DESIGN DISPATCH

Tappan Collective Shakes Up the White Cube, and Other News

Our daily look at the world through the lens of design.

Tappan Collective’s gallery in Los Angeles

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Tappan Collective Shakes Up the White Cube 

Over the past few years, digital art marketplace Tappan Collective has emerged as a go-to for art lovers looking to stay in the know with emerging talents. Now collectors can experience the platform’s array of textiles, prints, photography, and sculptures in person through curated exhibitions at its new brick-and-mortar gallery in L.A.’s Melrose neighborhood. 

Cream-colored walls and polished vignettes create a blank canvas to help potential collectors visualize pieces in their own abodes. The opening exhibition, cheekily titled “Offline,” features paintings, sculptures, and textile art by the likes of Fei Li, Firoozeh Neman, Ali Beletic, and more artists whose work plays with materiality and texture. Ever the digital natives, QR codes accompany each exhibited piece to allow potential collectors to learn more about the artwork and the person behind it. In a twist on the record-shop browsing experience, the gallery offers private walk-throughs of its back room by appointment. —Jenna Adrian-Diaz

Danshuis in Rotterdam. Image courtesy of MAD Architects

MAD unveils visuals for the Rotterdam Center for Dance and a giant spiral staircase.

MAD Architects has released images of the firm’s design for the Rotterdam Center for Dance and the spiral staircase planned for the Fenix Museum of Migration. A dated warehouse will be transformed into the Danshuis, a cultural destination with dance studios, exhibition spaces, and theaters, while preserving the original structure but adding interventions such as an open-air semicircular theater on the top floor. The Fenix Museum of Migration will also feature a theatrical, bright blue spiral staircase, functioning as a viewpoint that will protrude through the roof to create a 360-degree observation deck.

Hulu will not move forward with the series adaptation of “The Devil in the White City.” 

Hulu has decided not to move forward with the series adaptation of “The Devil in the White City.” The show was originally set to star Keanu Reeves and be directed by Todd Field, but both have since dropped out. The series, based on the book by Erik Larson, tells the true story of visionary architect Daniel H. Burnham who races to make his mark on history with the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and America’s first modern serial killer, Dr. H. H. Holmes, who built the notorious “Murder Castle” in the Fair’s shadow. The story has captivated Hollywood for over a decade, with big names like Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese previously attached to a film adaptation. There are plans to shop the project to other outlets.

The ongoing legal dispute over New York’s Flatiron Building will end with an auction.

The battle over New York City’s triangular Flatiron Building is set to end at an auction later this month, where the four real estate firms that own a 75 percent stake in the building will dissolve their partnership with Nathan Silverstein, who owns a 25 percent stake. The four firms are planning to force Silverstein out of the deal after years of clashes over renovations at the landmarked property. The building, which has remained empty since 2019, was designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Dinkelberg and completed in 1902.

The former Broad Art Foundation building in Santa Monica. Photography by Anthony Barcelo, courtesy of Westside Estates Agency

Music mogul Scooter Braun buys the Broad Art Foundation building in Santa Monica.

Scooter Braun, one of the music industry’s most high-profile managers, has acquired the former Broad Art Foundation building in Santa Monica for $25.9 million. The structure, which functioned as an event space for artists and a lending library dedicated to providing access to art, has been sold by an entity linked to Prince Alexander von Fürstenberg, son of fashion icon Diane. Braun’s purchase comes after he spent $65 million on a 19,000-square-foot farmhouse in Brentwood in Sept. 2021, the second-largest residential deal in the Westside.

Adam Weinberg, the Whitney Museum’s longtime director, will depart his role this year.

Adam Weinberg, the director of New York’s Whitney Museum, has resigned after a 20-year tenure, leaving the post at the end of his contract on Oct. 31. He will be replaced by Scott Rothkopf, the museum’s current senior deputy director and chief curator. During his tenure, Weinberg oversaw the museum’s relocation to its new Renzo Piano–designed building in the Meatpacking District and helped boost its attendance figures and endowment to $400 million.

Renowned conceptual artist Adrian Piper will receive this year’s Harvard Arts Medal. 

Renowned conceptual artist and philosopher Adrian Margaret Smith Piper will receive the prestigious 2023 Harvard Arts Medal. The award ceremony, which will take place at Harvard Film Archive in Cambridge, will feature a screening of Piper’s film “Passing Beyond Passing” (2004) and will mark the official opening of Arts First, Harvard’s annual festival celebrating creativity in the arts. Across a 50-year career, Piper’s thought-provoking artworks have explored the nature of subjecthood and agency, individual identity, and challenging societal value systems, making her a beacon for generations of artists and students alike.

(FROM LEFT) Philip Johnson and Goggles, a young toad who lives in the swamp where Kermit came from. Image via @t__________duds/Twitter

Today’s attractive distractions:

A remarkably good Twitter thread: Every Pritzker Prize laureate as Muppets.

Putting cotton waste back into soil could have major environmental benefits.

Scientists have been studying the DNA of stray dogs living at Chernobyl.

Big companies are scaling back office freebies, stoking a “perk-cession.”

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