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Frank’s iconic photo book exposed the racism, loneliness and consumer culture lurking behind the American dream. It still resonates today
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The newly completed Steel Veil residence by architecture studio YOUSUPOVA in Ukraine exemplifies modern minimalism with a bold industrial aesthetic. Clad in slate and rusted steel, the house features clean lines and open spaces, with large glass panels that bring in natural light and provide sweeping views of the outdoors. The design prioritizes functionality over decoration, staying true to modern architectural trends. By using straightforward shapes and high-quality materials, the home achieves a sharp, graphic presence that complements its environment.
The landscape design enhances the building’s simplicity. Instead of adding terraces or extra structures, the architects emphasized the home’s bold design. Minimalist vegetation and subtle lighting were carefully chosen to accentuate the facade without distracting from its clean lines. ‘When I imagined this house, I envisioned something I would want to live in myself. This design felt perfect for me at the time,’ said the architect, reflecting on the project’s inspiration.
images © YOUSUPOVA
The combination of slate and rusted metal by the architects at YOUSUPOVA gives the Steel Veil house its distinctive look. These materials highlight the minimalist design while creating an urban feel that looks forward to the future. Panoramic glass ceilings are a standout feature of the home. They brighten the interiors by increasing natural light and serve as a clean and bold visual element from the outside. This contrast between glass, stone, and metal adds depth and texture to the building’s design. Meanwhile, an outdoor courtyard complements the structure. Minimalist landscaping ensures the house remains the focal point, while pathway lighting subtly guides visitors to the entrance without overwhelming the view.
Inside, the Steel Veil balances openness and privacy. The ground floor features an open-plan kitchen-living room, which can also double as a home office. This flexibility makes the space ideal for both work and relaxation. The second floor is dedicated to bedrooms, creating a private retreat away from the more social areas below. Outdoors, the courtyard includes a swimming pool and a gazebo with a guest room, offering additional comfort and convenience.
the Steel Veil by YOUSUPOVA is a minimalist home in Ukraine
the house features slate and rusted metal cladding for an industrial language
large glass panels bring natural light and connect the interior with the outdoors
the design prioritizes functionality with clean lines and no unnecessary ornamentation
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The design also draws from the work of Secession architects such as Adolf Loos and Josef Hoffmann, with an angular ‘Sketch’ Lamp illuminating the skirted waiter station while simple bistro tables in steel and wood paired by saddle leather and wood chairs, all by Tutto Bene, create an inviting, laid-back atmosphere. The angular geometry of the furnishings is softened by the curvaceous lines of a monolithic stainless-steel bar that shifts the space from a relaxed coffeehouse to an aperitivo bar as day turns to night, further emphasised by the circular forms of the Studio’s ‘Oblo’ wall lights that are dotted throughout the space.
Tutto Bene’s thoughtful integration of deep green cement flooring flows effortlessly from inside to the lush courtyard, evoking Milan’s hidden gardens and offering calm, reflective moments in the heart of busy Mayfair. Restrained yet impactful, it is gestures such as these that make the Nightingale’s classic, future-forward interior feel so timeless and transformative—in a concept space that invites guests to linger, connect, and escape against the otherwise noisy city’s hustle and bustle.
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For those whose love language is gift giving, this is your time to shine – especially if you like to splurge. Personally, nothing brings me more joy than sharing great makers and artful objects while supporting the artisans behind their creation. From a dearly beloved to cherished friend, or perhaps even a treat for yourself, this fine curation of design objects are sure to satisfy the most fussy aesthete. Continue reading to find potential presents that can be appreciated all year round… and snag something for yourself!
Ordered à la carte or purchased as a pairing, this crystal drinkware is made to dazzle any tabletop with its gem faceted element. Both options are members of the Chelsea family, with the bottle stopper cut to correspond with the form featured on the glasses’ base. The fine hand cut crystal comes in a commemorative, luxury gift box with its own dust cloth for cleaning and polishing.
This luminaire’s harsh geometry is tempered by its warm glow showcasing Brutalism’s softer side through three color combinations – one more ethereal than the next. Its body and shade are 3D printed from recycled PLA with the appearance of extruded planes to create a textural form. What’s more, the composition is a slight nod to Italian architect Carlo Scarpa’s influential work in concrete and extreme attention to detail.
