Such a wonderful piece on Style.com today, covering Jean de Merry’s 10-year anniversary event, JDM-10.

Karolina Kurkova: Now Available In Lamp Form

She’s more used to modeling designers’ work than designing pieces herself, but Karolina Kurkova took to the drawing board for her latest project. Kurkova was selected as one of ten guest designers by West Hollywood gallery owner Jean de Merry to design a custom piece in honor of the ten-year anniversary of his artisanal, made-to-order furniture line and store. “Jean will tell you, I was very hands-on with this,” Kurkova said of her ornate, towering lamp. “I wanted something to really represent a woman’s essence, from her curves on top to the strength of the base on the bottom. Even the crystals sewn into the fabric are all from the Czech Republic [her homeland]. Every piece of this design has a part of me.” With all proceeds benefiting the charity of the designer’s choice, the project attracted a motley crew of talent (known as the JDM Ten), including local interior design star Oliver Furth, L.A. native Irene Neuwirth, and Katherine Heigl.

 
Days away from his first Resort showing, Gregory Parkinson played on his love of prints and texture when designing his wood cabinetry. “My work is all about layering and mixing patterns and colors, and this really seemed to take that to the next level,” Parkinson said. “We’re bombarded with so much visually these days that it’s nice to have something that is just pretty…and functional as well.” Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra, with typical wit, created a chair that was more like a throne. “It’s lyrical but it still sort of has that humor,” Tagliapietra said of its antler details, inspired by vintage photos the pair came across. “I like my furniture to have a personality. It’s not like a piece of clothing that you have the luxury of saying you’re not in the mood for.”

An Exclusive Tour of the Art Guru’s New Los Angeles Home.

After being appointed the new director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) this January, former New York dealer and downtown impresario Jeffrey Deitch needed some digs on the West Coast. Seasoned aesthete that he is, to truly feel at home he needed to surround himself with the art he loves (click play above for a sneak peek of the pieces by Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Aaron Young and Andy Warhol, among many others). Deitch’s new “movie star” home, in LA’s Los Feliz neighborhood, isn’t just any old Spanish revival house—it’s the former residence of Cary Grant. (Meanwhile, another prominent figure in the art world is buying into Hollywood history: Larry Gagosian recently purchased Gary Cooper’s old abode, in Holmby Hills.) Deitch is particularly interested in where art and entertainment merge. As part of his early activities at MOCA, he allowed his friend James Franco to film an episode of General Hospital within the museum; and the first show under his leadership was a major Dennis Hopper retrospective. For today’s short, filmmaker Alison Chernick and food artist Jennifer Rubell toured Deitch’s house—including his “super Tudor-pop” party room, as he calls it—and sounded out his theories on celebrity, his new vision for MOCA, and his belief that you need a painting of Jesus over your bed.

“It is the fate of our age that we fight in isolation.” Lyrics from Death in June. Really enjoy this tattoo work: placement and typography.

I met artist, Sean Brian McDonald, at his “Important Packages” art show at Specific Merchandise last month. If you’re familiar with Brooks Hudson Thomas of Specific, you know what a fresh perspective he has and a keen eye to curate truly unusual yet inspiring things. Sean Brian McDonald’s show was just that, emerging talent at its best…truly out-of-the-box, if you will.

A former musician turned painter, turned sculpture, Sean’s “Important Packages” is based in utilitarian philosophy. He focused on each piece as a cultivated object with it’s own compositional needs. As he gathers materials, such as beautifully flawed pieces of scrap wood, he’s able to implicate this sense of process and use it as a point of departure, allowing new ideas and narratives to surface. As he states, “my goal is to extract the hidden elegance and sense of magic out of every material I’m drawn to.”

I sat down with Sean last week for a twist on my favorite conversational game, “If Design Were…”

Here you have it, “If Art Were… with Sean Brian McDonald:

SY: If art were an object?
SBM: Junk drawer

SY: …a food?
SBM: Caviar on wonder bread.

SY: …a moment?
SBM: The beginning of the universe.

SY: …a memory?
SBM: A moment of excitement followed with a yawn.

SY: …a place?
SBM: Sewage plant.

SY: …a song?
SBM: “Free Jazz,” By Ornette Coleman.

SY: …an era?
SBM: Pre-Historic: The hunter’s and gatherer’s would spontaneously break into chants and start dancing.

