From significant business changes to noteworthy product launches, there’s always something new happening in the world of design. In this biweekly roundup, AD PRO has everything you need to know.
Design Happenings
Jim Carrey’s stash of art and design is heading to auction
Funnyman Jim Carrey is also an avid collector of design. Beginning July 25, the actor, artist, and writer is letting go of some of the memorable pieces he’s amassed over the years as part of the Bonhams Los Angeles Modern Design | Art sale. Among the highlights of Carrey’s 35-lot trove? Paula Swinnen’s trippy lily pad coffee table, Maison Leleu’s 1965 tiered mahogany executive desk, and an Alexander McQueen rug spun from wool and emblazoned with hand-woven silk and metallic thread hummingbirds.
AD PRO Hears…
…Seventh House founder Trevor Cheney has unveiled yet another Los Angeles destination for collectible design. The design advisor and former Galerie Half creative director’s eponymous 800-square-foot gallery in the Melrose Arts District puts the spotlight on provenance.
…Women-led BAS Stone has ramped up its New York presence with a sprawling 42,000-square-foot stoneyard in Long Island City. Flaunting more than 650 variations of natural stone, the facility, inaugurated last month with events co-hosted by the Female Design Council, is rounded out with a 4,500-square-foot showroom where architects, designers, and builders are invited to hatch projects in the bar and lounge.
Project Spotlight
Tour a historic Minneapolis castle, now open as a designer showhouse
In 1903, a regal Tudor Revival was built for Alfred F. Pillsbury, son of a former Minnesota governor and consumer food tycoon, in Minneapolis’s Whittier neighborhood. Keen to preserve the abode as the Pillsbury family intended, present-day owners Matthew Trettel and Ryan Hanson partnered with the American Society of Interior Designers and the National Association of the Remodeling Industry on an ambitious collaborative restoration. Dubbed the Pillsbury Castle Project, the overhaul was spearheaded by local practices Otogawa-Anschel Design+Build+Architecture and PKA Architecture. The home’s four floors, complete with original wood-paneled walls and sweeping staircases, were transformed by 27 designers hailing from the Twin Cities and are open to the public through July 28. For your viewing pleasure, consider Vela Interior Design’s vestibule graced with a gold leaf-gilded ceiling, the boutique hotel-reminiscent Grand Salon from Niosi Design, and Albertsson Hansen Architecture and Interior Design’s apartment suite that takes cues from English country cottages.
Exhibitions
A São Paulo exhibition explores the friendship of Alexander Calder and Joan Miró
Alexander Calder and Joan Miró’s long, profound friendship first blossomed in glamorous 1928 Paris. Now, Instituto Tomie Ohtake in São Paulo is illuminating the American and Spanish artists’ synergistic oeuvres with Calder + Miró (on view through September 15). Sponsored by Brazilian shopping center conglomerate Iguatemi, the expansive exhibition curated by Max Perlingeiro features 150 paintings, drawings, engravings, sculptures, mobiles, and photographs, including works by Brazilian luminaries Oscar Niemeyer, Abraham Palatnik, Ione Saldanha, and Mary Vieira informed by Spanish modernism and Calder and Miró’s embrace of abstract forms.