Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/221571
Lawndale Design Fair Dishes Décor and More Clinking Cocktails to Mid-Century Classics and High Tech CATHERINE D. ANSPON REPORTS. PHOTOGRAPHY KATY ANDERSON. L awndale Art Center's installment of the Design Fair boasted more than 20 booths of intriguing wares ranging from Bertoia and Eames to cutting-edge 3-D printing and CNC technology — nods to both modernist movements and the next century. A throng of several hundred rushed to early shopping at the Preview Party, where chairs Martha Claire Tompkins and Pepper Peratore presided, joined by Lawndale directress Christine West and Texas Co-Op curators Jenny Lynn Weitz-Amaré Cartwright and Scott Cartwright (the duo reigned over the very cool 3-D printing in the second-floor Cecily Horton Gallery). This year, the fair expanded nationally — L.A. ceramics doyenne Bari Ziperstein of BZippy & Co. participated, and a pair of her fabulous organic candelabra was snapped up by a long-time supporter — and drew fashion trendsetters such as Settlement Goods, Saint Cloud, Fibers for Peace and Urban Izzy. The curious also swarmed to unique proprietors including Mrs. PK and Oz's pedigreed furnishings, august Antiques of River Oaks, PaperCity's Curate books, mid-century man Don Browne, Smith Opticians, Carol Piper Rugs, Dutch Small's curated interiors source Formo Revivo, and hipster Fl!ght gallery, in from San Antonio, where Cynthia Toles did some shopping as did yours truly. More denizens of design: board member/chef Barbara McKnight of Culinaire, yet again donating delightful bites; CAMH director Bill Arning; exhibitors Exquisite Corpse Bookseller's duo painter David Aylsworth and Menil Bookstore director Paul Forsythe; Saint Arnold's Adam Brock Wagner and wife Karen (the hometown brew is a year-long Gibson sponsor of LAC); Design Fair co-founders Eleanor Williams, Adam Gibson and Vernon Caldera; Hines honcho George Lancaster, a 2012 co-chair; patron supreme Jim Petersen Jr.; architect Jory Alexander; crochettaxidermy artist Elaine Bradford; the CAMH's Connie McAllister with beau-artist Dario Robleto; exhibitor PH Design's Chris Promecene and designer-wife Melanie Herz Russell Promecene; and unerring decorators Chris Prince Cathy Echols and Garrett Hunter Ballou David Lackey (soon to be featured in PaperCity) in dialogue with model-maker Jeff Shell. Freddy Warner Jayme Cox Carol Piper Eleanor Williams Garrett Hunter Co-chair Pepper Paratore Barbara McKnight Melissa Montana Ramon West Christine West Matt Johns Vernon Caldera Jeffrey Abel Beth Abel Tonya Clark Claudia Solis Israel Glass Melanie Herz Promecene Co-chair Martha Claire Tompkins Chris Promecene Elaine Bradford Troy Osborne