12.15.22

Q+A

Sarah Sherman Samuel Moved to “Furniture City” and — Lo and Behold — Self-Produced a Furniture Collection

Moving back to Michigan from Los Angeles four years ago might’ve been the best decision Sarah Sherman Samuel ever made. As well as offering her family heaps more room, the in-demand interior designer — who has shot to fame over the last few years with high-profile interiors for the likes of Mandy Moore, Vanessa Carlton, and Garance Doré — has been able to set up a new office and showroom in Grand Rapids, nicknamed Furniture City for the amount of manufacturers based there, and reconnect with her childhood nostalgia of exploring the woods and lake shore. Returning to this landscape was also the driving force behind the SSS Atelier collection, the first that her studio has both designed and produced in-house, now that she has the space and resources to do so.
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12.14.22

Q+A

Sophie Lou Jacobsen Gets Emotional About Objects

For Brooklyn-based designer Sophie Lou Jacobsen, objects have a life of their own. “I firmly believe that objects have their own energy, and that what they bring to your environment and daily experience is almost spiritual,” she says. “I’m not religious by any means, but I do believe in the interconnectedness of our world, and that there should be this sort of mutual relationship between us and our things — one of respect, care, and thoughtfulness. I think in my mind I live in a very Beauty and the Beast-like world!” It's not just in her mind, though — we can easily see the likes of Mrs. Potts interacting with Jacobsen’s curving, almost animate vases, intricate stainless steel candleholders, and draping glass lamps.
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12.13.22

Sighted

Ben Wolf Noam’s Mushroom Menorahs Were Inspired By the Intersection of Judaism and Psychedelia

Encapsulated in a school of thought called the Kabbalah, the Jewish belief in biblical mysticism isn't shared by everyone, but its theories can be compelling — and in the case of L.A. artist Ben Wolf Noam, inspiring, too. He recently launched a collection of one-of-a-kind ceramic mushroom menorahs with The Future Perfect that reference the intersection of Judaism and psychedelia, not to mention making for wildly colorful centerpieces for your holiday table. We recently chatted with him about the series and its origins.
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12.12.22

Fair Report

A Puzzle-Piece Bed, a Ceramic Peanut, a Mosaic Table: Everything We Loved in Miami This Year

Miami in December is a fairly easy sell for those of us in the art and design industries (despite the fact that, check notes, precisely zero of Sight Unseen's editors attended this year!) Those who weren't book launch mode descended in droves for the city's annual Art Week, as it’s become known since the number of exhibitions put on around Art Basel Miami Beach and Design Miami ballooned somewhat out of control. Today we're featuring a few acts from the week's anchor fairs, but between poolside cocktail parties and trips to Twist, our reliably favorite fair is of course Design Miami, which showcased an impressively diverse — and thankfully colorful — range of collectible design during its 18th edition.
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12.10.22

Saturday Selects

Week of December 5, 2022

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: “Neolithic-core” tables, gummy worm–striped salt and pepper mills, soothingly smooth-edged furniture, and an Alpine-inspired lodge in upstate New York that we want to spend all winter in.
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09.27.21

Up and Coming

Paper Pulp and Oil Pastel Are Perfectly Paired in a Colorful New Collection

Seeking a distraction from the pandemic, Brazilian newcomer Barbara Bareca spent the better part of this year reimagining ordinary everyday objects by elevating them to a cheerfully colorful new level. Her debut "Gesture Object" collection comprises a selection of seven handmade wooden structures, including vases, a mirror, a tray, bowl, and bookends, each covered in a mélange of paper, glue, and water, then scribbled with an oil pastel for color effect and a textural finish.
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12.09.22

Sighted

Ferm Living’s New Collection Subverts the Typical Scandinavian Simplicity With a Subtle Dose of Cool

In Ferm Living's newest collection, organic shapes meet cooler textures and materials, and the typical Scandinavian simplicity is subverted by the subtlest dose of cool, so that wine glasses become brown ceramic goblets and coat racks look like mid-century sculpture. Everything has a little bit of personality, which is what we advocate for in our new book, and what helps render something a "personal treasure" rather than a utilitarian staple.
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12.07.22

Gift Guides

Chunky Cups and Oyster Placemats: The 2022 Gift Guide, Part II

If you asked us what our absolute top gift recommendation would be for 2022, you probably already know by now what we'd answer: our new book, How to Live With Objects. But in case you need a few other ideas, don't worry, we've also compiled 100 best-gift-of-2022 runners-up: Today, it's Jill's 50 picks, including brutish bar carts and vases, chunky cutting boards and cups, and her favorite CBD gummies — which just happen to look great, too — for dealing with publishing-a-book–related insomnia.
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12.06.22

Gift Guides

Latke Candles and LP Stands: The 2022 Gift Guide, Part I

If you asked us what our absolute top gift recommendation would be for 2022, you probably already know by now what we'd answer: our new book, How to Live With Objects. But in case you need a few other ideas, don't worry, we've also compiled 100 best-gift-of-2022 runners-up, starting with Monica's 50 picks, including a colorful under-$200 drinks cart, a rhinestone-encrusted hand sanitizer pouch, and a pair of hand-shaped wooden salad servers.
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12.03.22

Saturday Selects

Week of November 28, 2022

A weekly Saturday recap to share with you our favorite links, discoveries, exhibitions, and more from the past seven days. This week: solo shows by Ellen Pong and Eny Lee Parker, a series of chairs inspired by Surrealist avant-garde paintings, the launch of a new furniture label by Adi Goodrich, and a collection of tables and cabinets encased in a patchwork of semiprecious stone.
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12.02.22

Sighted

Frederic Pellenq’s New Furniture Collection Has Touches of Ellsworth Kelly and Frank Lloyd Wright

Frédéric Pellenq is not afraid to reference. Whether it’s artist Ellsworth Kelly, whose hand-drawn geometries informed a series of chairs; architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whose famed Prairie style is translated into a side table; or decorator Jacques Grange, who is paid tribute through an armchair, Pellenq has nodded to the titans of 20th-century art and design for his first solo exhibition. 
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12.01.22

How to Live With Objects

A 1920s Brooklyn Brownstone Offers the Perfect Backdrop for Kim Mupangilai’s Collection of Vintage Handmade Objects

Born and raised in Belgium, Kim Mupangilaï is a Belgian-Congolese interior architect, furniture designer, and graphic designer who lives with her boyfriend in a 1920s brownstone in Brooklyn. Its original period details offer the perfect backdrop for her extensive collection of vintage handmade objects, which she also sells through her side project, the online shop En la Mésá.
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