Cool Hunting
South African-born artist Ryan Frank unveiled a line of "free-range" art recently that is truly novel. Take the Hackney Shelf: a blank shelf is put out on the streets of Hackney (East London) and is invariably tagged and graffitied. Once it has "matured" Ryan cuts out the shelves making this utilitarian piece of furniture a true piece of street art. For those who would prefer not to display graffiti in their sitting rooms, Ryan's "Hackney Lite" boasts the same designs without the tags. Ryan also has a piece called "Traffic"—a sort-of coffee table on wheels. The white surface has been "decorated" after being placed on a busy London pedestrian and cycle paths. After being trod upon and indelibly stamped by London's frantic traffic, this mobile coffee table is ready for use. The inkuku (Zulu for chicken), a colourful chair made from plastic carry bags from London supermarkets, was shown as part of Hidden Art's exhibit at the recent Salone Satellite 2006 in Milan.
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Christopher Chiappa produces artwork both visceral and subversive. In his studio, an ever-growing blob of solidified expanding foam consumes a Weber grill. The mass is riddled with a fury of knives fashioned from masonite, as if to kill off the uncontrollable beast. The piece has taken on a life of its own. Indeed, one of Chiappa's greatest strengths as an artist lies in his...
Brooklyn-based artist, Brad Teasdale, blends contemporary concrete and glass design with classical mosaic craftsmanship. Teasdale's aesthetic stems from a juxtaposition of the materials themselves. He combines glass, concrete, wood, and steel to articulate natural contrasts of "light and dark," "grit and beauty" and "permanence and change." His latest project, "Leela" (which means "god's play in Sanskrit), is a custom installation. To create it, Teasdale...
Just in time for next week's ICFF in New York, Matthew Marks Gallery is showing its second solo exhibition of work by the Seattle-based artist Roy McMakin. The show, "For," continues the artist's exploration into the physical and mental space furniture occupies in our lives. Through the subtle distortion of common objects—a chair, a dresser, a stool—McMakin forces a subconscious shift in perception, or...
The first in a series of conceptual shelves called Juxtaposed by design duo Mike and Maaike, this shelf brings all the major religious texts (the Bhagvad Gita, Bible, Qur'an, Confucious' Analects, the Tao Te Ching, Discourses of the Buddha and The Torah) together and puts them on the same level. For atheists and believers alike, the Religion shelf's an artful comment on the many religions...
On CH's recent London trip, we visited the studios of artist Dodi Wexler, design collective Troika and Social Suicide, the very forward men's fashion label. From Troika's tech-enabled activism to Dodi's "little worlds" and Social Suicide's pairing of irreverence with traditional English tailoring, we found that London, and each specific neighborhood, has everything to do with what these artists and designers do and their...
Thomas Keeley, a 25 year-old Rhode Island School of Design grad based in New York City, creates three dimensional pieces with creepy Halloween-esque themes. Equipped with wings and fangs, the "Bat Chair" is a slightly sinister yet entirely functional take on a classic café-style chair. A hair brush with dozens of bloody fingertips in place of bristles serves as a very literal interpretation of...
