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A Classic French Brasserie Plants Stakes Inside a Singaporean Chapel
The hitmaking team behind Singapore’s Odette, the intimate jewel box of a space inside the National Gallery that has drawn international acclaim since opening in 2016, is getting the band back together for an encore. Chef Julien Royer and Lo & Behold Group return with the London–based firm Nice Projects to debut Claudine, a French brasserie taking up residence in Dempsey Hill’s converted 1930s Ebenezer Chapel.
With a deft touch, co-principals Sacha Leong and Simone McEwan unified statement design pieces—a sprawlingly sinuous Santa & Cole lighting fixture hanging from the ceiling; site-specific artworks by the botanical design studio This Humid House depicting indigenous plants—with stunning original elements such as a centerpiece stained glass window, wrought-iron grilles, and mosaic tiles. The warm setting recalls Leong’s childhood memories of family Sunday brunch in the neighborhood and is a natural atmosphere for Royer’s homestyle cuisine inspired by her pastoral roots in Cantal, France. A few highlights: onion soup with dry-cured ham, Provençal–style bouillabaisse, and roasted Brittany pigeon.
“Untitled” (2015) by Noah Davis…
The Underground Museum abruptly closes its long-awaited Noah Davis exhibition.
The Underground Museum is closing its highly anticipated solo exhibition of the late painter Noah Davis. In an Instagram post penned by co-founder Karon Davis, widow to Noah, the nonprofit gallery will also part ways with co-directors Meg Onli and Cristina Pacheco. “For now, we ask that everyone gives us the space and privacy needed to understand the future of the museum and to heal individually and collectively,” Davis wrote. “We simply do not have the answers right now. So, we will also be closing the museum until further notice.” While no reason was stated for the closure and departures, Davis alluded to changes induced by the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the emotional distress of seeing Davis’s works exhibited at the museum for the first time since his death in 2015.
The Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair has been postponed until February 2023.
A few months after postponing its 2022 edition to September due to the pandemic, the Stockholm Furniture and Light fair has announced it will now take place in February 2023. “We want to unite the design industry and focus on a strong comeback after two years of absence,” Hanna Nova Beatrice, the fair’s project area manager, said in a statement. Fair organizers made the decision in close dialogue with the Swedish Wood and Furniture Industry Association. Stockholm Design Week, which will feature its own interactive app and activations across the city, will still take place as planned in September.
Ekstrem Chair by Terje Ekstrøm for Varier…
Varier adds new Kvadrat fabric options to Terje Ekstrøm’s classic Ekstrem chair.
The Ekstrem Chair, originally designed by Terje Ekstrøm, has become a classic of Postmodernist furniture since its launch in 1984. Now produced by the Norwegian furniture brand Varier, Ekstrem is beloved for its playful and organic shape thanks to a tubular steel frame that effortlessly elevates the chair to sculpture and adds a dose of whimsy to interiors. Ekstrem is now being offered in a new range of sleek velvet upholstery by Danish fabric purveyor Kvadrat in shades of orange, rose, blue, green, white, and black.
Telfar will open the brand’s first brick-and-mortar flagship in New York later this year.
During an appearance on Power 105.1’s morning show, The Breakfast Club, the Liberian-American designer Telfar Clemens revealed plans to debut a flagship this year for his popular namesake brand. The New York–based label, which debuted in 2005, has risen to fashion fame thanks to its viral Shopping Bags designs. Clemens was mum about potential locations, but some are speculating it could land in Queens or near the South Street Seaport.
Sterling Ruby will be the first artist–in-residence at Nicolas Berggruen’s new art space.
The Paris-born collector Nicolas Berggruen has acquired his second historic palace in Venice to expand his art world footprint there. Set to open in 2024, Palazzo Diedo will host exhibitions and artist residencies as part of the new Berggruen Arts & Culture initiative. After renovations, the first artist-in-residence will be U.S. artist Sterling Ruby, the former Surface cover star celebrated for merging art and fashion. Ruby will stage two exterior installations while the restoration is underway, responding to the building as it transforms. “As the building is restored over the next few years, the installation I’ve imagined will change with it, expressing and also commenting on what it means to reclaim a building with so much history, and reflecting in a direct, material way the traditions of artmaking and craft that are so much a part of Venice,” he said in a statement.
Vase illustration by Saskia Janssen…
Today’s attractive distractions:
This machine learning tool can help archaeologists decipher ancient inscriptions.