SY: …a person?
SBM: Andy Kaufman

SY: …an animal?
SBM: Flying squirrel or humpback whale.

SY: …a city
SBM: Even though I’ve never been there I’ll go with Berlin. It just sounds right.

Proenza Schouler Presents “Act da Fool,” a film by Harmony Korine. Amazing!

Photo credit | Ginny Dixon

In an effort to keep all of us culturally informed on an international level, here’s a quick FYI for art enthusiasts who may be in Buenos Aires next month.

By Saxon Henry

Artist Alejandro Vigilante’s iArt Movement will debut in Daniel Maman Gallery in Buenos Aires on September 23, 2010. The exhibition will be the Argentine-born artist’s first solo exhibition in his home country.

Beyond execution and the medium, Vigilante believes the soul of art is the idea, so it is idea with a capital “I” that charted his course as he set out to create a movement that would stand the test of time. The inspiration for his iArt Movement was found in the Pop Art Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s. “What’s more pop than internet?” he asks in response to those who inquire as to the title of his movement. As far as he is concerned, the answer is simple: “Nothing.” He also firmly believes that if the Pop Artists were beginning their movement today, the internet would figure as strongly in their works as it does in his.

CASTE is a unique Montana studio that creates unusual, severe and obscurely chic furniture and objects. Co-founder and designer, Ty Best, draws his inspiration from the area’s vast, intoxicating landscape. The futuristic, primitive sensibility of the pieces plays on a humble Montana aesthetic, juxtaposed with a fervent luxe twist. Much of Ty’s work is inspired by architecture and nature, and the Montana landscape is often referenced by the vertical and horizontal planes in his pieces and how they interact with one another.

I was introduced to the wonderful world of CASTE by designer Kara Mann, who carries the line at her namesake, multi-line showroom in Chicago. “My clients want interiors that look timeless but that have unexpected, gutsy elements, too,” she says. Last month, Kara’s office put me in touch with Ty, and we had a little chat about his inspirations. I thought he’d make a perfect contender for my ongoing series, “If Design Were…,” so without further ado, let’s play “If Design Were…” with Ty Best of CASTE:

SY: If design were an object?

TB: “A brilliant, undiscovered Mangiarotti vessel, covered in dust and remaining that way!”

M+B (AKA my favorite photography gallery in L.A.) is pleased to present “Jones Beach,” an exhibition of black and white photographs by Joseph Szabo. Images of tanned muscle men, catwalk-like displays of beach wear, heavily oiled skin, masses of sprayed hair, and all the pageantry of adolescence reveal the dynamics of a beach that was a true melting pot of humanity.

There will be an opening reception for the artist on tonight, June 10 from 6 to 8pm and a book signing for Szabo’s newly released monograph by Abrams Books with introduction by Vince Aletti titled Jones Beach, on Saturday, June 12 from 2 to 4pm. The exhibition will run from June 10, 2010 to August 14, 2010.

Somewhat of an expert on the subject of teenagers with his previous works “Almost Grown” and “Teenage,” Szabo began shooting at Jones Beach one summer when his usual subjects – his photography students from Malverne High School – were no longer readily available. He chronicled the public and the private lives displayed on this ocean playground that is one of the world’s busiest beaches. Even if we weren’t there to enjoy the good weather and excellent people watching, we have these photographs which turn a captive eye to the urban masses who came out to celebrate their weekends, holidays and summers.

Jones Beach reveals the forces in motion at such a theater of humanness, from moments of quiet introspection to flashy exuberance. Called the “people’s palace by the sea”, Jones Beach is still a unique space very different from the commercial appeal of Coney Island or the privileged seclusion of the Hamptons. On this democratic stretch of sand and ocean class, race, and other potential divisions were temporarily forgotten and Szabo’s sympathetic lens was there to capture it all.

For more information, please visit M+B’s website: www.mbart.com.

As an addendum to my last post on “design solutions for storing and showcasing books in your home,” I give you artist Nina Katchadourian’s Sorted Books project. An ongoing project since 1993, Sorted Books is a great example for utilizing a collection of books to make an artistic statement. The idea is simple: cull through your collection of books, pulling particular titles and grouping the books into clusters, so that the titles can be read in sequence, from top to bottom. I’ve always believed that inspiring design is all in the details, and taking the time to create interesting statements in this fashion is a prime example. I’m in love with this idea.

-S