Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/141323
DECORATION House of Art Hearts Design A s a devoted patron of all things flora, fauna, ephemera and taxidermied, I swooned at the sight of House of Hackney's whirling-dervish papers and fabrics depicting spinning avifauna and small beasties. Flights of Fancy comes in small and large patterns of the stymied fowl and fauna with backgrounds of duck-egg blue, cream, hot pink, midnight or crisp pitch blue, with or without stripes. Every once in a while, a new design bubbles above the fray, and House of Hackney has done just that. Based in the UK, H of H takes patterns steeped in tradition and turns them on their ear. Wallpapers, about $232 per roll; cotton $106 per meter, velvets $153 per meter, at houseofhackney.com. Holly Moore Hackney Empire Hackney Empire Midnight Stripe JAMES BLAND HACKNEY Flora & Fauna Over in the booming Design Alan Simmons and Lindsey Carneal, Alan Simmons Art + Design District, new arrival gallerist with works by Yelizaveta Nersesova Alan Simmons and his director, Lindsey Carneal, reign over Alan Simmons Art + Design, which cozies up to Cris Worley Fine Art in freshly minted Slocum Street digs. (The dual galleries are plotting a sculpture garden as well as coordinating opening nights.) Given Simmons' and Carneal's expertise in interior design — which ranges from ambitious commercial projects to all manner of residential — and their ability to offer framing as well as consulting services, the pair is poised to occupy a unique niche in the Dallas gallery ecosystem. Best bets in their extraordinarily eclectic stable: painter Yelizaveta Nersesova's haunting abstractions and Kevin Page's neo-pointillism, especially chilling portraits of President Lincoln. Catch ASA+D's summer view, serving up a showcase of Nersesova and Page, alongside ceramicist Gregory Miller, glass master David Thai, architectural lensman Alex Remington and more (through August 31, CADD night Saturday, August 10). Alan Simmons Art + Design, 1415 Slocum St., 214.745.2526; alansimmons.net. Catherine D. Anspon House of Hackney Dalston Rose pattern TROMPE Tableware O ne of the most Shiro Kuramata's Miss Blanche Armchair, influential Dallas designed 1988, Museum of executed 1989, at the Art board chairs Dallas Museum of Art ever has come together with a canonical Flights of Fancy in Duck Egg postmodern design statement, in an important addition to the permanent collection of the DMA. The bequest celebrates outgoing chairman Deedie Potter Rose, who conducted her final board meeting in May but remains integrally involved in steering the urbanism dialogue humming around the Dallas Arts District. Fittingly, the chair in question for this respected chairman achieves the status of icon. It's incontestably among the most memorable objects from its decade: Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata's Miss Blanche Armchair, devised 1988, executed 1989. In a perfect ode to one of the forces that forged the DMA's postwar and contemporary holdings into one of the top 10 collections of its kind in America, the Miss Blanche Armchair boasts dozens of artificial red roses that create an aura of surreal beauty, suspended in blocks of acrylic that form its sides and seat. The DMA's armchair was acquired directly from the estate of the artist (1934 – 1991). Its inspiration and moniker stem from a corsage worn by Miss Blanche DuBois (played by the great Vivien Leigh) in the cinematic version of A Streetcar Named Desire. Peruse this rose-filled Rose tribute in the museum's "DMA's Form/Unformed: Design from 1960 to the Present," through December 2013. dma.org. Catherine D. Anspon Getting a After 25 years on Cedar Springs, Nuvo owners Jon Bonsignore and Jeff Wright have decamped to a sharp new Oak Lawn Avenue shop next to Parigi. "We were just ready for a change," Wright says. "We ripped every single thing out from this space and started from scratch." With the new address comes ramped-up offerings: Fresh lines include Michael Aram serveware, etched-glass pieces by Dallas-based artist Polly Gessell, Santa Maria Novella fragrances and Danielle Wellmond's semiprecious jewelry. Cookbooks and foodie paraphernalia, men's bath products and baby and pet goods have expanded, too. What hasn't changed? The go-to greeting card selection, expansive choices in frames, design-centric coffee table books and discriminating candle collection. 3311 Oak Lawn Ave., 214.522.6886; Nuvo nuvodallas.com. Jessica Elliott Move On Melamine Faience à la Corne he latest from New York-based artist John Derian — the deity of découpage, famous for plates, platters, paperweights and coasters incorporating vintage imagery of flora, fauna and ephemera — is a collection of melamine plates bearing French faience designs from the 18th century. Derian was drawn to the juxtaposition of faience (a type of glazed earthenware that dates to the ninth century, the most famous example being Delftware) and melamine (a modern composite material). His charger and side, salad and dinner plates are each available in a different richly hued pattern, making for a stylish mix-and-match picnic come the Fourth of July. From $9, at Forty Five Ten; johnderian.com. Seth Vaughan MARK ANTHONY NELSON T Melamine Faience Italo-Nivernais COLLECTION DMA Her Spirits Rose