Speckles McFreckles, a much-touted Dalmatian sculpture whose existence has been shrouded in mystery, has surfaced.
Tamarac’s $38,000 Dalmatian Sculpture Finally Takes Its Spot
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Mumbai’s art fair featuring 53 galleries and works of 300 artists from today
Shop Alternative Art at DROOL’s Christmas Market
DROOL, an online destination for contemporary art prints and posters, is popping up IRL with a special Christmas market. The DROOL curators have selected the 30+ artists whose work – which spans a variety of mediums, including graphic design, illustration, painting and photography – will be on sale at the one-day market. The featured creatives will include top sellers like Alexander Khabbazi and John Schulisch, as well as the London-based artists Matteus Faria, Othman Zougam, and Hayley Wall. Besides the opportunity to stock up on unique Christmas gifts (or buy something for yourself) with up to 60% knocked off the price, there’ll be free mulled wine, interactive installations and giveaways. It won’t cost you anything to attend, but make sure to book your ticket below so you’re on the list.
Sat 2nd December 2023, 10am – 6pm
Protein Studios, 31 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EY
drool-art.com
Taylor Stone’s imagination unveiled at Workshop Gallery – The Martha’s Vineyard Times
Halloween might have come and gone, but Taylor Stone’s solo exhibition at the Workshop Gallery in Vineyard Haven, “There’s Nothing but Witches and Wizards Out There,” is worthy of its own celebration. It’s a delight of imagination and teems with creativity, and you have a few days left to experience it firsthand. Currently, Stone is […]
Art Market returns Nov. 18 and 19
Discover original fine art and fine crafts at the Artsplace Art Market on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 18 and 19, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., upstairs at Artsplace, 1220 Waterbury Rd. Free admission, handicap accessible and plenty of easy parking.
See original paintings, unique pottery, stained glass, felt works and weaving, hand-made jewelry, decorative arts, fabulous home décor and holiday specialties made by more than 25 local artists!
Come immerse yourself in gift choices as the holiday season begins. Shop locally to discover perfect holiday gifts for friends and family (or perhaps treat yourself).
The Annual Art Market is sponsored by the Friends of CPFA/Artsplace, Inc. Visit www.artsplacefriends.org. or email info@artsplacefriends.org or call Artsplace at (203) 272-2787 for more information.
Tivoli Model Two Digital Tunes Into the Era of Streaming Audio
The new Tivoli Audio Model Two Digital speaker is a bit of an anachronism within the growing category of app-only, minimalist modern streaming audio speakers. Its classic wood veneer cabinet, aluminum grill, and single operation control knob gently references a time when tabletop radios delivered playlists via AM or FM stations. But this is no throwback retro speaker either in form or function, it’s outfitted to stream wirelessly via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and also styled with a timeless modernity.
Tivoli Audio Model Two Digital is the latest of brand’s Audio Art Generation line, and one openly marketed toward hospitality and the interior design industry, with the audio brand emphasizing the speaker’s new brushed aluminum grill with ionized finish and its decor friendly combinations that would undoubtedly look great in a range of interior styles. The speaker is also designed for either horizontal or vertical orientation, allowing it to get in where it fits in.
An interesting aside is the new all-metal grill design was influenced by the earlier days of the pandemic, when hygiene in public spaces and across surfaces became a concern.
Tivoli Audio’s design language has always emphasized the tactile, with their digital speakers and radios outfitted with a tactile control knob long associated with the Tivoli brand. The Model Two Digital is no exception, graced with a noticeably small knob responsible for power, selecting the input source, and adjusting the volume.
The Model Two Digital has also seen an upgrade in its audio prowess, rated as louder than its predecessor, powering a 3.5” full range driver and .75” tweeter with 20W output. The speaker supports AirPlay2 and Chromecast, with support for Spotify Connect, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal Connect, Deezer, Pandora, TuneIn, and more baked in. Wireless connectivity is delivered via Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi, but those who prefer kicking it old school can connect favorite audio components via 3.5mm auxiliary input.
