intrigue about the technology’s promise. But if every new marketplace claims to be cutting through the noise, who’s actually doing it?

Have a news story our readers need to see? Submit it here.

Reach the design world every morning. Find out more about advertising in the Design Dispatch.

One of the forerunners of the lifestyle hotel movement and a cherished local hub for Toronto’s creative community, the Drake Hotel is unveiling an expanded repertoire. The modern extension was led by Diamond Schmitt Architects, with original collaborators DesignAgency, architect John Tong, and the Drake’s in-house creative team handling the interiors for the intimate street-level bar, living room-style lobby, and 32 additional rooms showcasing artist-designed wallpapers. The jewel on the crown is the cantilevered, mirrored rooftop penthouse suite outfitted with floating sculptural paintings by Jazmine Cardenas and a sweeping outdoor terrace.

Our weekly roundup of the internet’s most preposterous headlines, from the outrageous to the outright bizarre.

Did Kim Kardashian Predict the Metaverse? [Input]

Poutine Restaurant Chain Forced to Explain It Has No Connection With Putin [Food & Wine]

Killing Cockroaches With Pesticides Is Only Making the Species Stronger [National Geographic]

Customers Accuse Las Vegas Restaurant of Selling THC-Tainted Thai Food [Huffington Post]

CK Reed is an L.A.–based artist and designer whose mixed-media canvas works, lighting fixtures, and painted furniture are brought to life with bright, poppy hues and vibrant plant motifs. She works exclusively with found items that she breathes new life into with her otherworldly painted designs that all nod to plant life and her background in textile design.

Reed created three hand-painted, repurposed aluminum pendant lighting fixtures with tropical motifs specifically for “Woman Made,” an exhibition of female artists and designers at Surface Area in the Miami Design District. “The Miami Pendants were born a few days after I was asked to participate in the exhibition. I wanted to showcase my most recent genre of work—painted lampshades and lighting fixtures—all found and repurposed. I work as a set designer in L.A., and these were left over from a commercial shoot years ago. I always loved their shape and had a feeling one day I would do something cool with them,” she says. “I grew up in South Florida and remember being so inspired by Miami’s art deco buildings and color palette, so I looked to those nostalgic memories to influence the design.”

We’ve all struggled with Zoom Fatigue in some form, whether personally adopting a staunch “camera-off” policy or dialing in a couple minutes late to avoid awkward pre-meeting small talk. Matsuko, a startup launched by Maria Vircikova, seeks to make these virtual get-togethers less stilted by using holograms, a futuristic technology long dismissed as fantasy but with manifold real-world applications. Using the company’s iPhone app, realtime 3D images streamed via iPhone cameras replicate the feeling of an IRL conversation during remote meetings. Members equipped with special glasses can view and interact with other parties as if they were in the room.

The Ekstrem Chair, originally designed by Terje Ekstrøm, has become a classic of Postmodernist furniture since its launch in 1984. Now produced by the Norwegian furniture brand Varier, Ekstrem is beloved for its playful and organic shape thanks to a tubular steel frame that effortlessly elevates the chair to sculpture and adds a dose of whimsy to interior spaces. With the release of a new range of sleek velvet upholstery by Danish fabric purveyor Kvadrat—new shades include orange, rose, blue, green, white, and black—the beloved design staple is reborn once again.

Paul Loebach is an American designer whose work spans historical, material, and narrative references across product, furniture, and lighting. He has collaborated with, among others, Roll & Hill, Matter, Umbra, and The Future Perfect. His approach is heavily influenced by his family craft history, an interest in American manufacturing, and a deep sense of curiosity about the relationship between objects and emotions.

GE scientists studied the movement of worms to devise a pipe-unclogging robot.

An ultra-swanky Bel Air mansion listed for $87.7 million features its own NFT gallery.

Instagram bans Kanye West for 24 hours for violating its policies on harassment.

Would you take a bite out of Mike Tyson’s new ear-shaped cannabis gummies?