Objects of Common Interest recently lit up Milan Design Week with iridescent resin furniture at Nilufar Gallery. Splitting time between Brooklyn and Athens, founders Eleni Petaloti and Leonidas Trampoukis’s next project looks back—to the ancient inspiration of their Greek heritage, and the midcentury spell the country cast over Japanese genius Isamu Noguchi—in the form of a two-volume archive, Noguchi and Greece, Greece and Noguchi (Atelier Éditions/D.A.P.) The collected essays, archives, and artworks broaden the context of the sculptor’s famed use of Greek marble and his interactions with mythologies and philosophies in collaborations with Martha Graham and Buckminster Fuller, among many others.

Shortly after the book’s publication this May, Petaloti sat down with Surface to talk about Noguchi’s travels, his presence, and why he considered the country his “intellectual home,” in a conversation below that has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Greece may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Noguchi. How did you become interested in this connection?

We’ve been interested in Noguchi since we were students, and visiting the Noguchi Museum since 2007, when we first moved to New York. We didn’t know he had any contact with Greece, only that he used Greek marble. The museum had an extreme amount of information related to Greece—some 1,500 pieces from the archives.

Then the pandemic happened. We moved back to Greece to my parents’ house because my mother got cancer. We spent seven months stuck in a house on a farm in conversation with this research. It was the only thing keeping us going. It intrigued us to see what Greece meant for a designer like Noguchi. It’s a tiny country with a big history, and he approached it without a colonial lens. He loved the landscape. It was very inspiring to trace his path and see our country and culture—and then the local artistic community—through his eyes.

How did he first become interested in the country?

He read Greek mythology as a kid, so it was fascinating for him to return to childhood fantasy. When he first went, it was to get Greek marble. Little by little, it stole his heart. He carried Henry Miller’s The Colossus of Maroussi.

Was he able to make work in Greece that wouldn’t have been possible at home?

Noguchi had this issue of not belonging anywhere. He wasn’t feeling American or Japanese. He was trying to find where he belonged. In this anxiety and distress, he had a much broader concept of global connection. The way he traveled was in respect and connection with locals. He became part of every small pocket of culture he visited. Maybe he felt unity in Greece’s artistic world. Everybody who visits Greece develops a strong relationship based on sentiment because everything goes wrong. Nothing works properly. You feel loose, free, and connected with the land. It flows in a very fundamental way. That’s what gave his work such simplicity.

So much Greek influence was filtered through collaborations. Did your research change your understanding of how he worked with others, e.g. Martha Graham, for whom he made sets for Cave of the Heart, her interpretation of Medea?

It was like unfolding the petals of an artichoke. We knew about Graham and his work with her body of muscle-crushing work, but it was revealing extra information of his connection with the country—and rediscovering our own country through his eyes.

What about Greece today did that reveal to you?

We never cut ties with Greece, even in the financial collapse. We had a rule of either making the work in Greece or not making it at all. It was sentimental to us. Noguchi’s trips were special because of the human connections he made, and in doing this work, you develop relationships that begin with admiration and become deep friendships. It’s now a good time to proceed with kindness, especially in design, and with the dignity of people. Noguchi was present as an established artist in a much smaller country, and that’s what I highlight.

Is there a story in the book that illustrates this presence?

What I’ll always remember is in a chapter by Katerina Koskina [the art historian who organized the First International Meeting of Fine Arts in Delphi, in 1988]. She invited really important artists. Noguchi arrived first, and she sent him to visit [Greek painter] Yannis Tsarouchis at his beautiful house. Tsarouchis only spoke Greek and French, and Noguchi only spoke Japanese and English, but they spent the day drawing together—discussing things through art. I found it mind-blowing, especially in an era where we don’t have time to spare for anyone.

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.

Name: Birch (Selsdon)

Location: Selsdon Park, London.

Designer: A-nrd

On Offer: Nestled among 200 rolling, verdant acres of fields and forests 30 minutes south of London, a 19th-century manor is now the latest Birch property thanks to an extensive restoration by Alessio Nardi and Lukas Persakovas of A-nrd studio. The pair mixed thoughtful renovations of existing details, from the lobby’s decorative stone walls to the paned glass windows and doors leading to the sunny orangerie, with signature custom furnishings like oak-and-steel wardrobes and sage-veneer headboards for the 181 bedrooms and suites.

Michelin-starred chef Lee Westcott similarly refreshes Victorian sensibilities at Vervain, serving shepherd’s pie and rhubarb trifle at rattan booths covered in corduroy velvet. The all-day Meadow bar is an apricot-bright spot for an aperitif, while the Snug bar offers cozier nightcaps at a vintage travertine cocktail table near the original timber-and-stone fireplace.

