A Traveling Platform for Artists Sets Up Shop at Farmhouse Hotel in Portugal, and Other News

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A Traveling Platform for Artists Sets Up Shop at Farmhouse Hotel in Portugal 

A close shot from the seaside village of Zambujeira do Mar where the Portuguese landscape transforms into bucolic Alentejo countryside, Craveiral Farmhouse is a eco-forward quinta with a cultural heart. From its inception, former Lisbon lawyer Pedro Franca Pinto has championed artisanship with a dedication to rustic minimalism and programming that supports the arts through the lens of sustainability. Underway this month, the property is partnering with the nomadic organization BLANK100 to host an artist residency. 

Artists such as German sculptor, painter, and performer Jan Zöller and Banji Chona, a multidisciplinary Zambian storyteller based in Rome, will live side-by-side with four other talents in low-slung lofts appointed with locally crafted design objects. Guests will immerse in workshops, open studios, and communal dinners at the locavore restaurant to cultivate creative exchange. Produced with eco-friendly materials, the final works will join the hotel’s growing contemporary art collection. Hopefully they finish with time to spare—orchards, an educational animal farm, and three pools sequestered in the region’s splendor await.  

Pace Gallery names art-world multihyphenate Kimberly Drew as associate director.

Over the past few years, Kimberly Drew has made waves in the art world by spearheading communications at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem, authoring books, taking on curatorial roles, and hosting podcasts. She now joins Pace Gallery as an associate director, where she will become an artist liaison and help facilitate sales. “I’ve been thinking, like so many of us, about the future, and what some key goals are,” Drew says. “I looked into Pace because, though it’s a commercial gallery space, there’s a dynamism and agility there. As an outsider looking in, I was like ‘This looks like an appetizing place to pivot.’” 

Ai Weiwei, who helped design Beijing’s Olympic Stadium, criticizes its current use.

Ai Weiwei famously helped consult on the design of the Beijing National Stadium ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Since then, the dissident artist distanced himself from the stadium and criticized the Chinese government for hosting the games, believing them to be a propaganda tool and a distraction from what he believed were oppressive realities gripping the nation. Ai has also criticized this year’s Winter Games, which are also staging events in the stadium. “The Games are about fairness,” he told CNN. “Athletes representing the human spirit [should] defend those important issues, such as human rights and freedom of speech.” 

Paul Andrew, former Salvatore Ferragamo creative director, relaunches his shoe line.

Nearly one year after Paul Andrew announced he was departing his role as the creative director of Salvatore Ferragamo, the British-born fashion designer is bringing back his namesake shoe line. The collection will initially focus on silhouettes that blend novelty, color, wearability, and comfort. “It’s on my own time, on my own pace,” Andrew told the Business of Fashion. “The targets are based on my own ambition and I can scale the business as fast or slowly as I choose.” Images of the first collection will be unveiled in March.

Louis Vuitton honors Virgil Abloh with an architectural look at its latest collection.

Louis Vuitton’s Pre-Fall 2022 menswear collection will perhaps be the last mid-season offering to bear the name of Virgil Abloh, the brand’s creative director whose untimely death, this past December, sent shock waves throughout the creative industries. The French label is offering one last look at the capsule through an imaginative photoshoot in and around Le Corbusier’s Firminy Vert complex in Lyon, France. Abloh, who idolized the Swiss-French modernist, presented a series of pared-back pieces, including puffy blousons, leather varsity jackets and striped coaches rendered in shades of charcoal, gray, and black.  

Lexus announces six finalists for this year’s Lexus Design Award competition. 

Since 2013, the annual Lexus Design Award has given up-and-coming designers the opportunity to prototype solutions to real-world problems under the mentorship of world-class creative talents. After reviewing 1,726 entries from 57 different countries, the judges—a group of luminaries that includes Paola Antonelli, Bruce May, Anupama Kundoo, and Simon Humphries—have announced this year’s finalists. The group includes Poh Yun Ru (Singapore), Charlotte Böhning & Mary Lempres (USA/Germany/Norway), Wondaleaf (Malaysia), Team Dunamis (Nigeria), Kristil & Shamina (Russia), and Kou Mikuni (Japan). 

Maria Nicanor is named director of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. 

The Smithsonian Institution has named Maria Nicanor as director of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Nicanor, who most recently served as as executive director of the Rice Design Alliance at Rice University’s School of Architecture, is stepping into a role previously held by Caroline Baumann, who was abruptly (and controversially) forced to resign in 2020. In her new role, Nicanor will oversee the museum’s programming, the National Design Awards, and managing the museum’s 125th anniversary celebration. She also wants to “talk about design in the larger context,” she told the New York Times. “That means not just exhibiting beautiful cups of tea, but also explaining the infrastructure bill.” 

Today’s attractive distractions:

Chrome redesigns its logo by flattening its colors and making them more vibrant.

Amazon goes big for the Super Bowl with a witty ad starring Scarlett Johansson. 

The architect Ivo Tedbury designs a walking construction robot that carries loads.

Nike is teaming with Modem to bring high-tech simulations to product try-ons.