Memphis

In memoriam: Alessandro Mendini (1931-2019)

The exuberant and influential Italian architect and designer Alessandro Mendini has died aged 87. The definition of a renaissance man, he not only produced architecture, graphics, furniture, interiors and paintings, but was editor-in-chief of Domus magazine from 1980 to 1985, and...

Art / 29 Jun 2018

A nostalgic look inside Memphis Group artist Peter Shire’s wonder-filled LA studio

‘A CD player can be put on random play. What if you had a design and a group of materials on random play, and all of them were coming out different? It would look like Memphis,’ muses Los Angeles...

Design / 16 Jun 2018

Design highlights at Venice Architecture Biennale

Venice isn’t just about architecture right now. Returning for the second time is ‘Design.VE: design walks through Venice’, which runs in parallel with the first month of the international architecture biennale. Organised by Venice Art Factory in collaboration with...

Design / 18 May 2018

A Memphis-inspired hotel suite in New York has its interiors up for sale

Booking app HotelTonight are waving goodbye to the muted palette of hotel rooms with a playful hospitality project for New York Design Week. In a collaboration with Sight Unseen Offsite and Brooklyn-based design duo Hannah Bigeleisen and Steven Bukowski, they...

Watches & Jewellery / 26 Apr 2018

Sabine Getty’s Big play day

‘I think it’s my inner child speaking,’ fine jeweller Sabine Getty explains of her love of bold, primary colours. ‘I love things that take me out of reality and into a happier world.’ It’s no wonder, then, that bright...

Fashion / 16 Aug 2017

Memphis soul: Nathalie Du Pasquier and George Sowden’s bold graphics for Valentino

Two radically different reference points seem to anchor the A/W 2017 women’s Valentino collection; restrained Victoriana co-mingles with the bold, poppy post-modernism of the Memphis Group, the Milan-based design collective, founded in 1981, that included among its members Ettore Sottsass, Andrea...

Design / 27 Jul 2017

From furniture to jewellery, Ettore Sottsass’ revolutionary legacy is an eclectic one

The visionary architect and designer Ettore Sottsass is being honoured front and centre at the Met Breuer in New York City, one of the most monumental celebrations (of the many) of his 100th birthday this year. With a career that...

Design / 20 Jul 2017

Vitra celebrates Ettore Sottsass’ legacy as a design rebel, poet, and photographer

Exhibitions documenting the life and work of Ettore Sottsass (1917–2007) abound this year as galleries and museums – such as The Met and Le Stanze del Vetro – celebrate what would have been the influential Austro-Italian designer’s 100th birthday. One...

Design / 5 May 2017

A show of early Ettore Sottsass ceramics unites two titans of 20th-century design

It’s a concrete Valhalla, concealed behind the arches of Piazza San Marco in Venice. The Negozio Olivetti, once a showroom for the company’s typewriters and calculators, designed by its erstwhile art director Carlo Scarpa in 1957-58, and now a museum...

Design / 1 Nov 2016

Bowie’s bounty: Sotheby’s presents ’Bowie/Collector’ exhibition and auction

What a thrill to stand in front of David Bowie’s record player and imagine him pulling favourite albums by atonal noisemaker Glenn Branca or pioneering Dutch geeks The Electrosoniks from a shelf in his New York home and blasting them...

Watches & Jewellery / 11 Aug 2016

Memphis belle: why jeweller Sabine Getty is not putting away childish things

’This is actually my childhood desk seat,’ says jeweller Sabine Getty, tapping the colour-blocked arms of a Memphis ‘Palace’ chair, designed by George Sowden in 1983 and now installed in her new Mayfair studio-cum-showroom. ‘When I was a child...

Art / 20 Jul 2016

City of art: Nathalie Du Pasquier’s comprehensive solo show in Vienna

For her first solo exhibition in Austria, Nathalie Du Pasquier presents a comprehensive journey through her work. On show at the Kunsthalle Wien, and curated by Luca Lo Pinto, the exhibition brings together paintings, patterns, sculptures, designs and other creations...