Report from NYC: Galia Gluckman

Our New York correspondent Kelly Berman of The Brooklynist is back with us today, freshly returned to NYC after her recent trip to Cape Town. Nice to see you in Cape Town, and nice to have you back online with another great New York find, Kelly!


Galia Gluckman is an artist who makes large-scale collages out of tiny bits of coloured paper. Drawn to intense hues, she trawls through old magazines and scraps of wrapping paper in search of 'families' of colour to use in her pieces. Her painstaking work recently paid off when she won the Global Green Artist Challenge for Best Overall Green Piece at the International Art Expo in New York City at the beginning of March.

Galia cuts the paper into small, mosaic-like pieces and layers them on top of each other, creating intricate surfaces of pattern and colour that come together to create large landscapes, her favourite subject matter. She then applies a sealant to the surface.

"I take great pride in turning paper that may otherwise go to landfills into works of art," she says. "Ninety-five percent of all unsold newsstand magazines are recycled by newsstands and publishers, only about 17 percent of sold magazines are recycled."

A fashion designer who has worked in South Africa, London and New York, Galia's art has been influenced by the vibrant world of fashion and by her family history in the textile industry.

Galia's latest venture involves turning her collages into high-quality prints, which have been attracting the interest of interior designers and hotels in the NYC area. You can see more of her work on her website.

Report from NYC: SVA Subway Posters

Anyone who has ridden the NYC subway has probably noticed the eye-catching posters advertising the School of Visual Arts.

I went searching for one online recently after I fell in love with a poster designed by Gail Anderson that had the words "If someone says you shouldn't, ask them who should" in bold, free-hand lettering. I couldn't find it anywhere but I did discover that you can buy previous subway posters directly from the SVA.

Here are a few by graphic design guru Milton Glaser:

Thomas Woodruff's posters sprinkled a bit of fairy dust on the grimy subway platforms. I think they would make beautiful pictures in a child's bedroom:

Different designers have interpreted the "Art is..." theme in interesting ways:

James Victore

James McMullan

Frank Young

I'm hoping that the Gail Anderson poster joins these others on the SVA website soon. Did any other New Yorkers have fantasies about stealing that poster?

Report from NYC: Meet Peter Lane

Are they vertebrae? Coral? Insect pods?

This week I introduce you to the ceramic artwork of Peter Lane, who shares a studio with the subject of last week's post, Pamela Sunday.

The installation above, called 'Seabed,' was originally commissioned for the lobby (below) of super-swanky apartment building 350 West Broadway in Soho by real estate developer Aby Rosen, under the direction of architect William Georgis.

Lane will soon exhibit 'Seabed III' and IV - a much larger version and a smaller, half-scale version - at the Pavillon des Arts et du Design in Paris in April. He will be represented there through Chahan Gallery, whose sleek modernist furniture presents the perfect counterfoil to Lane's rough-hewn aesthetic.

Rough in texture it may be, but Lane's piece has a poetic quality captured in his artist's statement accompanying 'Seabed':

I love the vision of a school of fish and their mysterious, silent coordination, of ghosts, or spirits, the ghosts of whales, their bones lying in peaceful patterns of the floor of the ocean, the demon spirit of Nature that we try to shelter ourselves from, but can only rejoin, hopefully as something rich and strange.

You can read about how Lane came up with the idea for the piece, and how he made it, on my blog, The Brooklynist.

Lane exhibited a number of pieces at Chahan Gallery in Paris last September. He is known for his "birch bark" lamps, vases and drum tables using a ceramic process that happened to turn out looking like, well, you guessed it, birch bark.

The lamp base on the table above is part of his 'Scholar's Rock' series, amorphous masses of clay that he stacks up and squeezes into shape. They are named after Chinese scholar's rocks that are chosen because of their uncanny resemblance to things like tigers or clouds.

"I'm experimenting and trying new things. I don’t have a specific style," says Lane. "My favorite things are most spontaneous and come directly from the clay itself."

The circular sculpted mirror frame hanging above the table is a spin-off of a larger project that Lane is currently working on, called 'Homage a' Palissy.'

This piece, above, is a preliminary study for this work-in-progress, which will ultimately be a ceramic relief 8 feet tall and 12 feet wide.

"Bernard Palissy was an important artist and folkloric character," Lane told me. "He was a stained-glass artist originally who basically had to invent ceramics from scratch. He burned all the furniture in his house trying to fire up his kiln to the right temperature!"

Apparently, Palissy's masterpiece was a grotto that he made for Catherine de Medici. "The walls were encrusted with sculptures of seaweed, salamanders and shells to resemble an ancient Roman ruin underground."

Clearly, Lane's imagination is up to the task of capturing this fantastical underground cave, as these other studies and tests for 'Homage a' Palissy' show.

Report from NYC: Pamela Sunday

"A hobby that consumed my life" is how Pamela Sunday describes the exquisite ceramic sculptures she makes in the studio in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn that she cycles to every day. Her iconic pieces have been embraced by the interior design world here in the U.S. and as far afield as India, Japan and Singapore.

Pamela studied economics and math at college, did a stint working on Wall Street, and then became a stylist and art director at Bergdorf Goodman. She discovered she loved clay while taking a class with some colleagues. "We decided to try different classes after work instead of going for drinks," she said.