Compared to the openly retro-modern style of Tivoli’s iconic Model One with its trio of dial controls, the Model Two Digital wears a more streamlined appearance that lands neither retro nor futuristic, but perhaps simply classically contemporary.
The Tivoli Model Two Digital is available for $449.99 in three color combinations – walnut/gold, white/silver, and black/black.
This post contains affiliate links, so if you make a purchase from an affiliate link, we earn a commission. Thanks for supporting Design Milk!
Kisses at a Mexican house party: Mayan Toledano’s best photograph
I had been working in Mexico City for a few years when I took this in 2022. I was shooting for my new book, No Mames, a collection of photographs taken across five years in the city. During that time, I went back and forth between New York and Mexico. I met new people, I fell in love, and I found connections from one person to another.
I mostly photographed the queer and trans community. Everyone in this photo is either a musician, a designer or an artist. I think capturing joy is really important because it gives not only hope but also inspiration for how to live in a country that is still violent to queer and trans people.
I had the idea of creating an empty house party – when you move out of a place and on the last day you throw a party for your friends. I found this house for sale on a real estate website and I rented it for the day.
When we got there it was way better than it looked in the photos. The furniture was already there; we spaced it out a little. There was a room full of Jewish books and a mezuzah on the door. I’m Jewish but my experience in Mexico is not a Jewish one as it’s a mostly Christian country. So this house was perfect, both the look of it and then all of these elements that reminded me of home. It was like a magical add-on.
We arrived in the morning and my friend Hugo Matula set up a room to do makeup and hair. I was also working in collaboration with another friend, Esteban Tamayo, who runs the Mexican fashion company Tiempos – and we set up a clothing rack with items from the brand. We let people play around with the clothing and express themselves. The clothes are super colourful, as were the characters which we created throughout the day.
We started by doing portraits and later I gathered everyone for a group photo. We played music and had drinks. It turned into a party naturally because everyone knew each other. I wanted to keep it very bare, to have this feeling of taking over an abandoned house and doing whatever you wanted in it.
There are real couples in this photo. My approach to shooting real love is that there’s an eternal feeling to it. It can be romantic love, best friend love, or sibling and family love. Even if you break up everyone stays in each other’s hearts in some way, like exchanging particles.
On the left of the couch are a lesbian couple, Angelica and Cons: they’re some of the first people I met in Mexico City. They work and live together and they have a really sweet relationship and really lift each other up. The other couple on the same couch are Jorge and Danika: they’re funny, cool people who work in music and fashion. The third couple aren’t actually a couple but they’re best friends. The guy at the back is a photographer with the best smile in the world: Joaquin. He’s holding a basketball I picked up at Esteban’s that morning because my nickname for him is “basketball”. The woman on the right couch is Cosima, a friend.
At the end of the day when it was dark, we went up to the roof and I brought out some colourful lights. We had music, we were dancing, we got drinks from the 7-Eleven, people were still kissing and partying, and I took more photos.
With a lot of photos in the book, I look back on them and I’m like: “Wow, this is my life.” I don’t look at it as a project or an assignment. It’s really how I and those people felt that day. I remember snippets of being in that room, like what we did there and what we drank. It’s all about the experience, and the shared time together. It goes back to the idea of capturing something in an eternal sense: I want to feel that those moments are not going away. They were feelings and moments that happened. I was there, and I want to remember and extend them.
Mayan Toledano’s No Mames is out now, published by Damiani books.
Mayan Toledano’s CV
Born: Haifa, Israel
Trained: “I never studied photography. My uncle gave me a camera from a flea market and I started shooting. For me, photography is not a technical form – it’s more of an experience.”
Influences: “The people I shoot, they make the photo. I see each photo as a window into someone’s world.
High point: “Last year, I released my first film, Smadar, which was about spending a week with a woman who I’ve known my whole life. Another highlight is releasing this book, No Mames.”
Low point: “I don’t think there is one. I can’t look back and complain. I’ve had such beautiful moments that I could never have imagined having in my life.”
