Eskayel’s Latest Wallpaper Line Dives Into Americana, and Other News

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Eskayel’s Latest Wallpaper Line Dives Into Americana

Shanan Campanaro, the founder and creative director of textile studio Eskayel, loves to travel and surf. After an exhilarating journey to a far-flung destination, the Brooklynite will create richly layered rippling paintings that she translates into hand-tied rugs, wall coverings, and home linens that elevate interiors with their laid-back look and feel. She now collaborates with U.S. furniture mainstay Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams on a painterly wallpaper collection rippling with Americana-inflected themes—dogwoods in bloom, vintage bandanas, and menswear pinstripes—that are made-to-order locally on FSC-certified paper with water-based pigment inks. The collection launches in the company’s stores and website today.

Theaster Gates’s chapel-like Serpentine Pavilion will pay homage to sacred arts.

Theaster Gates has revealed more details about his Serpentine Pavilion, slated to open in London’s Kensington Gardens in June. Called the “Black Chapel,” the structure will be realized in collaboration with Adjaye Associates and channels the kilns of Stoke-on-Trent’s pottery industry. It also nods to the spiritual and community qualities of a small chapel: “Black Chapel suggests that in these times there could be a space where one could rest from the pressures of the day and spend time in quietude,” Gates says. “I’ve always wanted to build spaces that consider the power of sound and music as a healing mechanism and emotive force that allows people to enter a space of deep reflection and/or deep participation.” 

A public installation is making a statement as abortion rights come under threat.

Alicia Eggert and Planned Parenthood recently unveiled OURs, a new public art project coinciding with the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. As part of the installation, the statements “Our Bodies,” “Our Futures,” and “Our Abortions” flashed on a fluorescent sign outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC. “In making this sign, and thinking about what it should say, the interchangeability of those three words made me realize how connected and inseparable they are,” Eggert told Hyperallergic. “We can’t have control over our futures without having access to abortion.” The installation will soon travel to states such as Ohio and Texas where reproductive rights are coming under threat. 

American Dream, a new “super mall” in New Jersey, is facing financial difficulties.

As the pandemic enters its third year, the owners of American Dream are struggling to pay off staggering bond payments. The $5 billion “super mall” in Meadowlands, New Jersey, has faced a dearth of shoppers and tenants since it opened in October 2019. In the first three quarters of 2021, sales figures amounted to $220 million—about one tenth of the $2 billion that a 2017 forecast projected the shopping destination would earn in its first year of operations. Recently, the 3.5-million-square-foot mall emptied a reserve account to make a $9.3 million payment on roughly $290 million of debt. 

The Copenhagen Contemporary’s cafe features wooden chairs made by 25 designers.

A museum cafe usually serves as a place for visitors to grab a bite to eat after exploring a show. But the Copenhagen Contemporary art gallery is giving their culinary space a higher purpose. Danish studio Tableau and designer Ari Prasetya have turned the Connie-Connie cafe into an unexpected exhibition space, commissioning 25 designers to craft chairs from leftover wood. Housed in a former welding facility in the city’s Refshaløen area, Tableau and Prasetya wanted to show that furniture is also art. “We really wanted to showcase how furniture can become functional pieces of art and also how a spatial design can be dictated by a material and a direction involving multiple designers, artists and architects,” says Tableau creative director Julius Værnes Iversen. All of the chairs are available for purchase as originals or reproductions.

Kerby Jean-Raymond exits his role as Reebok’s creative director after 18 months.

Less than 18 months after being named creative director of Reebok, Kerby Jean-Raymond announced he will be stepping down. The news precedes the expected acquisition of Reebok by Authentic Brands Group, which recently purchased the brand from former parent company Adidas, under which it struggled to thrive. The Pyer Moss founder’s relationship with Reebok began back in 2017, when he produced highly sought-after collections of bulbous sneakers. Right before being named creative director of the brand, in September 2020, he won the CFDA’s coveted top prize for American menswear designer of the year.  

Venice Biennale curator Cecilia Alemani is spotlighting women and the environment. 

The New York-based curator Cecilia Alemani has selected an international group of mostly female artists, many of color, for the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale. More than 180 of the 213 artists are first-timers at the Biennale, and they will focus on environmental concerns, communion with nature, identity politics, and ecological activism. “This show happens in Italy, not in New York, and the situation with gender is different,” Alemani says. “I realize that an exhibition doesn’t change things, but it could hopefully have symbolic value.” The show will open to the public on April 23 and runs through Nov. 27. 

Today’s attractive distractions:

A study finds that we still haven’t discovered more than 9,000 types of trees.

Covid may be partially to blame for nearly everything becoming a subscription.

The artist Gregory Orekhov unfurls an enormous red carpet in a Moscow park.

Sophie Collé and Windmill Air are turning your window units into works of art.