Pride of Craft | When Yinka Ilori was growing up on an estate in Islington, London, many families he knew from Nigeria or Ghana kept a blue-and-white Wedgwood-style plate in their display cabinets. Mass-produced by British manufacturers since the 18th century, the plates evoked motifs from Chinese ceramics: a willow tree, a pagoda, birds. In addition to their craftsmanship, they were valued by these families as a way of communicating wealth, good taste and belonging in British society. Although Ilori appreciated their decorative forms, he couldn’t help but feel that the plates were out of place in these homes, devoid as they were of specific connections to their owners’ cultures of origin. He decided to create an alternative—one that takes the form of a ceramic trophy inspired by his own life story. “My mum was a collector,” he says, “so I think she would have been proud to have an object that celebrated her journey and lineage.”

Ilori’s design consists of a bulbous body with two round handles rising to reach a slender neck, which is topped with a dove symbolizing the desire for peace of an immigrant family that has struggled to achieve comfort. The geometric pattern is inspired by the detailed designs found on Adire textiles, traditionally made by the Yoruba women of southwestern Nigeria. Most striking is the image wrapped around the body: a photograph by Ed Reeve of the Marquess Estate, the 1960s modernist housing where Ilori was raised. The sculpture is being produced by 1882 Ltd., a ceramic company based in Stoke-on-Trent, the home of Wedgwood itself. “A trophy is something you want to hold up in the air,” Ilori says, “a sign of celebration and joy, acceptance, recognition and pride.”

—Priya Khanchandani

AUCTION

Yinka Ilori: Places That Build Their Dreams

Selling Exhibition | 2 September–31 October 2024 | London

Flower Power | Svenskt Tenn’s founder Estrid Ericson was so taken with the botanical plates she saw adorning the walls at Hammarby, the summer home of 16th-century scientist Carl Linnaeus, near Uppsala, Sweden, that she decorated her bedroom with similar illustrations. Floral prints became a motif in the designs that she and Josef Frank, the Austrian polymath who joined Svenskt Tenn in 1934, produced for the brand. For this version of the Flora Cabinet, from 1951, Frank took plates from Carl Lindman’s book on plants of the Nordic region. In production for the first time since the ’70s, the cabinet has been reissued for Svenskt Tenn’s centennial this year.

Sleep on it | Made from a single undulating piece of Canaletto walnut-trimmed metal, Armani/Casa’s Morfeo bed gives the illusion of truly drifting off to dreamland. The version above is upholstered in the Italian brand’s Vienna fabric, an intricately tufted velvet inspired by the complex weaving of Berber textiles.

Compare and Contrast | With its half-rustic, half-industrial mixture of steel, raffia and wood, the new furniture line Interni Venosta winks at the stylings of its putative namesake, Italian designer Carla Venosta, who restored palazzi but also devised medical machinery. Hints of Marcel Breuer and Donald Judd also appear throughout the seven-piece collection, which is a side project from Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran, cofounders of Milan-based interiors firm Dimorestudio.

The Art of the Steal | As environmental activists continue to target paintings as a way of calling attention to the climate crisis, two books this fall give a full accounting of how wars, political upheaval, organized crime, cat burglars and even crooked museum employees have also taken their toll on the art world. In Susie Hodge’s “Art Heist: 50 Artworks You’ll Never See” ($26; Ivy Press), the stories of many a lost altarpiece or Nazi-pilfered canvas are presented as unsolved mysteries, while “The Atlas of Art Crime: Thefts, Vandalism, and Forgeries” ($35; Prestel), by Laura Evans, offers a global overview of the problem, discussing frauds and flubs as well.

With Pleas​​ure | The Giardini Botanici Hanbury, in Mortola, Italy, was founded in the late 1860s by an English businessman, Sir Thomas Hanbury, who had made his fortune in China. Over the next decades, the gardens became a comprehensive catalog of tropical and subtropical plants, which Hanbury procured from across the globe. “It is almost like a Noah’s Ark,” says Nicolas Malleville, co-founder of the Coqui Coqui line of perfumes and boutique hotels. Malleville and his partner, Francesca Bonato, have spent six years restoring Lord Hanbury’s former carriage house, complete with marble flooring, to create La Remise Hanbury, a boutique and showroom for their fragrance and home goods collections. The region, tucked between the Mediterranean and the Alps, is known as the Riviera dei Fiori, and has also inspired them to create a perfume line of the same name.

Free Spirits | “What does art mean to me? That’s a hard question,” muses Daniel Humm. “I don’t know if there can be life without art.” The Swiss chef of New York’s Eleven Madison Park (EMP) has garnered countless accolades for his cuisine, which made history when EMP was the first

vegan restaurant to receive three Michelin stars. But Humm’s second love has always been art. His upcoming project, Clemente Bar, is the latest testament to that. The bar, named after the Italian neo-expressionist painter Francesco Clemente, a close friend of Humm’s, is a

collaboration between the two. Set to open this October, upstairs from Eleven Madison Park’s dining room, the space will be lined with Clemente’s frescoes.

“Francesco is one of the most important people in my life,” says Humm of their six-year friendship. “Curiosity is what we share, seeing things in a childlike way.” One year, Clemente dined at Eleven Madison Park four times, once each season. “In exchange, he’d make a watercolor painting the next day and send it to me,” says Humm. “He was responding to my language with his language.”