Top tip: “Try to create something you truly believe in. Don’t follow trends. Try to search for something that is really significant to you and keep doing it.”
When purpose meets beauty: the power of art in the post-pandemic office
In the lobby of cybersecurity company Promon stands a sculpture of a man kneeling on a pedestal. The piece, acquired by CEO Gustaf Sahlman in 2018 from artist Ragnhild Prestholt, has since been affectionately dubbed ‘Proman’ by employees. For Thomas Ford, Promon’s head of marketing and communications, “He’s part of the team. For long-time Promoneers he is a reminder of the company’s beginnings, and for our new colleagues, provides a nice slice of Promon’s history.”
Businesses buy artworks to enhance their branding, public relations or investment; employees usually benefit indirectly. But intentionally incorporating art into the people strategy has several advantages. Art can create a sense of belonging, as is the case with Proman, and inspire fresh perspectives.
Despina Katsikakis is president of the British Council for Offices, an industry group for companies and professionals involved in all aspects of the office space. She points to the impact of art in the workplace: “It can evoke joy, delight and curiosity. It can inspire empathy. Art can engage employees and provide opportunities to contemplate, renew and be inspired throughout the workday.”
But is it enough to prioritise employees’ needs when investing in art? What are the business advantages of such an approach, and how could it help with the firm’s broader strategy?
Why art improves productivity
According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report, employee engagement levels are higher than they were before the pandemic. But the UK has one of the least engaged workforces with 38% of UK employees who took part in the poll saying that they experience daily stress. To help address the issue, art in the workplace could prove useful.
“The reason why art in offices enhances employee wellbeing and engagement is that it brings humanity to the workplace,” observes Katsikakis – and it seems that UK employees agree. A recent survey by global real estate firm Brookfield Properties, in partnership with therapy service provider The School of Life, found that 69% of respondents agree that visually appealing art in the workplace contributes to their wellbeing. Employees in offices enriched with art also report feeling more inspired by their jobs, with 39% expressing this compared to only 24% of employees in lean, functional spaces.
There is promising evidence that viewing artworks can help to reduce stress. Research by the psychological medicine department at the University of Auckland noted that looking at art generates consistent positive outcomes on stress, whether self-reported or evidenced by physical symptoms such as blood pressure.
And the benefits of incorporating art continue. The Wellbeing Research Centre of the University of Oxford conducted a study in 2019 that analysed data from 230 independent organisations across 49 industries. The findings suggest that employees’ satisfaction with their company strongly correlated with employee productivity. Higher wellbeing at work is also positively correlated with more business-unit-level profitability. And research by Exeter University shows that the presence of art in the office can lead to productivity gains of up to 17%.
Why employees are drawn to offices with art
Considering the overall positive impact on employees, it is not surprising that they are more inclined to want to work in an office enriched with art. As indicated by the Brookfield Properties and School of Life survey, of those with highly enriched offices, 75% prefer to work in the office than at home, compared to 53% of those in leaner offices.
For Tazie Taysom, commercial director at international art consultancy Artiq, art can, indeed, encourage employees to return to the office more regularly and engage with their colleagues. “Art can prompt reactions and conversations in the office that are more than just water-cooler chat,” she says. Zvi Noé is a founder and partner at Noé Group, an investment and asset management organisation which focuses on real estate. He also believes art can trigger meaningful discussion in the office. “We pick very bright pieces, so they’re very noticeable,” he says. “It often becomes a talking point.”
In a hybrid working set-up, those interactions are crucial. A recent Gallup survey, The Advantages and Challenges of Hybrid Work, found that 60% of employees prioritise meeting and collaborating with colleagues when they go to the office.
Why employee input is vital
To get the best results, firms can talk to workplace consultants to maximise the effects of art in the workplace. Another proven route is to work with galleries and non-profit organisations that specialise in office space design. But the key is to involve employees in the selection process.
The Exeter University study found that employee productivity can increase by up to 32% when workers are given more control over their workplace environment. This insight can also help other elements of the business strategy. Involving employees in the art selection can contribute to diversity and inclusion objectives.
