Crosby Studios Unveils a Pixelated Furniture Collection, and Other News

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Crosby Studios Unveils a Pixelated Furniture Collection 

At Paris Fashion Week, Crosby Studios founder Harry Nuriev and Repossi creative director Gaia Repossi are flipping the script by bringing the virtual world to the physical. The duo’s pop-up installation, Web-3 Café, is a recreation of a scene from Nuriev’s forthcoming interior design mobile game, set to launch in the Sandbox metaverse later this year. 

The game invites players to construct their own interiors in the retro lo-fi aesthetic of early video games, sourcing pieces from the Crosby Studios catalog that will grow with the launch of the Video Game Collection—a pixelated furniture series that will be available IRL. Hosted at Galerie Charraudeau through April 4, pixelated mini versions of the firm’s signature side tables and stools will also be on-hand, along with vegan bites by art and culinary collective SCEN NYC and specialty coffee drinks courtesy of Paris’s locavore Noir Coffee Shop.

A renovated Amalfi Coast hotel reopens with furniture by Gio Ponti and local artisans. 

After a four-year renovation, the Borgo Santandrea is back with a fresh look and a trove of Gio Ponti treasures. With architect Rino Gambardella at the helm, the new iteration of the cliffside Mediterranean–style property on the Amalfi Coast is truly a made-in-Italy affair. Local ceramicists, woodworkers, and metalsmiths were enlisted to imbue the interiors with the spirit of craft. Cotto Vietri, the tile artisans whose past commissions include the Duomo di Ravello and Donna Regina Art Museum of Naples, created a custom motif inspired by traditional decor of Pompeii and Herculaneum; landscape designers Philip Adiutori and Gaetano Amato stocked terraced gardens with olive, lemon, and pomegranate trees. Among the standout Gio Ponti pieces by Molteni&C, ‘D.153.1’ and ‘D.156.3’ armchairs appoint the communal lounge while his coffee tables and ‘D.151.4’ chairs can be found in the rooms. 

CVS is entering the metaverse with downloadable virtual drugs and wellness products.

The pharmacy chain recently filed with the U.S. Patent Trade Office to trademark its logo and open an online store that sells downloadable virtual goods, including prescription drugs, health, wellness, beauty, personal care products, as well as wellness coaching. According to trademark attorney Josh Gerben, a multitude of corporations have flocked to the metaverse following Facebook’s name change to Meta. “All these Fortune 500 companies are making trademark filing with the idea of ‘How are we going to play on this platform?’ I don’t think I’ve seen anything in the last couple of months that’s been like this CVS filing as a virtual healthcare clinic,” he tells CNBC. 

Sharjah Architecture Triennial names Tosin Oshinowo as curator of its second edition. 

Tosin Oshinowo has been appointed as the curator of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial’s second edition, scheduled to take place in 2023. During its inaugural edition in 2018, the triennial established itself as a platform that highlights the architecture of Africa, West Asia, and South Asia. Oshinowo, an architect and founder of Lagos-based firm cmDesign Atelier, describes her socially responsive design approach as “inspired by the history, traditions, and landscape of Sharjah and other cities across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, exploring architecture and design solutions that are built from conditions of scarcity.” Her appointment reflects the triennial’s mission to “foster an understanding of the broader role of architecture, including its relation to social and environmental issues.”

Yoko Ono will broadcast a message of peace on major digital billboards in March.  

Some of the world’s largest digital billboards will soon broadcast a message of peace thanks to Yoko Ono. Every night at 8:22 PM throughout the month of March, a local translation of “Imagine Peace” will display at Piccadilly Lights in London, Times Square in New York, and K-Pop Square in Seoul, along with screens in Berlin, Los Angeles, Melbourne, and Milan. The message of peace follows the second week of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has seen intensified missile strikes throughout major cities and more than one million refugees fleeing the country. Ono’s message will be accompanied by a limited-edition print, with all proceeds being donated to the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund. 

Catastrophic floods cause major damage and cultural losses along eastern Australia.

Over the weekend, 28 inches of rain plunged towns underwater and wreaked major havoc across the eastern coast of Australia. According to Jane Fuller, the executive director of arts advocacy organization Arts North Rivers in the town of Lismore, the floods had caused “incomprehensible” damage worse than the “once-in-a-century” floods caused by Hurricane Debbie in 2017. Other cultural venues noted serious damage to their collections: Ashleigh Ralph, director of Lismore Regional Gallery, discovered “artwork mixed with rubbish, mixed with mud” and noted that “some of [her] staff lost everything.” So far, the floods have killed 18 people and displaced thousands across Queensland and New South Wales.

Today’s attractive distractions:

Rick Owens deployed a portable fog machine to anarchic effect in Paris. 

Here’s a laundry list of New York City property owned by Russian oligarchs.

Humans of New York has evolved into a bona fide philanthropy machine.

Lavender spray from Walmart was behind a spate of mysterious illnesses.