Knack Magazine at Futurising featuring Ekaterina Kitaina & Tina Northover

 

João Figueiredo presents Tokyo Show 'PT WOMAN A TRIBUTE'

On my usual pursuit of everything extraordinary, unique and eccentric, I can not fail to mention an exhibition now taking place in Tokyo, namely ' Pt. Woman. A Tribute.' , a tribute to Portuguese woman
by the brilliant Portuguese artist, João Figueiredo, whose work I have mentioned before.


"João Figueiredo brings together for the first time an important series where the feminine is supreme: “PT . WOMAN . A TRIBUTE”. With the masculine exception of D. Pedro V, king of Portugal between 1853 and 1861, fourteen profiles of emblematic figures of our history are outlined, from the 17th century, with Queen Saint Elisabeth, to the 20th century, with diva Amália Rodrigues. With his paintings starting from master pieces, João Figueiredo has the superior capacity to achieve the plastic duality of highlighting and hiding information, symbols or details that are part of those master pieces, in favour of a plot, a story, a new approach or a tantalizing and unexpected revelation. It is a meticulous and brilliant intuitive process completed by the modernistic insertion of modules, framings, geometric guidelines, as if these were mirrors or extraordinary and obscure places from where the characters communicate, appear and dialogue. A transcendent timelessness is conquered and commended. Figueiredo, on the other hand, is the only Portuguese artist sponsored by Swarovski Crystal, a crucial element in his work and one that grants him an exceptionally prestigious contemporary sophistication and makes the perfect mystique symbiosis of the diverse dimensions, periods and symbolisms of his creations. The final outcome of each refined and sophisticated portrait presents a character fractioned in episodes and personalities and whose glamour and haughtiness are forever perpetuated and once again celebrated by the hand of João Figueiredo."

On a more personal note, having had the opportunity to do an Internship at Swarovski London last year, I remember the amazing designers and architects Swarovski would sponsor and collaborate with, creating bewildering and unique pieces of design. It is great to know that it now encourages artist to incorporate beautiful crystals into their art.

The Bilderberg Vaults: my final year project

As a basic human instinct- throughout centuries- people have been hiding away in obscure places, seeking privacy in secret sanctuaries and convene in select groups in venues from which the rest are excluded.
Even in the behaviour of children: - who crawl into empty card boxes or conceals themselves behind furniture or build tree houses and huts.
This project seeks to respond to such behaviour of seeking secretive and exclusive venues as well as to tackle the curiosity of the excluded and the threats of possible intruders, since it is a fundamental human instinct to ask when a locked door or curtain is seen: ‘Why am I not allowed in there?’
Taking the deeply rooted past of the Borough area and it’s unique history to accommodate often illegal, underground, and unofficial events and venues, this project will seek to design a secretive mansion for the Bilderberg Group to host the yearly gatherings of the secret society. The secondary use of the space is to provide safety vaults for the member’s capital.
This project will mainly attempt to tackle the client’s aspiration for maximum secrecy and security as well as on a more poetic basis to preserve and reveal the tenebrous past of the building and its site. The warmth of a gentleman’s club will meet a gas chamber like industrial space of a vandalised and dilapidated building to offer a myriad of intimate hiding spaces and intriguing secret passages for solitude and daydreaming as well as for social gatherings and meetings.
The countless cellars and network of passages with spaces for secret encounters will mimic the complex structure of the surrounding site.

de Gournay Shanghai Showroom

The de Gournay showroom in Shanghai is due to open in a weeks time! Here are some sneak peak images of the beautiful rooms.

de Gournay Paris Showroom

Here are the images of the new de Gournay Paris showroom which has just opened a couple of weeks ago on Rue des Saints-Peres. Make sure you pass by if you come to Paris!