“We often find that law firms, for example, are trying to increase representation in their staff,” notes Taysom. “One client invited their women’s association to choose the art collection and, of course, they went for a predominantly women and non-binary artist collection.” As well as promoting inclusivity, employees can bring different perspectives. They can suggest unconventional art forms and help showcase the company’s commitment to innovation and creativity.
The importance of selecting art with purpose
“Post-pandemic, we noticed that people need their office to deliver more,” says Taysom. “It’s not just a case of art being part of the decor or an investment collection. It needs to deliver something tangible.”
Noé Group, for instance, invests in art not only for visual appeal but for a purpose. The company is partnering with Project Art Works, a charity that creates artwork by neurodiverse artists to furnish its office space. “Part of what drew us to Project Art Works is their ability to take something as simple and mundane as office artwork and make it into a more meaningful endeavour.”
The partnership involves visits from the artists, and they commissioned a small booklet that explains who the artists are and information about the piece. “For the people in the office, it creates a different discussion point around the art. It isn’t just pictures that you’ve accumulated. It’s something that has a slightly bigger social involvement and hopefully conveys a bit more about the culture and how we think and feel.”
Art in the office space can help to connect and motivate the workforce, it can improve individual wellbeing and as part of a broader corporate strategy, it can help to convey a brand’s values. That’s quite a good return on investment.
Coldplay protest and lily illuminations: photos of the day
Kolkata, India
A devotee prepares for the Hindu festival of Annakut at the Naba Brindaban temple. Devotees mark the festival, which as also known as Govardhan Puja, by offering vegetarian food to Lord Krishna as a sign of gratitude for saving them from floods
Photograph: Avishek Das/Sopa Images/Shutterstock
2023 Modern Gift Ideas for the Outdoors Lover
Our gift guide for the Outdoors Lover recognizes there are many ways a person can express their affinity for being outside. Maybe your holiday gift recipient loves to disconnect and rough it out in nature, camping and hiking. Or maybe they find pleasure in the toil of creating and tending to a backyard garden, or conversely someone who is skilled at keeping menagerie of houseplants alive with their green thumb. Perhaps they’re the type of person who simply loves entertaining outdoors, addicted to the al fresco lifestyle. They’re all in their own way lovers of the outdoors, and the gift ideas below were chosen to bring joy in similar multitude.
If Buckminster Fuller was ever to return reincarnated as a hypebeast with a penchant for adventuring in the great outdoors, he’d might very well be found camping inside one of these geodesic dome structure tents. The ingenious design saves weight and maximizes room using inflatable struts to create the tent’s supporting structure, with an inner tent embellished with a striking camouflage flame pattern. Not quite glamping, but definitely not your usual REI-outfitted adventure gear.
A terrarium is a great gift for the biophilic-spirited plant lover, gardener, or outdoor adventurer. Available with either a Carrara or concrete color base, the Biodome’s combination of enclosed clear top alongside its small vented opening works together to retain moisture and heat, and bring in light to create the ideal conditions for many tropical plants not only to grow, but thrive in an environment closer to their original habitat. These are a beautiful means of bringing the outdoors inside, especially during the colder months when warmth and greenery might be a distant memory.
Whether hosting a weekend brunch or evening supper in the backyard, adding a thoughtfully curated playlist to elevate the mood is the icing on the entertainer’s cake. We love our original Move wireless speaker not only for those social engagements, but also to bring outdoors while we’re busy gardening or working out. It’s integrated back handle makes it really easy to move around, inside or outdoors. Sonos’ recent version 2.0 upgrade delivers stereo audio performance that can get even louder (yet clear) than the original Move’s mono output, and also doubles battery life to an impressive 24 hours between charges, making it also a great car camping addition. But superficially, what do we like best? The new pleasing matte Olive color option designed to blend into the outdoors!