She's been at it full-time for eight years, during which her style has refined itself into a bold, highly crafted expression of her love for natural forms. Her current work was inspired by microscopic forms such as plankton and algae.

Pamela often uses metallic glazes fired to a high temperature. The result resembles metal more than clay.

"I'm working on the edge of my materials," she said. She works very methodically, labouring over her pieces for weeks sometimes.


While some pieces are lustrous and glossy, others have a more matt texture. "I play mad scientist with the chemicals," Pamela explained while showing me the different kilns she bakes her pieces in.


The beauty of her pieces to me is that they evoke so many different kinds of forms. Many of her orbs look like intergalactic objects.


"Everything starts with an orb and then I either add or subtract elements," she said.

Pamela is experimenting with oval forms now, so watch her website for updates on those. And read about her husband Paul Sunday's paintings on my own blog here.

Report from NYC: Redecorating the White House

What do you think: could this French Hawaiian Hibiscus chair encapsulate the look of the new White House?

Domino blogger Nick Olsen thinks it marries the traditional sophistication befitting the new First Family with the tropical flavour of their favourite vacation destination.

Here's a radically different intepretation: a sophisticated but fun modernist look for the Oval Office by Jonathan Adler at InStyle.com.

Adler has used tone-on-tone walls and drapery, his signature Montmartre table and Horse lamps, and a repeat pattern of the presidential seal on the rug.

Designer Amy Mellen at Calvin Klein Home has taken a more minimalist approach:

She's envisioned Jasper Johns’s Gray Flag (1957) above the mantel, large sofas and armchairs in neutral shades, and lots of textures like parchment leather and natural linen.

I, for one, never thought this day would come. I'm referring to the day on which a contemporary, stylish First Couple takes a good hard look at those groaning chandeliers and festooned pelmets in the White House and proclaims, "Yes, we can... redecorate!"

According to Domino magazine, none other than Los Angeles interior designer Michael Smith (above) has been selected as the Obamas' designer-in-residence. "The family's casual style, their interest in featuring 20th century American artists and utilizing affordable brands and products will serve as our guiding principles as we make the residence feel like their home," Smith says on Domino's website.

Smith's trademark style definitely veers towards plush tradition, as you can see in the above photos of other rooms he has decorated, but he creates a feeling of casual comfort by varying subtle shades of colour and mixing different textures and patterns.

In this video tour you can take a sneak peek at his house, which is grand and homey at the same time.

Domino has many other fun features on its site: a room-by-room historical tour of the White House, cast your vote on which administration did it best, and a very amusing and informative First Lady Decorating Smackdown between Nancy Reagan and Jackie Kennedy by Nick Olsen.

In the meantime, we'll have to wait to see just how the Obama family manages to put their stamp on America's most famous house.

Report from NYC: Ork Posters

It's great to be back to my weekly posts from NYC! I'm starting the year out by showing you a graphic approach to my adopted city.
xx Kelly

Jenny Beorkrem, designer and founder of Ork Posters in Chicago, has come up with a fresh approach to map design.

She breaks up each city into its named sections, varying the size of the typeface to communicate the jumble of distinct neighbourhoods. It's a bold, modernist take on mapmaking, unlike anything I've seen before. Something about packing all those letters into tight spaces conveys the sense of how densely populated and so very large these metropolitan areas are.

Besides New York City and Brooklyn, my obvious favourites, Ork Posters now offers maps of Chicago, Manhattan, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, the Great Lakes, Los Angeles, Boston and Washington DC.
Beorkrem descided to design the typographical maps after a fruitless search for a Chicago neighborhood poster that would look good on her wall. "The project became quite cumbersome with 91 Chicago neighbourhoods in all," she said. Of all the cities that she has mapped, her hometown has the highest number of neighbourhoods.

Her new project has done so well, that even big name brands like Nike have begun imitating her.

Report from NYC: Pomme

I just can't help being drawn to the whimsy, colour and craft of the retro kids' toys, and the inspired decor on sale at Pomme, an airy, light-filled space in an old brick building on Washington Street in Dumbo.

Photo by V. Jane Windsor

This hand-screened linen pillow, available from Pomme, is by the Brooklyn-based duo Atsuyo et Akiko, who make possibly the most imaginative, chic things for children this side of the Atlantic.

The Japanese duo incorporates vintage, handmade elements into their very contemporary clothing, home accessories and jewellery. Case in point: this very dear tote bag, embellished with a pearlescent ribbon.

Even the most humble of toys get a stylish, minimalist makeover with these house blocks made from Japanese ash and this bowling set, both of which come packed in a burlap sack.


Imported from Europe, this classic rocker in birch plywood has been in production for over 50 years.

This glowing bunny nightlight will watch over your bundle of sleeping joy.

And if you think all that was good, I must tell you I've been saving the best for last. In my eye, neutrals have their place - but only alongside wild pops of cherry red, fuchsia and hot pink, like these play blankets in delicate Chinese fabrics.

With a colour palette like this, and a collection of objects from all over the map, it's no wonder that Pomme is one of my favorite stores in all of NYC.