Marshmallow sofa George Nelson ™ in “Pop Design” Courtesy of the Vitra Design Museum. See exhibition details below.

Diversions is new! We will add events, conferences and exhibitions from places around the world on a regular basis. Check back with us.

CONFERENCES

Feb 6-8, Kansas City (MO):  New Partners for Smart Growth Conference.  The 12th annual New Partners conference will explore practical strategies for identifying and overcoming barriers to more sustainable development in the Midwest and the rest of the nation. Details -deadline approaching

May 15-17, Atlanta (GA): National Brownfields Conference. Two+ days of programs on environmental revitalization and economic redevelopment at the largest brownfields conference in the nation. Details 

EXHIBITIONS

Through Jan 20: Mumbai (India):  International Design Competition for the Kala Nagar Traffic Junction, an initiative of the BMW Guggenheim Lab Mumbai. The Kala Nagar junction connects Island City to Mumbai’s western suburbs through five main arteries and has one of the city’s highest traffic volumes, with about 60,000 passengers per hour. Display of finalist proposals and the Lab itself at Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, at the Museum’s plaza in Byculla,  plus free events. Details  

Through Jan 21, Baltimore: Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe, Walters Art Gallery. Careful scholarship brings together 72 paintings, sculptures and prints to look at race in the 1400’s to 1600’s. Amazingly, only Princeton University was interested in taking this exhibition after it closes in Baltimore. Washington Post review

Through Jan 27, New York City: Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens, Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Exquisite detail, superb craftsmanship, creativity and elegance are the hallmarks of the desks, cabinets and clocks designed and made (1740’s to ‘90’s)  by the German Roentgen father and son  for those who could afford the best.  Amazing Berlin cabinet secretary video. Check out how a fancy rolltopdesk unfolds into many elaborate parts. Exhibition review

Through Feb 3, Pop Design at the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein Switzerland (15 mins by train from Basel): Highlights of the exhibition include an early screen designed by Warhol,  the sofa Leonardo which has rarely been exhibited since it was first produced, James Rosenquist’s I Love You with My Ford (1961), the monumental floor lamp Moloch by Gaetano Pesce (1970-71) and Allen Jones’s Chair (1969). Also: 272-page catalogue with over 325 illustrations and essays by noted authors. Details

Through Feb 3, New York City: Crossing Borders: Manuscripts from the Bodleian Library, The Jewish Museum.  Selection of over fifty Hebrew, Latin, and Arabic manuscripts on loan (many for the first time in the US) from the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries – one of the world’s richest collections —  of exquisitely illuminated manuscripts,  illustrate the fertile exchanges among Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the fields of religion, art, science, and literature. Included is one of the Bodleian’s greatest treasures: the magnificent Kennicott Bible.  Exhibition details

The Secret of a Few, 2012, Wendell Castle (Copyright ©). Stained ash with oil finish
35.5 x 90 x 49 inches.

Through Feb 24 (and other closings) Wendell Castle: Wandering Forms – Works from 1959-79, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT and other New York/KY exhibits. Castle is a century-spanning  master who has blurred the boundaries of art, craft and design in pieces that are beautiful, funny and fanciful.  Multiple shows (in Connecticut, NYC and Kentucky) celebrate his 80th year,  plus an illustrated monograph co-published by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and Gregory Miller & Co. Details on all exhibitions