This spring, Chicago interior designer Elizabeth Krueger and her client-turned-partner Sid Parakh venture into the gallery space with the Opame Collective, a mix of vintage work, new pieces by emerging designers, and a house collection conceived by its founders. “Our fascination lies in the tales that materials can spin, and how they can transform into thought-provoking and soul-stirring forms,” Krueger says.

The curated assemblage includes burnished sculptural objects by Manchester’s Kat Evans and beguiling one-of-a-kind ceramics by Kansai Noguchi. But the pair’s own creations are equally engaging: bolts and knobs interrupt the smooth ridges of highly veined marble trays, tables, and mirrors, while hand-cast bronze bowls mimic the soft crash of cymbals. “Opame Collective is not simply an assortment of objects,” Krueger says. “It’s a celebration of the narratives embedded within each meticulously crafted piece.”

Whether designing hilltop residences or handmade ceramic home goods, Amanda Gunawan strives to achieve a slow, thoughtful, and highly detailed approach from concept to creation. Imbued within her practice, the Los Angeles architecture and design firm Only Way Is Up, is a progressive mindset to naturally create spaces and homewares not just built to last, but built to evolve with time—an ethos that has sparked an avid fanbase.

Last week, New York’s creative cognoscenti flocked to Long Island City for MoMA PS1’s annual gala. The festivities celebrated Daniel Lind-Ramos’s new exhibition, as well as artists and patrons Robert Soros, Anicka Yi, and James Turrell, who delighted the crowd with a zany speech. Guests gathered for cocktails before sitting for a dinner whose menu reflected shared Greek and Caribbean culinary traditions by chef Mina Stone. It concluded with a performance by duendita followed by an afterparty with DJ sets by Christian Mártir, Cosmo, and Venus X.

When was it? May 10

Where was it? MoMA PS1, Queens

Who was there? Rosie Assoulin, Klaus Biesenbach, Zoe Buckman, Brian Donnelly, Lutfi Janania, Angel Otero, Antwaun Sargent, Hannah Traore, Vito Schnabel, and more.

When: May 19–22

Where: Herald Square Plaza, New York

What: Since 1948, Fountain House has sought to end isolation and create opportunities for people living with serious mental illness. The organization founded Fountain House Gallery as a nonprofit exhibition space to support the careers and creativity of its members. Its latest group show spans verse, performance, film, and painting that explores navigating the world with mental illness. To see the exhibition, viewers explore a maze-like installation intended to parallel the difficulties of attaining mental healthcare in the United States. Works, augmented by audio of Fountain House members, explore such themes as trauma, stigma, hospitalization, recovery, and ultimately, freedom.

At the height of the pandemic, Nyakio Grieco strolled past an empty storefront in Larchmont Village almost every day while the L.A. local was launching Relevant: Your Skin Seen, her second beauty brand. (Her first, Nyakio Beauty, which was based on secrets shared by her Kenyan ancestors, was sold to Unilever in 2017.) Then came that summer’s social justice uprising, which motivated her and Patrick Herring—the founder of size-inclusive marketplace 11 Honoré—to launch Thirteen Lune, a beauty platform with 90 percent of brands owned by Black and brown entrepreneurs.

An instant success, Thirteen Lune soon evolved into shop-in-shops at hundreds of JCPenney stores—and pushed her to co-found the Beauty Vanguard podcast. But the brand was eyeing even further expansion, and the storefront Grieco passed by every day looked appealing. It needed a revamp, so she enlisted celebrity interior designer Brigette Romanek to translate her ethos into the brand’s first flagship. “[Grieco’s] vision, passion, and love for inclusive beauty fueled the design,” Romanek says. “We created a space that feels eclectic—somewhere that promotes community with treasures to discover in every corner.”

Founded by Michal Lifshitz, Poemet is a new brand of artful silk scarves in bold combinations of colors, shapes, and abstract patterns, inspired by the flow and evolutions of the human body. Poemet is a Hebrew word meaning “the heartbeat of a woman,” believing that no matter what life will bring, the heart will continue beating. The detailed hand-and-computer illustrated patterns are digitally printed on premium silk in the UK.

Surface Says: With its vibrant, abstract prints and premium silk construction, Poemet captures the inherent poetry of the design process.

Minnesota dedicates a highway running near Paisley Park to the late Prince.

New York’s beloved Astor Place cube will soon reattain its famous spin.

Crowds flocked outside H&M to snag the retailer’s Mugler collaboration.

Photographs from Madonna’s Sex book head to auction for the first time.