Prada’s portable cutlery set highlights another extension of the Italian fashion house into lifestyle accessories, one that is sure to satisfy the fashion forward and sustainable-minded. The trio of utensils is stored in a container that comes in a Re-Nylon dust bag pouch – an innovative material produced from purified, recycled ocean plastic – accentuated with an enameled logo. This is just one of many enviable picnic accouterments.
The flirty, free-flowing curves painted across this versatile vessel’s surface are emblematic of beauty and grace. From utensil organization to showcasing floral arrangements, this artistic object comes in four sizes to accommodate a variety of interior design needs. Display the slightly sculptural work on its own to fill a nook, within a cluster of similar pieces for a greater tablescape, or in contrast with darker forms to pull focus.
Textural wood grain, the striking black finish, and a series of bulbous forms conspire to capture nature’s raw beauty in the Sam Baron-designed baluster for Diptyque. This l’objet d’art serves to elevate everything from decorative jars, an intimate interior ambiance, and self care rituals enhanced by candlelight. And with a variety of sizes, there’s plenty to choose from for expanded gifting.
In an homage to the classic boombox, the SongBook Max fuses style with sound, nostalgia with premium technology. The device also delivers impressive volume, well-balanced frequencies, and substantial bass. Equipped with analog elements, users can derive great pleasure from tactility turning knobs and pushing sliders for a traditional sense of control. It’s a portable companion poised to play your favorite tunes almost anywhere.
Lobmeyr is situated within the upper echelon of crystal makers, centuries old and synonymous with handcraft, epitomizing luxury. This collection by Austrian architect Oswald Haerdtl is a prime example of enduring modern design – plucked from the 1950s. The Commodore Decanter pulls focus with its clean lines, perfect clarity, and sexy silhouette. It’s the ideal gift for fans of architecturally adjacent home furnishings as well as crystal collectors.
East Fork taps Florida-based glass art studio DOT for a colorful collaboration that is a saccharine treat. The makers behind this handcrafted serving spoon pairing fused glass with contrasting finishes, matte against glossy, and play with cool colors that add a graphic element to tabletops when in use. It’s perfect for those who like to entertain or even just elevate their everyday dining experience.
Like canvas, textiles provide a rich medium for artistic expression. This throw blanket takes inspiration from the bold, graphic designs of French artist Sonia Delaunay and translates those elements into a geometric color-blocked pattern. The double-knit construction, comprising 75% upcycled cotton as well as 5% recycled plastics, gives this piece a substantial weight in addition to a new life for discarded materials. Coordinating throw pillow covers provide additional opportunities for decor.
These colorful rondelles are show stopping, luminous sculptural statement pieces not for the faint of heart. Available in a dozen shades, each object is mounted within a linear pedestal – height may be customized according to needs – in celebration of pure geometry, flawless glass, and vivid hues. Every component, the stand and disc, are completely fabricated by hand for an inimitable work of art.
Follow along so you don’t miss any of our 2024 Gift Guides this year!
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When I was 18, I came into an inheritance from my father. I used it to buy a Pentax K1000. I knew nothing about photography, but a close friend had recently purchased a 35mm camera. I loved the way it felt in my hand.
I grew up in the Bronx, my parents were Puerto Rican. After my father died when I was five, my mom and I moved to a small apartment in South Bronx so she could be near her sister. I grew up in the centre of a vibrant community. In the summertime, everybody was out on the streets. The pumps would be open, there’d be games of dominoes, men would be playing congas. Every bodega was owned by Puerto Ricans – walking down the block I’d hear everybody speaking Spanish, like my parents always had.
Around 1968 or 69, strange stuff started happening. Buildings were slowly being abandoned. Landlords were cutting services such as electricity to force out their tenants, and there were lots of fires – insurance paid better than rent. By the time I bought my camera in 1979, the fire years were coming to an end but the Bronx had become the poster child for poverty in the United States – even though the community remained strong and other parts of the city were also in decline.
The first thing I pointed my camera at was all my friends, the people I was getting high and goofing around with. They mocked me at first - they’d call me “Jimmy Olsen” – but eventually they forgot what I was doing and I progressed as a photographer because of them. Later, Mel Rosenthal would teach me to put them in the context of the environment we were in. History was happening to us, so I was capturing the insider’s view.
These are my boys Carlos and Boogie on the 6 Train. Carlos was my very first friend in the apartment building where I lived as a boy. People often considered us brothers. We had many adventures exploring the streets and running across rooftops, and we used to play with toy soldiers.
