Friday Favorites 5/17/2013

May 16, 2013

Kaitlin Madden, Managing and Online Editor

While our clear focus here at New England Home is, in fact, the six New England states (you’re welcome for clearing that up for you, in case there was any ambiguity at all), we can’t pretend to ignore how close we are to New York City, especially this month, with events like the Frieze Art Fair, New York Design Week, WantedDesign and ICFF all taking place in May.

While Kyle Hoepner is on his way to New York to serve as our NEH representative at the design-a-palooza happening there over the next few days, I will be humbly holding down the fort up here in Boston, and following along via the world wide web and social media. Both have already given me plenty to admire, but here are a couple of standouts from exhibitors with a New England connection.

I spotted this “Coney Island” bench, the creation of Massachusetts-based furniture designer Douglas Thayer, on the ICFF website. I love the clean lines and the warm-toned wood, the latter which comes from the boardwalk that gives the bench its name.

Photo courtesy of icff.com

At WantedDesign, pieces by Boston designer (and 2011 5 Under 40 winner) Debra Folz will be included in a showcase featuring alumni from Rhode Island School of Design’s furniture department. The exhibit, called “Risk and Certainty in Uncertain Times” was curated by the school’s president, John Maeda.

Folz’s Xstitch stool. Photo courtesy of debrafolz.com

Maria LaPiana, Contributing Writer

Given the buzz over the Roaring Twenties lately (thanks to The Great Gatsby), it may be hard to imagine a period of equal glamour and excess—especially among our buttoned-up neighbors across the pond. But England experienced its own era of elegance, albeit brief, during the reign of Edward VII. The decade preceding World War I was a period of notable innovation in the UK, as witnessed by the dawn of electric light, automobiles, recorded sound and movies.

All this cutting edge technology (and the consumption that came with it) influenced artists of the day, and many of their works are currently on display at the Yale Museum of British Art in New Haven, Conn. “Edwardian Opulence: British Art at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century” is a glimpse into the world of Downton Abbey, a collection of paintings, photographs and stunning objects in use during the period. The exhibition (which runs through June 2) includes works of art “chosen to reveal the full and often startling magniï¬cence of elite consumption during that turbulent decade.” If you doubt that the Brits knew how to put on the Ritz, consider that the exhibit includes not only portraits by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, but diamond tiaras, ostrich-feather fans and a stunning embroidered gown once worn by the American-born Vicereine of India. The Yale Museum of British Art galleries and Museum Shop are open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.