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A Moment of Milestones for Heath Ceramics
As Heath celebrates its 75th anniversary, the Sausalito ceramics mainstay is revisiting some of the key techniques that have centered them firmly in the heart of the design world. Edith Heath’s “landscape” technique of freeform glazing returns this summer in the Flow State collection, and its hazy waves of color have never looked fresher.
The beloved Plaza Tray is the optimal canvas for the patterning—its expanse shows off the glaze’s travels down the clay to best effect. It also coats Heath’s signature lidded canisters and bud vases with ease, creating a topography that incorporates colorways like Lemon Rind, Barley, Avocado, and Cyan, lined with rims in the traditional unglazed manganese clay. Heath has also invited some special guests to the anniversary party, including Nagano’s own Studio Prepa, who made an especially lovely glass coffee server with a wood handle kept on a metal clip. It’s just the thing to fill Heath cups and raise a toast—not just to Heath’s 75 years, but to a full two decades since Cathy Bailey and Robin Petrovic took the (potter’s) wheel. —Jesse Dorris
Prada Caffè at Harrdons. Image courtesy of Prada…
Prada opens a whimsical, candy box–themed cafe inside a quaint corner of Harrods.
The new Prada Caffè at Harrods is a whimsical, candy box–themed space nestled in an unassuming corner of the department store. It features a hyper-stylized, 1950s soda shop concept complete with mint-green walls, velvet-upholstered sofas, and a black-and-white checkered floor. On the menu are light Italian mains and decadent pastries served on robin’s egg-blue plates adorned with the Prada logo and complemented by Prada silverware and hand-blown crystal glasses. An outdoor ice cream stall is also planned.
Simone Leigh’s Venice Biennale show will embark on a U.S. tour, starting in Boston.
The exhibition that Simone Leigh presented at the U.S. pavilion at last year’s Venice Biennale will soon embark on a cross-country tour, commencing at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston. The show highlights Leigh’s distinctive visual language, which focuses on utilizing materials such as ceramics and raffia to generate layers of histories across diaspora. The exhibition promises to be equally as incisive as the previous one, including Leigh’s Last Garment sculpture on a larger scale than originally intended.
MoMA alters a Frances Stark artwork’s wall text viewers accused of being pro-Putin.
An artwork by Frances Stark featured in a Museum of Modern Art exhibition “Signals: How Video Transformed the World” has undergone a wall text change after social media users claimed the original caption was propagating a conspiracy theory by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The original wall text of the six-screen work, called U.S. Greatest Hits Mixtape Volume 1, implied there was U.S. military intervention in Ukraine in 2013.
Heatherwick Studio’s proposal for a library in Columbia, Maryland. Image courtesy of Devisual…
Heatherwick Studio envisions a plant-covered public library in Columbia, Maryland.
Heatherwick Studio has unveiled a proposal for a plant-covered public library in Columbia, Maryland. Designed for Howard County Libraries, the five-story building will serve as a community center, event space, and educational hub with a central amphitheater-like space with views of Lake Kittamaqundi and planted staircases inspired by Maryland’s founder James Rouse’s vision of cities as “gardens for the growing of people.” Construction is slated to begin in 2024, with completion and the grand opening scheduled for 2027.
Michael Blackwood, an accomplished documentarian of 20th-century artists, dies at 88.
Michael Blackwood, a prolific documentarian who created more than 160 films of artists, architects, musicians, dancers and choreographers in the 20th century, has died at 88. He followed the cinema verite style to capture his subjects’ creative processes, often on studio visits. Although he remained under the film industry’s radar and gave very few interviews, his works were shown on public television stations, sold to museums and libraries, and carried on European television networks. Among his subjects were Thelonious Monk, Frank Gehry, Philip Glass, and Isamu Noguchi.
Lizzo’s shapewear brand Yitty is launching a line of gender-neutral undergarments.
Yitty, the shapewear brand founded by musician Lizzo, is launching a line of gender-neutral undergarments aimed at shoppers who identify as transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming. The move is part of Yitty’s push to double down on its inclusivity ethos and increase its consumer base as it seeks to grow sales to nearly $100 million this year. While Lizzo’s public persona is synonymous with an overarching message of self-acceptance, the brand is taking steps to lessen its reliance on its famous founder by diversifying its casting roster and hosting virtual town halls.
Image courtesy of Terviva…
Today’s attractive distractions:
Engineers are renewing an “origami” method to create glass shapes.