By the time this was taken, in 1984, Carlos tended toward depression. He had just come out of the army and something about that experience kind of broke him. It was never clear exactly what had happened, but it was palpable – that’s a fairly typical expression on his face. It was the start of his descent into drug use: he got addicted to heroin and died after overdosing. Growing up, we’d both hated addicts and didn’t want anything to do with that scene. It scared us. So how Carlos ended his life was very painful.
Meanwhile, Boogie’s just being Boogie. He was the comedian of the group. He also joined the army, but when he came back he was still Boogie. We were going down to 42nd Street, to see a movie double-feature or something. I used to always have my camera, so when Boogie started twirling around that bar I shot four or five frames.
That’s typical of how subway trains looked back then, they were always heavily tagged. It got to the point where it was an exercise in futility for the transit authority to try to clean them. They’d paint over the graffiti and people would come on and say, “Oh look, a fresh surface!” and just start tagging again. I never was into graffiti but graff heads recognise a lot of the tags in my photos. One of the most prominent ones is Zephyr. You can see his name here, right above Boogie. Zephyr developed a name for himself and he has since exhibited all over the world.
A lot of my earliest work has been lost over the years – including colour stuff, which I couldn’t afford to do much of back then. But some of the collection survived and I’ve put together a book documenting those times. A couple of the friends who appear in it got pretty emotional seeing those pictures again. I sent Boogie a copy and he found the package on his porch after getting home in the early hours after a really bad night at work. He popped it open and got so excited going through it that he went and woke up his wife.
Born: New York, 1961
Trained: “Self-taught at first, then formally at Empire State College”
Influences: “Many photographers who specialised in documentary and photojournalism, including Danny Lyon, Mel Rosenthal, Susan Meiselas, Jack Delano, and Hiram Maristany.”
High point: “Releasing my early body of work in book form. It was a deeply reflective process that allowed me to look at that early body of work from the backend of a 40-plus-year career in photojournalism.”
Low point: “The systematic dismantling and destruction of local news media in the US and around the world. The impact of that loss is incalculable, and its effects are being felt in the age of disinformation.”
Top tip: “Whether you know it or not you are living in history, and the world is changing dramatically even if you not perceiving it. If you are a photojournalist, it is your responsibility to document it as you see it, maintaining the highest level of ethical standards, and not manipulate the events you are witnessing. That is what will differentiate you and the billions of cellphone photographers out there - your integrity”
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Crop artists create painstaking mosaics and portraits that can take hundreds of hours of work. And there’s no bigger showcase for them than the Minnesota State Fair.
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FriendsWithYou, the art collaboration of Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III, plants five moving and autonomous fuzzy robots inside the Cleveland Public Library. They’re called The BAND, and they’re programmed with AI and to interact with the visitors and vice versa. They play healing frequencies and sounds as they rotate, spin, and ‘dance.’ Visitors are free to touch them, and they even have buttons around their fuzzy bodies that can be pressed.
Each member of the BAND, which stands for Biodigital Autonomous Neuro Dancers, has individual names stemming from numerology and frequencies (ROC, ETZ, LIX, PMJ, and FUR). As they move around Cleveland Public Library’s hall, they perform their ballet, a personalized program by FriendsWithYou, to the symphony of sounds by the artists’s long-time collaborator, Norman Bambi. The public art is on view in the library’s hall beginning October 26th, 2024.
first three photos by Catherine Young, while the rest is by Patrick Fenner, both courtesy of FriendsWith You
FriendsWithYou’s five fuzzy autonomous robots have five vibrant hair colors: yellow, blue, purple, pink, and green. They light up inside the Cleveland Public Library hall because the circular buttons around their bodies are switched on as they move around their space. They are soft to touch, and they seem to have their own thinking as they avoid ramming through people; they instead stop and rotate while playing ambient-like sounds that are connected with healing frequencies. During its opening on October 26th, families came to the library to experience petting the five fuzzy robots’ furry bodies and listen to the sound beats reverberating in the hall.
FriendsWithYou has their fuzzy robots playing healing frequencies because they want the public to have a joyful connection and experience with AI. For the duo Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III, the evolving technology can be a catalyst for deep human and digital relationships, away from how some internet users paint it as takeover machines. With The BAND, the duo hopes to showcase a more positive use of AI and advanced technologies, that is, to provide and co-create communal experiences with the public. The BAND is on view for one year in the Main Library in Brett Hall at the Cleveland Public Library, produced in collaboration with LAND Studio and Deeplocal.
