Monthly Archives: April 2017

The 57th Venice Biennale will start in a couple of weeks' time and, if you're heading there and looking for a place where you may have a break while still enjoying art head to the café designed by architect Mario Botta … Continue reading →

Mention fashion illustration to real connoisseurs and they will launch into a lecture about the poetry, elegance and style of René Gruau. The Italian-born artist gets more than one mention in the volume New Fashion Illustration (published on Gingko Press' … Continue reading →

Classic mythology can offer great inspirations to creative minds: in 2012 Turner Prize-winning artist Chris Ofili took part in an exhibition at London's National Gallery that featured three contemporary artists responding to Titian's great paintings depicting classical stories from the … Continue reading →

Piles of discarded clothes and accessories always affect us in rather negative ways: the images of piles of rags and shoes in concentration camps, for example, immediately conjure up in our minds the atrocities and the horrors endured by the people … Continue reading →

Functional, practical and financial reasons or mere lack of space prompt most of us to opt for minimalist interior decor. Yet there was a time when rich velvet fabrics were employed to decorate a room in a lavish style. Velvet was … Continue reading →

Italy celebrates today Liberation Day, the end of the Italian Civil War and the end of the Nazi occupation of the country. There is actually an independent museum that chose to celebrate freedom and human rights with a special exhibition. … Continue reading →

Seen from afar Yaw Owusu's artworks look like pleasantly eye-catching geometrical tapestries made with a sort of glittery paint. Yet a closer inspection reveals something surprising: the pieces made by this Ghanaian artist aren't actually made with paints, but with … Continue reading →

In yesterday's post we looked at a textile designer inspired by art, so let's continue the fabric thread today with a recent design by Vlisco with an arty twist about it. The design is part of the Bright & Beautiful … Continue reading →

One of the most optimistic textile stories in postwar Britain is linked to the "Calyx" pattern. Designed by Lucienne Day (1917 – 2010) for Heal Fabrics, the pattern was created as a furniture fabric for a room in the Homes and … Continue reading →

There is something deeply unsettling but also incredibly fascinating about the volume Codex Seraphinianus by illustrator, architect, painter, sculptor and designer Luigi Serafini. Originally published in 1981 in Italy by Franco Maria Ricci, the volume became throughout the decades an iconic … Continue reading →