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BY ZAHID SARDAR DESIGN SPOT
Finding wonders in unlikely places.
TIMELESS, IN A
WORLD OF CHANGE
ALESSI: GET SET FOR ENTERTAINMENT
1. Milanese designer Miriam Mirri’s polished stainless-steel
or powder-coated steel book stands for Alessi in the form
of a puppy named Montparnasse, a kitten called Vigo and
a monkey dubbed Lola will seduce adults and children alike.
$65–$85. 2. Sicilian designer Mario Trimarchi's Ossidiana, a
stovetop espresso coffeemaker of cast aluminum and thermoplastic resin, for Alessi, echoes many traditional moka
coffeepots, its faceted easy-to-hold form emulating shaped
volcanic obsidian. Available in various sizes and black
anodized and clear finishes for about $80–$120. 3. The
Circus Collection, a joyful range of bowls, lidded containers, serving vessels and limited-edition accessories like nutcrackers and
corkscrews, draws inspiration from the big top. Festooned with stripes,
polka dots and triangular patterns, it’s the work of Dutch designer
Marcel Wanders, whose 2002 gold-plated clown nose necklace for chi ha
paura is a collectible. $25–$1,500. All in San Francisco. alessi.com
AN 1886 NAPA VALLEY
winery called Lombar-da Cellars by Antonio
Forni, who built a stone
cellar and barrel room
there in 1898, now
houses the Freemark Abbey winery, launched
in 1939 and lauded since the 1970s for its
cabernet sauvignon. Last summer, a seamless
renovation and modern steel-stone-wood-and-glass expansion by San Francisco’s SB
architects brought the 130-year-old enterprise
into the 21st century, with a vast courtyard
and interiors by BraytonHughes Design Studios for chefs Sang Yoon and Douglas Keane’s
California-style yakitori restaurant Two Birds/
One Stone. freemarkabbey.com
THE INTRIGUINGLY SIMPLE paper-and-mag-
net folding Dymaxion Globe by Brendan
Ravenhill shows geodesic dome inventor Buck-
minster Fuller’s 1946 map of Earth as eventually
redrawn by cartographer-architect Shoji Sadao
in 1954. Fuller and Sadao’s version depicts the
continents without visibly distorting their rela-
tive sizes and shapes, but Ravenhill’s unfolding
model echoes a centuries-old fallacy: that the
earth is flat. $15 each, or $40 for all three col-
ors, black, orange and blue. areaware.com BROOKLYN-BASED UHURU, a design
firm founded by college friends Bill Hilgen-
dorf and Jason Horvath that has created
interiors for Facebook, Google, Dropbox and
Tumblr, now has a foothold at the New Black
in San Francisco. “At school I worked with
metal and Bill with wood,” Horvath says. So,
wood-and-steel furniture largely comprises
their bespoke repertoire. Tack, a relatively
new series inspired by the minimalist forms
of Donald Judd and Tadao Ando featuring
welded planes of blackened quarter-inch-
thick steel, includes an ovoid stool that dou-
bles as an end table. $2,000. thenwblk.com
IF MODERN ART is not merely an aesthetic
but also a frame of mind, then the exhibition
The Brothers Le Nain: Painters of 17th-Century
France, at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor
museum through January 29, is an indication
of modernity well before its generally accepted
time. Not unlike Andy Warhol’s studio the
Factory, where works mass-produced by many
assistants all bore just Warhol’s signature, the
three Le Nain brothers jointly produced a vast
repertoire of religious and portrait paintings at
one studio and signed every piece with just the
name Le Nain. The luminous oils broke new
ground with graphic compositions and depictions of peasants versus nobles. famsf.org