FriendsWithYou plants five moving and autonomous fuzzy robots inside the Cleveland Public Library
FriendsWithYou names their five autonomous robots in Cleveland Public Library ‘The BAND’
these autonomous robots in Cleveland Public Library plays healing frequencies
FriendsWithYou hopes that their autonomous robots can help visitors connect more with AI
view of FriendsWithYou’s autonomous robots inside Cleveland Public Library
opening day of the exhibition
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Aiming to redefine the experience of art and design by breaking away from traditional trade fair conventions, THEMA Fair dynamically entered the Parisian art and design scene last year with an immersive show at the 17th-century Hôtel de Guise in Paris’s 7th arrondissement. THEMA’s second edition, held from October 15 to 20 in the same hôtel particulier, continued the ethos established in its first iteration, showcasing artists, designers, and artisans from various disciplines through a carefully curated journey that blur the boundaries between traditional and contemporary artistry. Unfolding across the building’s myriad of rooms and its courtyard, with emerging talents standing alongside established names, the experience felt more like visiting a salon or private residence than a design fair.
Central to THEMA’s ethos is the concept of a fair as a place of exchange and dialogue. Describing the event, THEMA’s founder Michael Hadida states: "With THEMA, our ambition is to rehabilitate the original idea of the salon as a space for exchange and expression." The fair's design fully embodies this vision, eliminating traditional booths and rigid divisions in favour of an immersive and integrated experience, part of THEMA's objective to connect artists and art lovers in a setting that encourages discovery and interaction, making each piece feel like a natural extension of its surroundings.
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Founded by Lisa Donohoe and Brynn Gelbard, Londubh Studio is known for transforming surfaces into intricate canvases that grace residential, commercial, and hospitality spaces, merging traditional decorative techniques with bold, unapologetic artistry. With meticulous attention to detail, they create everything from large-scale murals to furniture using materials like gold leaf, decorative plasters, and metals. Their philosophy centers on pushing artistic boundaries while crafting dynamic, personalized designs. On this episode of Clever with host Amy Devers, Donohoe and Gelbard share the creative origins of Londubh Studio, their maximalist approach, and how they navigate the balance between artistic risk and client collaboration.
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Donohoe and Gelbard met and fell in love in the queer underbelly scene of San Francisco in 2002, a time before bi-national same-sex marriage was legal. Their diverse community was built on love, curiosity, and celebrating each other’s differences. In an evolution that was equal parts organic maturity and cosmic intervention, Donohoe and Gelbard moved to Los Angeles and founded Londubh Studio, specializing in elaborate and maximalist hand-applied surface designs. Now the duo, often considered the design world’s secret weapon, are translating their wildness, love, magic, and the sacred, through exquisite artistry and pristine craft, into visual celebrations that vibrate with love and emanate joy.
Listen and subscribe to Clever on any app.
Working on the Golden Globes elevator lounge
‘Love’ mural for Tom’ Shoes headquarters
‘Disco Biscuit’ mural at ROW DTLA
Ceiling design for Nicole Hollis, using acrylic and black light-activated paint, 22 and 23kt gold leaf, and textured plaster
5 story ‘We are the hearts’ mural, symbolizing love as the building block of all things, in Hollywood
Hand-painted ceiling medallion for Nicole Hollis
Door details for Nicole Hollis
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In 1865, the French photographer Augusto Stahl made images of a naked Black woman in Rio de Janeiro. They show the unidentified woman – Stahl didn’t bother to record her name – facing the camera, in profile, and from behind, in a sequence that inevitably recalls police mugshots.
Stahl was working for the Swiss-American biologist Louis Agassiz, a professor of natural history at Harvard University, who had commissioned photos of “pure” Black people to support his racist theories, such as the idea that miscegenation would lead to inferior human beings.
“The images affected me deeply, but I didn’t know what to do with them,” said the Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino, 57, who recalls first encountering them while reading a book in 2011. “I took a photo of the page and put it in a drawer.”
About a year and a half later, she transformed it into a work of art, Assentamento, named after the altars of Afro-Brasilian religions. The photographs, printed life-size on fabric, are adorned with embroidery of a heart, a foetus and roots. Each one is then cut into four parts and “sutured” together – with some misalignment, to represent the psychic and physical scars borne by generations of black Brazilians. Each picture is flanked by two mounds of paper clay arms piled up like firewood to symbolize the way Black bodies were consumed as fuel for Brazil’s economic growth.
