Welcome to the August 2023 issue, Wallpaper’s guide to creative America. We shine a spotlight on a dazzling array of talent that is shaping the future of the creative industries, and compile the names you need to know in our Wallpaper* USA 300 – from Pharrell Williams to Pamela Shamshiri, and from Nifemi Ogunro to André Balazs. These are the hottest names in the USA today, from born-and-bred locals to the global thinkers who have chosen to make it their home, from the trailblazers and the tastemakers to the rising stars of tomorrow.
Wallpaper* August 2023: Made in the USA
The Wallpaper* August 2023 cover features an image of the 81st Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, photographed by a member of a (mostly) New York-based collective whose work is featured in the issue
Highlights of the issue include our profile of Stephen Galloway, master choreographer and creative alchemist, who was captured in a series of intimate portraits by photographer and artist Paul Mpagi Sepuya. According to writer Mallery Roberts Morgan, Stephen Galloway brings the magic. ‘Using the roll of a shoulder, the twist of a head, the exact placement of an arch of a foot, Galloway has pioneered a singularly unique profession as a creative movement director,’ she says.
We visit Salmon Creek Farm, originally established as a commune set within the coastal redwood forests of Albion, California, and reborn as the ultimate creative retreat by artist Fritz Haeg. A place to foster a relationship with nature, slow down and enjoy the simple pleasures of daily life. Then to a transformed new public space in Memphis by Chicago-based architect Jeanne Gang, who champions urban spaces for all and has collaborated with Kate Orff to restore nature on the banks of the Mississippi, before heading over to Venice Beach for a very personal tour of unsung hero and original mirror queen Lenny Steinberg’s minimalist home, inspired by movement and music (captured in a charming film).
Over to Brooklyn, New York, for a profile on Nan Goldin and her PAIN collective, photographed for the very first time together by Jason Schmidt in Nan’s living room. Following All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, the 2022 documentary directed by Laura Poitras, Goldin discusses using her influence in art to confront power and accountability in the US opioid crisis.
We also discuss the weird and wonderful world of cult filmmaker John Waters in his Baltimore studio ahead of his upcoming retrospective show, titled ‘Pope of Trash’, at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in LA.
We showcase an energy-efficient mountain retreat in Utah by local practice Klima Architecture, eat at The Commerce Inn, a Shaker-inspired, early American tavern in New York’s West Village from esteemed chefs Rita Sodi and Jody Williams, and relax at the Kona Village in Hawaii, which carefully preserves the spirit of the site’s original 1960s resort and the sacred land it sits on.
My eternal thanks and enormous credit to our US Director Michael Reynolds, who achieved such extraordinary features and shoots and brought them to our pages with the same passion and enthusiasm as he did for the very first cover of Wallpaper*; US Editor Pei-Ru Keh; and NY-based contributing editor Tilly Macalister-Smith.
August 2023 Wallpaper*, ‘Made in the USA’, launched on Wallpaper.com on 4 July with a month of digital programming – we promise there will be fireworks!
Sarah Douglas
Editor-in-Chief
The August 2023 issue of Wallpaper* is available in print from 6 July, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today
-
Celine’s new fragrance Zou Zou is inspired by 1960s heroinesCeline debuts a new fragrance, Zou Zou, inspired by Hedi Slimane’s obsession with 1960s youth culture
-
Bar Spero, in Washington DC, nods to the playful nature of Spanish cuisineBar Spero is a Spanish seafood bar and grill designed by Streetsense and led by chef Johnny Spero
-
Colourful card game wins Design Museum’s Design Ventura competitionAnnual design competition Design Ventura was won by students from The Piggott School, who created a fun I Spy-inspired card game
-
Fernanda Dovigi creates a plush Aspen mountain chaletFernanda Dovigi’s revamped Aspen mountain chalet brings contemporary art and design to après-ski
-
Taxi cabs and pizza boxes: New York icons are reimagined by Paa Joe at Superhouse GalleryNew York’s beloved tokens, from the Statue of Liberty to the classic yellow taxi cab, are reimagined by Paa Joe for Superhouse's inaugural show in New York, ‘Celestial City’
-
The Future Perfect group show in LA pays homage to JB Blunk’s sculpturesThe Future Perfect celebrates late sculptor JB Blunk’s process and aesthetic with the group exhibition ‘Inner Space’ (until 1 May 2024)
-
Bauhaus master Anni Albers’ groundbreaking collection on view at the Blanton Museum‘Anni Albers: In Thread and On Paper’ at the Blanton Museum of Art in Ausin, Texas, highlights her shift from weaving to printmaking through works from the last 40 years of her career
-
Gallery Fumi makes LA debut with works from Max Lamb, Jeremy Anderson and moreFumi LA is the London design gallery’s takeover of Sized Studio, marking its first major US show (until 9 March 2024)
-
Bay Area exhibition spotlights San Francisco furniture design communityBay Area furniture design is the subject of ‘Works in Progress’, an exhibition on view at the American Industrial Center in San Francisco’s Dogpatch district until 23 January 2024
-
The Malin Wedgewood Houston offers a rich, earthy co-working environmentThe Malin Wedgewood Houston co-working space opens in Nashville, Tennessee and becomes the fourth and largest location in a thriving portfolio
-
Discover Super Bowl star-turned-designer Michael Bennett’s furnitureWorking under Studio Kër, Michael Bennett imbues his sculptural furniture with poignant references to Black history and African diasporic design – now on view at Chicago’s Rebuild Foundation until 11 February 2024
