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Seattle’s Supernova Nightclub Explodes Onto the Scene
Club life certainly isn’t for everyone, but at Supernova, a disco-inspired nostalgia trip of a nightlife venue in Seattle’s SoDo district, everyone is welcome. The DJ and music producer Zac Levine worked with locally based Mutuus Studio to create a permanent home for his weekly “Stayin’ Alive” pop-up parties and the members of Seattle’s queer communities that are drawn to them.
Saying farewell to its temporary space onboard the historic Orient Express train cars nearby, Supernova’s new digs are decked out in funhouse-inspired mirror halls, a bar made from a repurposed VW minibus, and too many disco balls to count across its two stories and 6,500 square feet. A clear homage to Studio 54, on any given night visitors will find house music DJs, drag shows, and possibly a few stilt-walkers or fire-breathers wandering the crowd—channeling the carnivalesque spirit of its New York City forebear. —Nate Storey
Musée de l’Elysée and Mudac in Lausanne, Switzerland. Photography by Matthieu Gafsou…
Aires Mateus creates a sleek museum building for two institutions in Lausanne.
“Following five years of preparation, the building for the Musée de l’Elysée and Mudac in Lausanne has now been completed. The structure, an elegant concrete building defined by minimalist architecture geometries and a robust look, is the brainchild of Portuguese architect Manuel Aires Mateus and his Lisbon-based team. Part of the city’s growing art district, this museum hub is a key cultural destination for Lausanne, and Switzerland as a whole. Right from the outset and the studio’s entry, Aires Mateus’ design united the two museums and their collections and programmes seamlessly in a single building.” [H/T Wallpaper]
Chinati Foundation director Jenny Moore departs the Marfa museum after nine years.
“Jenny Moore is departing the Chinati Foundation after nine years as director of the museum, which was founded in the 1980s by Donald Judd in Marfa, Texas. Marella Consolini, who served as Chinati’s chief operations officer from 2010 to 2014, will take over as interim director on July 31 while the board undertakes a global search for Moore’s replacement. Moore sought to professionalize the museum during her tenure, developing a multiyear preservation plan to protect its art, architecture, and environment; cataloging its institutional archive; and upping its annual attendance from 11,300 in 2013 to 50,000 in pre-pandemic years.” [H/T Artforum]
Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets will reimagine the area around Notre-Dame.
“For most of the last year, the Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets could be found walking purposefully around the Île de la Cité in central Paris staring at and thinking about Notre Dame Cathedral. All the staring and thinking has paid off now for Smets, who this week won an international competition to redesign the area around the cathedral. His ambitious plan, which garnered the unanimous support of the jury, includes more trees, a clever cooling system for the large area in front of the cathedral during heatwaves and a new reception center and archaeological museum in the now-abandoned car park underneath the main square opening on to the banks of the Seine.” [H/T The Guardian]
Ruth Asawa with plaster masks of her family and friends. Image courtesy of David Zwirner and Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University…
Ruth Asawa’s lesser-known ceramic masks will go on permanent display in California.
“In 1966, after a decade of exhibiting the looped-wire sculptures that would make her famous, Ruth Asawa started making plaster masks of family and friends as the basis for bronzes or, more often, ceramics. She practiced frequently on her children, including her youngest, Paul Lanier, who went on to become a ceramic artist himself. Over the next three decades Asawa ended up making hundreds of these finely detailed, highly expressive masks: her children at different ages, public schoolchildren, friends and local artists included. It represents one of Asawa’s least known but most ambitious works, making its debut on 6 July at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.” [H/T The Art Newspaper]
The Architectural League of New York names Mario Gooden as its new president.
“The Architectural League of New York announced that Mario Gooden, director of Mario Gooden Studio: Architecture + Design, will be its 63rd president. Gooden was elected at the League’s 141st Annual Meeting at the Harlem School of Arts. He will succeed Paul Lewis, who has served as the nonprofit organization’s president since 2018. Gooden currently serves as The Architectural League’s Vice-President of Architecture.” [H/T The Architect’s Newspaper]
Google will automatically delete user data after they visit “personal” medical facilities.
“Google is taking a new step to protect user privacy in the wake of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The internet giant will automatically delete location entries from users’ accounts shortly after they visit “particularly personal” medical facilities, including abortion clinics, Google senior VP Jen Fitzpatrick wrote in a blog post Friday. The change will take effect in the coming weeks.In addition to abortion clinics, Google will auto-delete data about user visits to medical facilities such as counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, fertility centers, addiction-treatment facilities, weight loss clinics and cosmetic surgery clinics.” [H/T Variety]
Still from “We Met in May,” a video game by Nina Freeman’s Star Maid Games…
Today’s attractive distractions:
This indie game designer captures poetic moments instead of shoot-em-ups.
A “spy whale” returns an iPhone to its owner after she dropped it in the ocean.
TikTokers are flocking to the Despicable Me movie en masse donning suits.
