The Artful Life: 6 Things Galerie Editors Love This Week

1. Fashion Designer Sander Lak Crafts an Ethereal New Collection of Textiles for Maharam

As the creative director of fashion label Sies Marjan, Sander Lak used color as the impetus for each of his inventive collections, elevating artfully constructed womenswear into unique pieces that conveyed fearlessness and individuality. Today, he’s still operating in the textile space, conceiving a new assortment for Maharam titled Nova that launched February 14. “For me, everything starts with color,” says Lak. “I wanted to develop a pattern that captures our experience of color in a space and how color flows, grows, and moves—like starting to mix a pot of paint.” Building off his initial selection of punctuating solids—Gemma, Terra, and Nova—the newest array by the Galerie Creative Mind blurs ethereal swaths of candy-like hues such as coral, lemon, cerise, and electric blue or dusty rose, navy, pale gray, and forest into visually arresting fabrics with equally out-of-this-world names like Pulsar, Quantum, and Quasar. “I wanted to create color groupings that embrace our emotional and psychological connections to color without any specific imagery,” adds Lak.—Jill Sieracki

2. Marco Bicego Celebrates 25 Years with Special Capsule Collection of Greatest Hits

For 25 years, Italian jewelry maestro Marco Bicego has been crafting dazzling, sculptural jewelry, blending time-honored Italian goldsmithing techniques with an artistic, contemporary flair. Trained by his father Giuseppe Bicego, a goldsmith with his own small workshop specializing in gold chains in Trissino, Vicenza in Northern Italy, Bicego spent years as an apprentice to his father before setting out on his own in 2000. Now, in celebration of this iconic milestone, the global brand has launched “25 Best,” a curated selection of its 25 most iconic and bestselling pieces. Collections of note include Marrakech, the brand’s first ever collection featuring irregular golden coils; Lunaria, featuring hand-engraved gold leaves inspired by nature; and Jaipur, necklaces made with graduated colored gemstones set in an 18k gold bezel setting to reflect the light. Each piece is made by skilled artisans in Trissino, in the family workshop where it all began, a wonderful ode to the past.—Lucy Rees

3. Rare Australian Ceramics Land at In Common With’s Quarters 

In Common With, the enterprising Brooklyn lighting studio launched by Felicia Hung and Nick Ozemba, recently launched a curio series to freely experiment and reinterpret their offerings with like-minded creatives. It launched this past year with Italian artist Claudio Bonuglia and continues now with Szilvassy, the Melbourne-based ceramic studio founded by artist Shari Lowndes. She reinterpreted In Common With’s popular Disc Surface Mount, a minimalist puck-shaped sconce introduced in 2019. While honoring the original’s clean lines, Lowndes enriches its materiality by employing Australian black midfire and white raku clays. Drawing on her nomadic upbringing and her family’s migration to Australia following the 1952 Egyptian Revolution, her distinct perspective on glaze and tactility infuses each one-of-a-kind piece with organic warmth and a respect for natural textures.

The collaboration marks the first time the shade and canopy are entirely ceramic—a technical innovation developed by In Common With that necessitated reengineering the entire fixture. Each light is meticulously wheel-thrown, fired in an oxidation electric kiln, and finished with glazes developed by Lowndes. A curated selection of her work—jars, vases, vessels—will be available at Quarters, the hybrid concept store and wine bar that Hung and Ozemba opened last year in Tribeca, which will also serve as Szilvassy’s exclusive United States retailer. —Ryan Waddoups

4. This New Paris Hotel Demonstrates the Enduring Glamour of Art Deco

The founder of Paris design studio Maison Numero 20 Oscar Lucien Ono draws inspiration from a prestigious roster of talents including the late French creative Pierre Chareau for his staggering interiors for a bevy of residential and hospitality clients. For his latest, the 17th arrondissement hotel Maison Cassandre, Ono looked to 1920s and 1930s Art Deco to orchestrate glamorous public and private areas. Named for famed YSL logo illustrator Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron, better known as Cassandre, the getaway offers 37 rooms and suites, each customized in one of three color palettes, and posh areas for morning coffee or afternoon work, all outfitted with decadent silk wall coverings, Macassar ebony furnishings, and Murano glass chandeliers, as well as carefully sourced vintage furniture. Animal prints and bird motifs abound, adding to the sultry atmosphere that manages to be both a delicious transport to the sizzling Jazz Age as well as a modern jewel in the heart of one of the city’s most seductive neighborhoods.—J.S.

5. The New York Botanical Garden Celebrates the Bold Colors of Luis Barragán

Couldn’t make the trip to Mexico City for Zona Maco? Perhaps a pilgrimage uptown to the New York Botanical Garden will sate the appetite for creative energy and colorful architecture. This season, the park’s annual orchid festival transforms into a fantasia of tropical beauty replete with the vibrant spirit of Mexico and one of the country’s most beloved architects. “The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism” brings Luis Barragán’s vivid modernism to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where thousands of orchids coalesce with fountain features and colorful walls and lattices evocative of his signature style. Joining in the Arthur and Janet Ross Gallery is Mexican-American artist Martirene Alcántara’s series of photographic homages to Barragán that capture the essence of his geometric rigor and signature brio. And given how Mexico’s flourishing ecosystems contain up to 12 percent of the world’s flora species, the multifaceted show also highlights succulents like cacti and agave that form the cornerstone of the country’s rich botanical traditions. —R.W.

6. Michelin-starred Frevo Restaurant Debuts Exhibition with Artist Mr. StarCity

Frevo has a unique approach to blurring the lines between cuisine and art. From the street, the Michelin-starred restaurant in downtown New York appears to be an art gallery. Once inside, diners walk through a hidden door to access the 16-seat tasting counter. But the exhibition component isn’t just a cheeky wink. The extraordinary installations are carefully orchestrated by buzzy curators featuring works by global talents. Debuting this week and running through May 3, gallerist Destinee Ross-Sutton presents a vibrant and textural body of work by David “Mr. StarCity” White from two different series of expressionistic portraits. In the kitchen, chef Franco Sampogna ensures each course lives up to the virtuosic paintings on the wall with an ever-changing menu of seasonal dishes as the newly added the silky, rich cuttlefish and octopus ravioli as well as the salty sweet Comté cheese and honey ice cream that has had a constant and beloved presence since the hotspot opened in 2019. “Frevo’s concept is built on an appreciation for art, food, and the unique expression that comes from bringing both worlds together,” says Frevo co-founder Bernardo Silva. —Jacqueline Terrebonne