We’ve scoured the globe to find the most captivating, uncanny and memorable design exhibitions. From retrospectives and major blockbusters to thematic exhibitions and solo shows, here’s the design events not to miss this month.
Louis Vuitton Objets Nomades, Hong Kong
Hong Kong-based architect Joyce Wang has transformed two floors of the city’s former Central Magistracy into a grand pop-up that perfectly balances the colonial architecture, contemporary rooms and niches to create an immersive experience of Louis Vuitton’s Objets Nomades travel-inspired furniture and accessories. The poetic and cinematic feel is enhanced with whimsical touches including a dining-room with walls clad in bamboo and vertical greenery, elegant diaphanous steel mesh archways and a virtual swimming pool. Standout new pieces include a chair in riotously patterned fabric by Raw Edges and Patricia Urquiola’s simple ‘Overlay’ bowl, a sculpture of four leather sheets, created for Les Petits Nomades. Writer: Catherine Shaw
Until March 31; Tai Kwun, Block 9, Central Magistracy, 10 Hollywood Road
Neotenic Design at A/D/O, New York
Leave it to A/D/O to give the emergence of ‘cute’ furniture and design a real name. The term ‘neoteny’ is traditionally a zoological reference to the retention of juvenile features in an adult animal, but it could easily also apply to the proliferation of childlike features and proportions, such as thick legs and rounded feet, in design over the last ten years. Curated by A/D/O members, the design firm Jumbo, ‘Neotenic Design’ brings together objects from designers like Faye Toogood, Konstantin Grcic, Big Game and Pierre Yovanovitch, to show how the trend for rounded, chubby shapes in design actually elicits an emotional response that we are subconsciously seeking.
Until 28 March; 29 Norman Ave, Brooklyn, NY
The strange order of things, by Nathalie Du Pasquier at Pace Gallery, Seoul
This is the second exhibition of work by Nathalie Du Pasquier at Pace in Seoul and it is a particularly personal one, as the French artist and designer curated it herself. In an array of 30 paintings, drawings and ceramics, the show dives into the her engrossing visual world that started life in painting and travels through her time as a founding member of the Memphis Group. ‘For this exhibition, I’m interested in how things chosen from different moments in the last 20 years go together in a specific display,’ Du Pasquier mentions of the edit that forms an abstract dialogue in the space.
Until 25 May; 5F, 262, Itaewon-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
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The great American museum boomNine of the world’s top ten most expensive, recently announced cultural projects are in the US. What is driving this investment, and is this statistic sustainable?
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Here’s how Heathrow is reimagining airport chaos as ambient musicGrammy-nominated Jordan Rakei turns travel noise into a meditative soundtrack by sampling everything from baggage belts to jet engines
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Wallpaper* checks into Gansevoort Meatpacking, an art-filled hotel that mirrors the district’s glow-upThis sharp, stylish New York hotel is a fixture in its neighbourhood, where boutiques, restaurants and clubs have long since taken over spaces once occupied by slaughterhouses
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‘Her pictures looked like pictures everybody knew were the truth’: Diane Arbus at the ArmoryMatthieu Humery curates more than 400 of Arbus’ photographs at New York’s Park Avenue Armory – every picture she was known to have printed
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Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscapeArtist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
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Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt was a jam-packed week for the Wallpaper* staff, entailing furniture, tech and music launches and lots of good food – from afternoon tea to omakase
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Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this weekThis week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
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Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, DiversGeordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
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New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took placeMarc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
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A major Takashi Murakami exhibition sees the world in kaleidoscopic colourThe Cleveland Art Museum presents 'Takashi Murakami 'Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow', exploring outrage and escapist fantasy
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Ai Weiwei’s new public installation is coming soon to Four Freedoms State Park‘Camouflage’ by Ai Weiwei will launch the inaugural Art X Freedom project in September 2025, a new programme to investigate social justice and freedom
