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Material Lust Independent
04.03.19

Q+A

Frustrated by the Limits of Design, Material Lust Sets Its Sights on the Art World

Not much had recently been heard from Material Lust until this March, when, after a few quiet years, they popped back on our radar, showing neither at a design gallery nor a furniture show, but at the New York art fair Independent, in a Spring Studios skybox overlooking a maze of gallery booths. Frustrated by the literalness of conversations they were having in the world of furniture design — and with their practice taking an increasingly conceptual turn — the pair made the conscious decision to turn Material Lust from a design brand into an artist collective.
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08.30.18

Q+A

The Mesmerizing Color-Field Paintings — Both Digital and Canvas — of Artist Ana Montiel

Questions about the nature of perception ­— the what, why, and how of consciousness ­— have been driving the work of Mexico-based artist Ana Montiel lately. And while any definitive answers to such age-old puzzles remain elusive, Montiel's work provides a kind of aesthetic response, making those mysteries both visual and material. There’s a mesmeric, meditative quality to her canvas and digitally-created color field paintings, reminiscent of the Light & Space art of the '60s and '70s.
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Kwangho Lee at Design Miami/Basel 2018
06.12.18

Q+A

Kwangho Lee On Using a 15th-Century Technique To Make Today’s Coolest Furniture

At Design Miami/Basel this week, Korean designer Kwangho Lee is presenting his latest work with the New York gallery Salon 94 Design — a 25-piece offering, spanning seating, side tables, cabinets, lamps, and planters, that continues Lee’s career-long quest to resuscitate enamel’s old-fashioned image. “Korean people aren’t very interested in it as a traditional material,” he explains of his longtime technique, chilbo, which dates back to the 15th century. “They think it’s something boring and old-fashioned.”
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05.15.18

Q+A

A Virtual Reality Whiz Makes his Three-Dimensional Debut

Brace yourself for Dowel Jones x Tom Hancocks's collaborative installation in the basement of Helena Barquet and Fabiana Faria’s Lower East Side boutique, Coming Soon: The room has been reimagined as “Lobby,” a multi-sensory showcase for Hancocks’s debut collection of chairs for the Australian brand.
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05.09.18

Q+A

Cold Picnic’s Founders On Why Films Make Great Rugs

In the past, Cold Picnic founders Phoebe Sung and Peter Buer have abstracted stills from Antonioni and Fassbinder films into striking compositions of color and geometry; they turned to the films of Tunisian director Nacer Khemir for the visual cues behind their newest collection — Desert Trilogy — which launches next week at OFFSITE with the support of Levi’s Made and Crafted.
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03.12.18

Q+A

Fiberglass, Corian, Rubber, and Resin: Welcome to the Materials-Obsessed World of Wentrcek/Zebulon

Brooklyn design duo Kristen Wentrcek and Andrew Zebulon began making work together six years ago as Wintercheck Factory. And while their moniker has recently changed, their work has always derived its impact from the tension between the what and the why — the “what” being a material language that enforces approachability, and the “why” embedded in how it all comes together to elevate the mundane.
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12.13.17

Q+A

These Four Designers Have One (Very Important) Thing in Common

Their disciplines may be wildly diverse — elaborate rope vessels, hand-woven textiles, minimalist furniture made from stone and metal, maximalist furniture made from aluminum foil — but there's one thing Doug Johnston, Begum Cana Ozgur, Nina Cho, and Chris Schanck all have in common, and we asked them all to talk about it.
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Kasthall sustainable Swedish rugs
06.14.17

Q+A

This 128-Year-Old Swedish Rug Company Has Made Some of the Coolest Rugs of 2017

Much has changed in the 128 years since Kasthall debuted as the fist industrial rug factory in Sweden — but then again, some things have remained the same. The company’s woven and hand-tufted rugs are still produced in Kasthall’s original factory. Craftsmanship and high-quality materials remain hallmarks of the brand. And sustainable production has been a point of pride all along. It’s this consistency that has kept customers coming back since 1889, and it’s what’s made Kasthall a fixture in so many homes, retail spaces, hotels, and restaurants. But over the years, the company’s interest in innovation — and its just-minimalist-enough aesthetic — has attracted new generations of design enthusiasts as well.
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05.05.17

Q+A

Symbols, Snakes, and Spirituality in a New Collection of Terrazzo Furniture

Carly Jo Morgan's debut furniture collection, which includes the Yin Yang Table (twin surfaces in pink and black, enhanced with brass inlay), the Cozy Club Chair (with optional sheepskin), and the zig-zagging Serpentine Heart Song Lamp, was unveiled at the new Los Angeles gallery Not So General on April 20th. Today, Morgan shares her thoughts on transformation, her toughest critic, the satisfaction of “deep” sisterhood, and faking it until you make it.
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Jose Davila
04.24.17

Q+A

Jose Davila Creates Sculptures From Glass, Stones, and Gravity

Using simple materials like stone and cardboard, Mexican artist Jose Dávila mines art history to create some of the most relevant works today. His oeuvre is defined by a diverse, medium-traversing output, from his precariously balanced sculptural arrangements to his “cutout” series, in which he extracts the focal point of iconic works of art, creating an absence that bestows a three-dimensionality upon the resulting pieces. In all of his art, there is an underlying exploration of how the modernist movement continues to influence the modern mind.
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03.13.17

Q+A

A Brooklyn Home Accessories Brand On Mining the 1970s For Inspiration

Phoebe Sung and Peter Buer — the couple behind the textiles and accessories line Cold Picnic — make conversation-starters. Their witty, often abstracted designs work as décor, for sure, but they also exist as their own little worlds. Recently, Sung and Buer took this idea of imaginary landscapes one step further, turning their newest rugs into a series of dioramas that are as evocative as they are fun.
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