When Humm mentioned he was planning to open a bar, Clemente offered to do a painting for the space. He also said that he’d always wanted a drink named for him, citing the Bellini, which takes its name from the artist Giovanni Bellini. “One day I went to him,” Humm recalls, “and I said, ‘What if I named it Clemente Bar?’ And he was like, ‘What? The whole bar?’ And that was it.”

To Humm, Clemente Bar reaffirms the ethos of Eleven Madison Park, itself graced with pieces by artists like Rashid Johnson, Rita Ackermann and Olympia Scarry.

As for what to expect from Clemente’s work? “There are a lot of secrets within the paintings, a lot of humor,” Humm says with a smile.

—Sophie Mancini

Feast for the Eyes | Artist Laila Gohar reflects on fantastical food as she prepares to create surrealist-inspired edible installations for the October opening of Sotheby’s new Paris home at 83 Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

What is the artistic appeal of food as a medium? 

Everything I do is literally meant to be consumed. My work is heavily documented with photos, but then there’s no trace. I enjoy that ephemerality. I think it’s a big responsibility to leave work behind—it takes up space.

Which artists inspire you? 

My biggest inspiration is Louise Bourgeois. I feel a kinship with her work, and I like that it spans different mediums. The same is true of Sonia Delaunay—she is known as a painter, but she made clothing and designed things from fabrics to furniture. Creativity is so pigeonholed now.

Are there any parallels between a tablecloth and a canvas? 

I love the appearance of a crisp white tablecloth.

It sets the stage. I tried black ones for a recent project but there was this heaviness. That’s when I realized it wasn’t just my preference—I like white for a reason. It creates negative space and gives you a visual rest.

Can you hint at what you’ll be creating for Sotheby’s? 

With the surrealist theme, there’s a lot to think about. There’s already such a strong association between food and surrealism. I want to say that I’ve been given the Dalí cookbook at least five times. My food is going to be different. It will be sculptural, play with scale and respond to the new building.

—James Haldane

Growing Gains | To most, the idea of farming in New York City sounds like an impossibility. But to artist and filmmaker Linda Goode Bryant, it felt like a challenge. In 2008, while working on a short film, she came across footage of Haitians eating mud pies due to high food costs, which left her determined to find a way to make fresh food more accessible. This was the genesis of her non-profit, Project EATS, which aims to feed New Yorkers produce grown locally and sustainably. Project EATS now farms wherever there’s space—its largest plot consists of two acres behind a men’s shelter on Randall’s Island.

This fall, in addition to planning Project EATS’ November gala (the honoree will be artist Arthur Jafa), Bryant is embarking on a new food-related venture. She’s taking over the window display at Manuela, a restaurant from gallerists Iwan and Manuela Wirth’s hospitality brand, ArtFarm, opening in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood. Her installation will tell the story not just of Project EATS but also of Soho’s artistic legacy. “I probably ate at FOOD three times a week,” says Bryant, referring to Gordon Matta-Clark’s 1970s artist-run eatery, which was nearby.

The project will also reference Bryant’s own stint as a gallerist, from 1974 to 1986, when she ran Just Above Midtown, one of the few Black-owned galleries in the city. “It was a place where everybody came to hang out and be themselves in their own wonderful, honest and creative ways,” Bryant, 75, recalls. She hopes Manuela will offer something similar: “What could happen that might open up space to be creative in spontaneous ways, that pushes against our increasing tendency to perform consciously?” It’s a challenging concept for today’s New York City, which is no longer the bohemian mecca it was. But if anyone is up for it, it’s Bryant.

—Thessaly La Force

Candid Camera | Urs Fischer’s portrait of Nicolas Berggruen, below, shows the philanthropist standing behind “Omen,” Fischer’s new site-specific work for Berggruen’s Venetian arts space, Palazzo Diedo. The photo is a 20-by-24-inch Polaroid, one of a series taken by Fischer and other Palazzo Diedo artists in partnership with the Polaroid Foundation, which is working to revive the iconic large-format camera.

Room to Dream | “Inside the homes of Artists: For Art’s Sake” (Rizzoli, $95), by collector Tiqui Atencio Demirdjian, opens the doors to artists’ residences across five continents, from Rashid Johnson and Sheree Hovsepian’s Manhattan town house to Miquel Barceló’s Mallorcan fortress. Jean-Francois Jaussaud’s photographs capture all the intimate details: the crammed bookshelves, the handmade furnishings, the wild color combinations. Some artists fashion true live-work spaces. Guillermo Kuitca’s Buenos Aires abode, for example, reveals a symbiotic relationship between his craft and everyday life. Others prefer a clear separation, as in Claire Tabouret’s Mediterranean-inspired LA enclave, which deliberately has no studio space. Tracey Emin’s Georgian manor, shown, in London’s Fitzrovia neighborhood, became her main pandemic project: Her contractors worked through lockdowns to restore the five-story home. At the same time, Emin herself was in treatment for cancer. “I’m sure that buying the house has kept me alive,” she told Atencio Demirdjian.

—Olivia Hanley