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Mar 18 2024
Surface
Design Dispatch
Humberto Campana is holding on and giving back, Málaga’s oasis-like Nota Blu, and TikTok’s nebulous future.
FIRST THIS
“Individual creativity is the most personal experience.”
HERE’S THE LATEST

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Humberto Campana Is Holding On and Giving Back

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Brazilian brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana establishing Estúdio Campana. It’s a monumental achievement in the mercurial design industry and a testament to the vibrancy and flexibility of their vision, which encompasses architecture, fashion, furniture making, and landscaping. The celebrations might be tempered by the loss of Fernando, who died in 2022, but his legacy will live on as one of their major projects—the enormous Campana Park in their hometown of Brotas, encompassing 20,000 native tree seedlings and a dozen pavilions to host scientific and artistic research—comes close to fruition.

Maria Cristina Didero and Francesca Molteni have made a documentary on the brothers and their work, We the Others, which is slated to premiere at Triennale Milano this year. “On the Road,” a glorious exhibition of new work, some made by the brothers and some made for the first time by Humberto alone, recently opened at Friedman Benda, the studio’s longtime New York City gallery. Thirteen new pieces highlight the brothers’ talent for transformation: for the Galactic sofa, stitched leather reshapes stacks of upcycled packaging polystyrene into what seems to be a vacuum-sealed seat. Nearby, a bench and console float ancient adobe slabs on curling crunches of aluminum. The pieces are wondrous, and undeniably emotional.


Humberto recently caught up with Surface from his São Paulo studio to talk about dreaming of his brother, how he began making new work, and contaminating people with beauty.

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What Else Is Happening?

Check-Circle_2x Marmol Radziner completes The Beaudry, California’s tallest residential skyscraper.
Check-Circle_2x Meghan Markle hints at launching a lifestyle brand through an Instagram teaser.
Check-Circle_2x Tschabalala Self and Andra Ursuţa are selected for London’s prestigious Fourth Plinth.
Check-Circle_2x Adam Neumann’s real estate startup is launching a $300 million development in Miami.
Check-Circle_2x The Brooklyn Museum is selling off four period rooms and a trove of antique furniture.


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RESTAURANT

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Nature Is Everywhere at Málaga’s Oasis-Like Nota Blu

Tucked between bustling Málaga and the Strait of Gibraltar, with the rolling foothills of the Sierra Blanca on one side and the Mediterranean on the other, the city of Marbella is also now home to the Casanis Group’s latest restaurant Nota Blu. Barcelona-based firm Astet Studio took care of its interiors, which nod to the white and azure surroundings without succumbing to coastal kitsch. A walkway suspended between pools of water leads to a lobby defined by wood arches intertwined with long, foliate details; they lighten the flooring, which references a stone path. Deeper in, Astet’s gracious furnishings—creamy, curving banquettes; a sumptuous marble bar—rest between screens and overflowing ceiling fixtures carrying the leafy theme.

Chef Fabián Cangas has devised a menu that lends a touch of the nearby sea to timeless French cuisine, and guests can watch his team whip up dishes like a Josperised lobster au gratin or a cauliflower salad with caramelized walnuts and sumac in the open, 3,700-square-foot kitchen. The Blue Bar offers a beverage program by Colo Linari, including the Mediterranean Collins (Bombay Citron Pressé, ginger liqueur, sherry wine, line, cucumber syrup, and tonic) and mocktails like a martini of Vibrante and pink grapefruit soda. Up to ten guests can sup privately among the wine cellar’s 3,000 bottles, and of course try a few. But the place to be is the outdoor terrace, surrounded by verdant trees, under the Mediterranean sky.

