ISSUE 82/AREA/MAY 7, 2010

THE DELICATE DOYEN

A JAPANESE DESIGNER ESCHEWS THE STURDY AND PERMANENT FOR LIGHTER FARE
WORDS: DAVID SOKOL

"I attach importance to fineness. I am more nervous." Ryuji Nakamura is comparing himself to Jun Aoki, the Tokyo-based architect for whom he worked prior to opening his eponymous studio in 2004. That attitude has produced interiors and furniture that are literally featherweight, and whose delicate features require tireless curiosity to fully comprehend.   MORE >>

ISSUE 82/FACADE/MAY 6, 2010

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

PAINTING ARCHITECTURE WITH LIGHT, AN ARTIST PROGRAMS THE NEXT WAVE OF ABSTRACT ART
WORDS: TIM MCKEOUGH, IMAGES: JAMES EWING

With the opening of the Tampa Museum of Art, Floridians gain not just a new cultural center, but also an ethereal digital sunset courtesy of New York artist Leo Villareal. With a series of multicolored LED fixtures tucked between two layers of perforated aluminum panels in the museum’s facade, Villareal's installation, named "Sky (Tampa)," transforms the building at night into a 300-foot-long, 45-foot-high ribbon of pulsating, colored light.   MORE >>

ISSUE 81/AREA/MARCH 19, 2010

TRUTH BE TOLD

A RECENT EXHIBITION ENCAPSULATES THE INCREASINGLY COMMENTATIVE WORLD OF FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY
WORDS: TIFFANY JOW

Knowing the ropes of breaking into fashion photography all too well, London-based gallery Spring Projects—housed in the same building as esteemed photo house Spring Studios—used its February exhibition, “Oh! You Pretty Things,” to celebrate the UK’s most promising emerging stars. Creative agency Six Creative and Spring Studios’ Mark Loy collaborated with the gallery’s director Andree Cooke to choose five artists—Alice Hawkins, Daniel Jackson, Josh Olins, Angelo Pannetta and Jacob Sutton—whose work solidifies the new generation of shooters who transcend conventionality by commenting on glamour, perfection, sex and pop culture.   MORE >>

BY POPULAR DEMAND

UNAFRAID OF FAMILIAR IMAGERY OR STRONG MESSAGES, HWKN MAKES PROVOCATIVE ARCHITECTURE FOR THE MASSES

The day before his inauguration, Barack Obama made an appearance at the Washington, DC, homeless-youth center Sasha Bruce House, pulling down a stubborn curtain and rolling cerulean paint on the walls according to a redesign by New York-based architecture firm HWKN. And while studio namesakes Matthias Hollwich (the HW) and Marc Kushner (KN) admit their $1,500 scheme merely created cleaner and more private spaces, the outpouring of responses to the project pegged it as revolutionary. Scores of TV viewers contacted their SoHo office to learn how they, too, could construct a more socially responsible reality.   MORE >>

ISSUE 81/SUBTEXT/MARCH 1, 2010

FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE

IMAGES: NADIA MORO , STYLING: GIACOMO SIMONI, HAIR: JEROME CULTRERA, MAKEUP: ENY WHITEHEAD , MODEL: BASTIEN BONIZEC, LOCATION: MARINE VACTH

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