Meals are often communal and celebratory and are thus decidedly personal. “Table Manners,” now showing at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (through July 25), examines these rituals through tableware creations by talents like Virgil Abloh, Joe Colombo, and Zaha Hadid from the institution’s permanent collection. Dining as an expression of culture is amplified in pieces like Robert Lugo’s Lil Wayne and James Baldwin teapot, and local studio Soft Geometry’s Mirrors for Aliens, which is founders Utharaa Zacharias and Palaash Chaudhary’s personal meditation on identity. A recent acquisition and the largest work in the show, it transforms the stainless-steel thali, a traditional Indian dinner plate, into a gleaming, hand-polished mirror that encourages museumgoers to reflect.
AD PRO Hears…
…Through April 13, Salon Art + Design is taking over Bergdorf Goodman’s iconic seventh floor with an exhibition presented in hopes of making collectible design more accessible to a wider audience. It features picks from galleries participating in their annual art fair, like Onishi Gallery, Verso, and Room 57 Gallery.
… Pembroke Lodge, one of the oldest estates on Illinois’s famed Green Bay Road, will host 2025’s Lake Forest Showhouse & Gardens. From April 26 through May 25, see the dwelling’s interiors and landscape reimagined by 38 designers, including Directory members Amy Kartheiser, Randy Heller, Emily Sturgess, Rebel House, Robbins Architecture, and Studio W.
Project
In Monaco, Hugo Toro designs a British-inspired royal restaurant
Visitors to Mareterra, Monaco’s recently unveiled luxury eco-district, can now dine on lobster rolls and beef Wellington for two at Marlow. Inaugurated last month by Prince Albert II, the dreamy British restaurant is part of the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer portfolio. It’s also the handiwork of Paris-based AD100 architect and designer Hugo Toro, who melded expanses of lustrous wood with pink and green marble, Murano glass, and fluted columns to evoke an elevated 19th-century air. Feasts, unfurled in curving banquettes heightened by decorative panels and bespoke chandeliers, are followed by nightcaps at the cast-iron-accented bar.
AD PRO Hears…
…Danish furniture brand BoConcept has announced its very first global artistic director. Who better to usher in their new creative era than style icon, artist, model, and fellow Dane Helena Christensen?
…Debuting at Paris Design Week, Japanese ceramicist Yuki Nara collaborated with Poltrona Frau to display a series of vases on leather-and-wood pedestals. The vessels look like flowers in bloom in this perfect pairing of Japanese and Italian craftsmanship.
…This weekend, AD contributors Rachel Davies and Samantha Klein kicked off NYtoLA, a Brooklyn-based fundraiser fair and online silent auction raising direct aid for those impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles County. Don’t worry, you’ve still got till February 12 to bid online for goods from Dôen, Starface, Catbird NYC, and more.
Product
Alluring simplicity defines Nordic Knots’ Modernist Collection
The pared-back Swedish Functionalism movement, colloquially dubbed as funkis, took root in the 1930s. As an homage to this 20-year period of elegant minimalism, Nordic Knots has launched The Modernist Collection, featuring five rug styles that emphasize crisp architectural lines in neutral and vivid hues alike. The Andreas Martin-Löf–designed AML 01 features a graphic pattern that references Stockholm boulevard’s motley façades—they first appeared in the architect’s Norr Mälarstrand collection for the company. Also in the collection: the asymmetric Grid; the industrial-inspired Modern; and the textured Lux-2, which is distinguished by subtle pile height variations. The Pavilion rug takes cues from earthy Japanese tatami mats.
AD PRO Hears…
…KitchenAid unveils its 2025 Color of the Year and affirms our trendspotting predictions: Butter, a soft, energizing yellow, invokes every baker’s favorite ingredient.
…Dedar is getting outdoorsy. The textile giant has successfully acquired Filippo Uecher Srl, the company behind the acclaimed performance fabric brand, Mariaflora.
…Finnish textile darling Marimekko has expanded its ongoing partnership with Scalamandré. The luxury interiors resource now offers Marimekko’s bubbly, buoyant printed fabrics as well as wall coverings both in stores and online.