Being a houseplant parent requires providing all of the basic necessities a plant would need out in nature: water, soil, warmth, nutrients, and light. The latter can be the hardest to provide at optimal levels during the gloomier and colder months, making a grow light engineered to shine a full spectrum glow a necessity. In the past, grow lights were purely functional in design, and not something you’d want to keep out in the open. You can thank the houseplant boom during the pandemic for the emergence of home-friendly grow light designs like Soltech’s Grove, a LED light bar intended to shine its photosynthesis supportive rays from any surface, whether wall mounted or installed underneath a cabinet or shelf.
As the co-author of a book about mushroom hunting, it should be no surprise I’d be drawn to the spirited away silhouette of Gubi’s Agaricus bisporus (aka button mushroom) shaped rechargeable outdoor lamp. Designed by Bill Curry with frosted glass filtering its output, the dimmable 250 lumen LED light shines anywhere from 5 hours at full output all the way up to 40 hours at its most dim setting. In any case, the Obello’s atmospheric glow will make any outdoor corner feel more warmly inviting.
Cast and finished by hand, Los Angeles architect-designer Jerome Byron’s outdoor stools stand out from the crowd of typical staid outdoor furniture, appearing like the retro-futuristic remnants strewn throughout a Brutalist garden. The arch-shaped design is shaped from pigment-infused, glass-fiber reinforced concrete, resulting in an airy, yet significant sculptural presence – one arguably deserving a pair to invite conversation as much as quiet contemplation.
Pairing a plant with the right planter is on par to finding the ideal frame for a painting or photograph. And we think these tabletop terracotta planters will add a quiet architectural element and contrast that most lack, something akin to Ricardo Bofill’s repurposed cement factory La Fábrica and its tropical garden, but in miniature. Offered in five different hues (and additional sizes), the Vayu is made in a family-run facility powered by renewable energy in Vermont alongside a female-owned ceramic facility in Portugal.
Lily Clark has continued to examine the interaction between water and a multitude of stone surfaces at varying scales, inviting not only the flow and sound of water to awaken a meditative mood, but also in the exploration of its abilities to transform surfaces and colors – a process in display as water spills across a trio of circular cut stones embedded into Farallon’s carved path. Consider Farallon the larger sibling of the poetically soothing desktop Comb Fountain. Whether situated inside or outdoors, Clark’s fountain emotes a flow state suited to erode stress as water does to stone.
The Terra chair is an example of the changing and modernized landscape of outdoor furniture designed to appeal to backyards that are more Santa Monica than Nantucket in vibe. With a low and quietly minimalist aluminum frame, we think these chairs look particularly garden-friendly in Olive (also available in Putty or Charcoal). The chair’s fiber-fill and foam seat cushions are deep and supportive, covered in quick drying Sunbrella, making upkeep easy and durability guaranteed (5 year Sunbrella warranty and 3 year coverage for the frame, just in case you’re wondering). There’s also a sofa-sized version if you really want to piece together a living room outside.
We called the Oyster “the most chill outdoor cooler ever designed” after witnessing its impressive capabilities in keeping drinks and food cold for spans far longer than any tailgating party or picnic would ever require. The sleek extruded aluminum construction is also a perk, with a nifty design that allows opening the lid from both sides, and switching from a carrying handle to shoulder strap an easy 10-second process, tops. Gift an Oyster along with a craft beer subscription for your favorite outdoors enthusiast, and you’re likely to be remembered as the coolest gift giver ever.
By now you’ve likely read all about the benefits of composting, the process inviting microorganisms to chow down on kitchen and garden waste and convert that material into rich beneficial matter that can energize plant growth. But not everyone has the space for a full-size bin or tumbler, making the Reencle home composter an impressively stress-free and space-efficient option. Throw in anything from pizza crust, meat, and your usual salad bar leftovers – the machine accepts anywhere between 1.5 lbs to 2.2 lbs daily – and it silently “digests” everything into a near odorless compost material you can sift onto garden beds and planters to renew the cycle. It does all this with only a very modest amount of noise, vital for an appliance designed to operate openly out in the kitchen.
Follow along so you don’t miss any of our 2023 Gift Guides this year!
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