DESIGN

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West Haddon Hall’s Breezy Furniture Is Finally Here

Kate Driver established the design firm West Haddon Hall in 2011, and since then she’s filled her breezy residential projects with custom furniture that effortlessly synthesizes her Art Deco, MCM, and postmodern influences. This spring, her pieces are at long last available to the public with her debut Collection I. Its 14 designs include takes on the camelback (the Mulberry sofa, boasting a single-seat and a fresh, flared arm), a columnar side table (the aptly named Ivy, of green resin and solid oak), and even the classic pedestal table (the Millwork, with turned solid oak spindle legs), each made-to-order in Los Angeles. She’s only just beginning: the next installment, Collection II, will arrive this fall.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

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Samuel Ross Will Lead the Next London Design Biennale

Samuel Ross has been named artistic director of the London Design Biennale’s fifth edition, scheduled for June 5–29, 2025. The British designer and founder of SR_A SR_A was tasked with selecting the event’s theme and landed on “Surface Reflections,” which promises to explore how internal and external experiences fuel our ideas and how revelations and personal histories inform who we are. He’ll also debut large sculptural works in the courtyard at Somerset House, marking his first U.K. installation.

In other people news, Pierre Yovanovitch Group has acquired the historic French manufacturer d’Argentat and its subsidiary Ecart International, founded by the late Andrée Putman. The move allows the French designer’s business to vertically integrate manufacturing and develop historic French design on an international scale. Elizabeth C. Babcock has been named the new founding director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum after Nancy Yao stepped down last year. The curator, critic, and digital art specialist Tina Rivers Ryan will depart the Buffalo AKG Art Museum to become editor-in-chief of Artforum, succeeding controversially ousted editor David Velasco.

CULTURE CLUB

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Kikuo Saito Inaugurates James Fuentes Tribeca

The latest in a rush of thrilling new arrivals to Tribeca’s gallery scene is marked by the debut show of James Fuentes’ downtown outpost. Friends, fellow artists, curators, collectors, and other well-wishers turned out to 52 White Street to celebrate the opening of Saito’s “Color Codes,” which features eight large-scale works that venture beyond mere color studies to incorporate Abstract Expressionism and Gutai. Guests took in the show and celebrated the neighborhood’s newest arrival over wine and cocktails.

When was it? Mar. 8

Where was it? James Fuentes, Tribeca

Who was there? James Fuentes, Christopher Y. Lew, Dustin Yellin, Caleb Hahne Quintana, Brennan Aubol, Katrin Lewinsky, Keegan Monaghan, Kevin Claiborne, and more.

EXHIBITION

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An Upstart Art Biennial With a Fresh Perspective Launches in New York

New art collective MoDA Curations is making its name with a reputation for bringing an anthropologically driven perspective to curation, viewing its own holdings as more of a cultural archive than simply a reflection of market forces. Their debut show, “Being Human,” positions its artists as cultural ethnographers whose works further an understanding of culture and identity. They include Amalia Caputo, Alexander James, Claudia Koh, and Ara Oshagan.

With her oil paintings, Koh (work pictured), currently a RISD student, viscerally renders the profound discomfort of both vulnerability and taking up space. Oshagan’s photography series, “Traces of Identity: the Armenian Diaspora in Los Angeles,” meanwhile, looks at the collective and personal impact of displacement. In an industry that traditionally bases everything from the most foundational aspects of its education to its market values in a Western European historical cannon, MoDA shows the potential in letting artists drive a more personal and impactful narrative.

THE LIST

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Member Spotlight:
Studio SFW

Studio SFW is a New York–based architecture and interior design firm, co-founded by Erin Fearins, Ward Welch, and Rachael Stollar. A design trio with southern roots, SFW brings more than a decade of collaboration together with an approach that imbues lived-in luxury to interiors and lifestyle projects.

Surface Says: Whether in jewel-box apartments or expansive brownstones, Studio SFW brings to life eclectic homes brimming with personality and every client’s unique point of view.

AND FINALLY

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Today’s Attractive Distractions

The Las Vegas Sphere launches a contest to display artwork by local students.

Gucci is releasing a short film about its new creative director Sabato de Sarno.

MARS Studio’s latest installation “weaves an urban island of shifting color.”

TikTok’s content creators fear the app’s nebulous future in the United States.

               


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