As of late, Derrick Adams and his oeuvre enshrining visual elements of Black culture, particularly at moments of leisure and repose, has seemed omnipresent. His monumental mermaid sculptures preside over Hav & Mar; he’s at the center of The Brooklyn Museum’s “Giants” exhibition of fine art from the Dean Collection, and he participated in Kinfolk’s recent artist-driven AR reimagining of New York monuments. Now, his vision on the topic of Black futures is the subject of the inaugural solo show at Project For Empty Space’s new location in downtown Manhattan.

Adams and Project for Empty Space go way back; he was among the incubator’s inaugural artists in residence back in 2015 and has been a repeat collaborator with founders Rebecca Pauline Jampol and Jasmine Wahi ever since. As his star continues to rise, they selected him to usher in the organization’s next phase: PES Futures. Futures brings Project for Empty Space back to New York, where it was founded in 2010, to support boundary-breaking artists with resources and solo exhibition space with a focus on selected artists’ interpretations of the future, all in the country’s art capital.

“It felt good to place Futures in our original stomping grounds, and in a place that brings folks together from all parts of the world,” the founders told Surface. The organization, which has long been synonymous with its operations in Newark, is also doubling down on its presence there with two new exhibitions slated to open this summer.

The founders credit Adams, together with fellow alumni Nina Chanel Abney and David Antonio Cruz, with “setting a precedent” for the organization’s directive to collaborate with artists whose work prioritizes social engagement and empowering intersectional communities. Adams, for his part, views the organization’s “artist-first principle” as an essential part of the strides it’s making in the larger art community—and a reason why he’s eager to return to Project for Empty Space as a repeat collaborator.

Jampol and Wahi also speak to his “commitment to making spaces for joy.” This manifests in Adams’ current exhibition as an intrepid, intergalactic exploration of retrofuturistic cultural ephemera. Viewers behold back-issues of Ebony magazine, Sears Roebuck catalogs, Paleolithic-era lantern slides from the University of Chicago, and the record collection of late DJ and producer Frankie Knuckles, who is remembered as the Godfather of House music.

“My exhibition is an offering to those who can imagine a shared world beyond the constraints of surroundings that attempt to oppress us with limited representation of cultures outside of what is considered by some as the dominant power structure,” Adams says. “I see other worlds through education and research. ‘Future People… Take Off’ highlights these findings and presents them as an out-of-the-world experience—which they are.”

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Plenty of hotels in Paris lean into Beaux-Arts grandiosity, but Résidence Bouchardon, in the 10th Arrondissement, offers a refreshing change of scenery. Interiors by Bernard Dubois, a collaborator of Courrèges, Lanvin, and Zadig & Voltaire, bring a plethora of retro-cool wood elements to the fore. Warm-toned floor-to-ceiling wall paneling, blocky furniture, and a Bauhaus-like dedication to how form follows function proves transportive: Dubois recently said he sought to take guests “far from Paris,” even evoking mountain chalets instead of the cosmopolitan hub. In the spirit of form and function, each of the eleven rooms is styled as a residence, complete with a kitchenette, laundry facilities, and separate living areas.

Somewhere along the way, the bureaucracy of hierarchical design studios began to sabotage creativity. Not to mention the constant tension between industrial and digital design, which has long since focused on “friction-reduction, speed, and simplicity,” to the detriment of art and joy, says Heirloom founder Jack Godfrey Wood. Knowing he couldn’t simply find the utopic creative environment he was looking for, he built his own with co-founders Harc Lee, Tate Sager, and Andrew Furner.

Godfrey Wood is the uncommon talent whose skills extend across the physical-digital divide he takes umbrage with—he knows it doesn’t have to be that way. In addition to contributing to the next frontier of bio-science by designing systems for genome and exome sequencing, his solar LED lantern sits in the permanent collection of the British Museum, and his Build modular shelves, which are made from recycled polypropylene with a 95 percent air content (designed with Tom Ballhatchet with Movisi), line the UN Headquarters. A new woven colostomy bag he created was exhibited in the V&A Dundee’s “Plastic: Remaking Our World.”

Following the show, a mammoth undertaking between the V&A Dundee and South Kensington, as well as the Vitra Design Museum, the bag was acquired for the V&A’s permanent collection. Godfrey Wood, along with his cohort of interdisciplinary co-founders and team at Heirloom, is making a design studio in the image of what the industry’s potential can be.

Following its February debut, Surface’s art and culture dinner series ushered the creative energy into springtime with a recent dinner hosted by Yowie founder Shannon Maldonado. The founder of Philadelphia’s boutique hotel, lifestyle destination, and design studio brought Yowie’s universe to the Walker Hotel with an installation of design objects including a lamp made in partnership with Gantri, ceramics by Danielle Yukari, and art tomes from Sofia Coppola, Tommy Kah, and Noah Davis. A stylish group of attendees from the art, fashion, and design worlds rallied around Maldonado for a night of food by Mostrador, drinks, and good company.

When was it? March 27

Where was it? The Walker Hotel, New York

Who was there? Peyton Dix, Tembe Denton-Hurst, Tahirah Hairston, Shanika Hillocks, Lauren Daccache, Jeanette Reza, and more.

When: Until April 14

Where: Available Items, Tivoli, NY

What: Gallery owners Chad Phillips and Kristin Coleman asked 19 artists and designers to create lamps with loose requirements: a base, a shade, and a light source. The results vary widely, from Katie Stout’s signature anthropomorphic table lamps to a candy-coated pendant by Joseph Algieri, and speak to Jane Bennett’s notion that objects have agency.

Italian Design Brands is on a mission to represent the excellence of Italian design and craftsmanship worldwide, working as a virtuous environment in which each brand can boost its competitive strength while maintaining its identity, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit.

Surface Says: With a vast portfolio including the likes of David Groppi’s lighting and furniture by Meridiani and Saba Italia, IDB is an invaluable resource for Italian design devotees.

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