Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/122421
DECORATION IT'S NOT DRESDEN, but It's DISPOSABLE CABINET of Curiosities I t's been a decade-in-the-making obsession by a gent who's best known as the co-founder of Texas' first (and foremost) art fair. As for the result, the mere word "book" seems a delirious understatement. We're speaking of Chris Byrne's extraordinary graphic novel The Magician, which debuted to great acclaim at the L.A. Art Book Fair this January. Few who know Byrne from the Dallas Art Fair or as an independent curator realized this University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts grad was also an artist on a mission. As The Magician deftly reveals, its author is infatuated with the arcane, the unexplained and the wondrous. We're hoping this book, which was published by Seattle-based Marquand Books and co-designed by Scott Newton, finds a home at the temple of Surrealism, aka The Menil Collection. This wunderkammer is actually 12 individual publications inside what resembles a magician's hermetic box of wonders, offered in an edition of 20 with five artist's proofs. What are the experts saying? Artist Gary Panter of Pee-wee's Playhouse weighs in: "Chris Byrne has made an alt comic of such invention, thoughtfulness and ambition that only Chris Ware's artistic production is on a similar playing field," while PictureBox publisher Dan Nadel says: "The Magician is … a Cornell-ian box, a visual novel, a conjurer's tool kit. There's never been anything quite like it." Inquiries Ed Marquand, Marquand Books, edm@marquand.com. Catherine D. Anspon COURTESY THE ARTIST AND NATHALIE KARG / CUMULUS STUDIOS, NEW YORK The problem with paper plates is obvious, and tastemakers flinch at the sight. Fortunately, designer Michael Aram swooped in this season with melamine and disposable serveware of which one can be proud. After years of dazzling the design world with handmade metal creations, Aram has produced a collection of single-use twiginspired plastic forks and spoons and bold graphic-printed napkins and plates with dynamic themes and sophisticated color interplays that balance our need for the pragmatic. Aram's Madhouse Collection is available in melamine or paper in four patterns at Neiman Marcus, priced $16 to $20 for a melamine dinner plate, $8 for a set of eight paper dinner plates, $6 for a set of 12 pieces of twig cutlery (clear, black, gray, teal). Design bonus points if you go for the pattern. madhousecollection.com. Dutch Small McQUEEN Beneath MY FEET Tom Burr's Untitled (Bouncing Balls), 2009, at Nathalie Karg / Cumulus Studios, during Dallas Art Fair A LET'S PLAY Games mong the most insistent design trends is its influence on the contemporary visual scene. See the intriguing results this season during the debut of Field Day at the Dallas Art Fair, which tapped exhibitor Nathalie Karg's Cumulus Studios to devise a morning of games and play (Saturday, April 13, 10 am to noon; remarks 10 am; outside FIG at Henry C. Beck, Jr. Park). The works on view are drafted from the New York-based gallery's stable of notables commissioned by Cumulus to create limited-edition offerings, which intersect landscape architecture, and mirror the contemporary marriage of art and design. We're smitten by international Tom Burr's finely honed ping pong table formed from aluminum, rubber and paint, which is a functional sculpture that Donald Judd would be proud of. Since 2008, Karg has carved out a distinctive gallery practice that bridges her background as an art advisor and landscape designer. "Cumulus Studios has chosen a different path than most," she notes. "We work solely with contemporary artists, not designers nor architects. This is why our pieces are special. Some of them are quirkier than others, and maybe less comfortable, let's say, than a widely produced element of design, but this is what makes us stand out." Cumulus Studios at the Dallas Art Fair, cumulusstudios.com, dallasartfair.com. Catherine D. Anspon THIS JUST In Gracie custom-designed handpainted wallpapers, established in 1898, opens its first Texas showroom in the Dallas Design District mid-May. The new showroom will showcase wallpaper installations as well as unique Japanese and Chinese antiques and furniture and custom lacquer. As I anxiously await the opening of the Alexander McQueen boutique in Highland Park Village later this month, I'll lie about on McQueen's Hummingbird rug for The Rug Company, a hand-woven cashmere and silk Aubusson with metallic thread — also divine with a black background. $352 a square foot, at The Rug Company, 1626 Hi Line Dr., 214.760.4888, therugcompany.com.