DESIGN DISPATCH

Cheerful Colors Abound at Yinka Ilori’s London Pop-Up, and Other News

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

Yinka Ilori’s pop-up at 9 Club Row in London. Photography by Ed Reeve

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Cheerful colors dominate at Yinka Ilori’s newly opened pop-up in Shoreditch, London.

“There’s never a dull moment with Yinka Ilori. For the London-born designer, who established his eponymous practice in 2017, color always comes first. No surprise then that Ilori is ditching the usual red-and-green for a rainbow of color this Christmas. In time for the holidays, Ilori has opened a pop-up in Shoreditch, displaying his homeware and lifestyle collection. On offer are his existing jacquard textiles and ceramics in signature abstract patterns. New in are an array of gift-appropriate items that will put a smile on the face of any scrooge: ‘Love Always Win’ mugs, ‘Be The Best You Can Be’ enamel pins and maximalist brollies that put a figurative middle-finger up at the rain.” [H/T House & Garden]

Tania Bruguera honors Cuban political prisoners for a performance at El Espacio 23. 

“The Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera read out the names of 958 political prisoners, including numerous artists, detained in Cuba during a performance piece staged at El Espacio 23, the private museum in Allapattah founded by the collector Jorge Pérez. The Coro piece, lasting an hour, vocalized the “names of the political prisoners accompanied by a fragmented interpretation of the Cuban national anthem”, says a project statement. The list of prisoners was provided by the human rights group, Justicia 11J.” [H/T The Art Newspaper]

“Old Tree” by Pamela Rosenkranz. Image courtesy of Pamela Rosenkranz, via the High Line

Pamela Rosenkranz will bring a 25-foot-tall fluorescent pink tree to the High Line.

“A 25-foot-tall fluorescent pink tree, a sculpture by the Swiss conceptual artist Pamela Rosenkranz, will land on New York’s High Line next April like a synthetic being, rising amid its budding-green brethren where the elevated park bridges 10th Avenue at West 30th Street. Reading as a tree (but artificial), this rendition will have visceral qualities, with branches tapering into blood vessels and roots reaching over the earthen-clad plinth as though poised for flight. Digitally merging scans of actual trees with those of human circulatory systems and muscles, Rosenkranz fabricated an armature in metal on which she is sculpting layers of tactile polymer, tinted with pigments of vivid reddish pinks.” [H/T The New York Times]

Ann Demeulemeester appoints Ludovic de Saint Sernin as its new creative director.

“Ann Demeulemeester, the Belgian label acquired by Italian entrepreneur Claudio Antonioli in 2020, has appointed Paris-based designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin as its new creative director. De Saint Sernin’s first collection for the brand will be unveiled in March 2023 during Paris Fashion Week. The designer plans to continue operating his namesake label. The appointment comes as Ann Demeulemeester seeks to reinvigorate its business following the sale to Antonioli, the influential retailer and co-founder of Milan’s haute streetwear-focused New Guards Group. Revenues of the brand’s parent company BBVA 32 (founded by businesswoman Anne Chappelle) were $15.2 million in 2019.” [H/T Business of Fashion]

A George Condo exhibition will inaugurate Hauser & Wirth’s West Hollywood gallery.

“With his work raking in millions of dollars on the auction block, George Condo has been picked to inaugurate Hauser & Wirth’s new West Hollywood gallery, which will open in February. The opening will come as many major galleries expand to Los Angeles. The international art world has taken a new interest in the city, thanks in part to the advent of the Frieze art fair there, and last year, around the time of that event’s third edition, a number of galleries, including Hauser & Wirth competitors Pace and David Zwirner, revealed plans to put down roots there. (Hauser & Wirth has operated a Los Angeles space since 2016, and will continue to do so alongside this new West Hollywood one.)” [H/T ARTnews]

The Hammer Museum’s new corner entrance. Image via Michael Maltzan Architecture

Michael Maltzan’s renovation of UCLA’s Hammer Museum will launch in the spring.

“This spring UCLA’s Hammer Museum will come out of a major renovation project, refreshed, expanded, and more visible than ever. The transformative project began way back in 2000 with Michael Maltzan Architecture in on the ground floor—literally—since day one. The Hammer Museum, under the purview of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, opened in 1990 and hosts a robust collection of contemporary works. Under this transformation the Los Angeles–based institution’s size will increase by 40,000 square feet, which equates to a 60 percent increase in gallery space. Upon its completion on March 26, 2023, the building will occupy an entire city block.” [H/T The Architect’s Newspaper]

Foster + Partners will design the giant King Salman International Airport in Riyadh.

“Foster + Partners has won a competition to design the masterplan for the King Salman International Airport in Riyadh, which will boost the city’s position as a global logistics hub, stimulate transport, trade, and tourism, and act as a bridge linking the East with the West. The airport is expected to be one of the world’s largest, covering an area of approximately 22 square miles, making way for six parallel runways and including the existing terminals named after King Khalid. It will also offer 4.5 square miles of airport support, residential and recreational facilities, as well as retail outlets, and other logistics real estate. More importantly, it aims to accommodate up to 120 million travelers by 2030 and 185 million travelers, with the capacity to process 3.5 million tons of cargo, by 2050.” [H/T Designboom]

“Buying Beverly Hills.”

Today’s attractive distractions:

Build your own gingerbread Target store, complete with Bullseye the dog.

Intergenerational realtor drama on “Buying Beverly Hills” is… hard to buy.

The world’s oldest fossilized brain reveals new theories about evolution.

New research suggests that Mars was once capable of supporting life.

All Stories