This year, Assentamento was one of the main attractions of the first solo exhibition by a Black female artist held at the Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art (Malba), which was visited by 72,000 people between March and June.
“What struck me was the strength of that woman,” said Paulino. “If these photographs were taken to showcase a false inferiority of those people, I want to demonstrate that, despite being kidnapped and thrown into the hold of a ship, those individuals survived and still managed to build a nation.”
In recent years, Paulino – one of Brazil’s most prominent visual artists – has exhibited her work in museums across Germany, the US and Italy. In November, she will unveil a 9-metre-tall mural at New York’s High Line, and Tate Modern has confirmed that it is acquiring one of her pieces.
On Thursday, Paulino will receive the inaugural award for artistic freedom granted by the Munch Museum in Oslo. Announcing its decision, the jury stated: “Rosana Paulino has contributed to some of the most important conversations about art, history, and society in Brazil and beyond,” adding that the artist “has been a leading voice in black feminism, with a steadfast commitment to the struggle of afro-Brazilian communities and the ongoing fight against racism”.
The techniques she has used throughout her 30-year career include embroidery, collage, painting and sculpture. But the central theme is often the same: “I want to bring to the table the issue of what it means to be a Black woman in a racist country like Brazil,” she said.
This is precisely what makes Paulino’s work “universal”, according to Andrea Giunta, co-curator (along with Igor Simões) of her exhibition at Malba.
“Slavery was not just a problem for Brazil, but for the Americas,” said Giunta, an arts professor at the University of Buenos Aires. “Europe is also deeply involved in Paulino’s reflections, which are universal in a geographical sense and in terms of social justice.”
For Paulino, the pain caused by the diaspora of Africans “is present in Latin America, in the US and here in Europe with immigrants”, she said from a hotel in Oslo, waiting for the award ceremony. “And this is making my work reach audiences I never expected.”
Born and raised in a working-class neighbourhood in São Paulo, Paulino first discovered “Black art” in her teenage years at a samba school parade during Carnival. “The theme of that Mocidade Alegre’s parade was about Brazilian artists, the few that were acknowledged at the time,” she said.
With a talent for drawing she’d had since childhood, she decided to pursue a degree in art at university.
In 2011, Paulino became the first black Brazilian woman to obtain a PhD in visual arts. “To have an academic validation was a strategy I devised so that my voice could be heard … Brazilian art has always been very white and elitist, which, with few exceptions, has made the work of Black artists invisible,” she said.
In recent years, representation has improved, but she emphasises that no one opened doors out of “kindness”: “Brazilian institutions were forced to act because they were experiencing international embarrassment, with an entirely white and Eurocentric market that ignored its own country,” she said.
For the Brazilian curator Janaína Damaceno, “one of the great qualities of Paulino’s work is that she’s an incredible researcher”.
The artist intends to use most of the cash prize from the Munch Award – (£20,000) – to establish the Rosana Paulino Institute, which will be built in a working-class neighbourhood of São Paulo. The institute will serve as an image library and study centre documenting representations of Black people.
This year, Paulino will stop teaching as an art professor and dedicate herself entirely to her art. “I want to spend time in my studio, producing, researching and experimenting with new materials or new ways of using materials.
“I want to be able not to have to be political all the time, not to devise so many strategies all the time … We don’t see this same kind of pressure on white artists,” she said.
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The Design Museum in London hosts The World of Tim Burton, a comprehensive retrospective on the director’s 50 years of creative outputs, including hundreds of his artworks and several of his set costumes, designs, and props. Some of his personal archives are also on view in the UK for the first time, and the exhibition sums up 600 items detailing Tim Burton’s expansive repertoire. Recognizable characters and their associated objects grace the show, including Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman costume from 1992’s Batman 2 Returns and the black and white striped dress from 1999’s Sleepy Hollow, worn by Christina Ricci.
The World of Tim Burton – which opens on October 25th, 2024 and ends on April 21st, 2025 – also showcases over 18 of his movies to celebrate his creative processes, including Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). The traveling exhibition arrives in London after a decade-long world tour, visiting 14 cities and 11 countries since 2014. The London show is special to Tim Burton because it’s the first time he brings the show to the city, and it’s also the very last time that the exhibition is staged. Since London is the final stop, The World of Tim Burton is physically reimagined, especially for the Design Museum.
portrait of Tim Burton | all exhibition images by Matt Crossick, courtesy of the Design Museum
The World of Tim Burton is a chance for the visitors of the Design Museum in London to get to know the director and how he thinks and creates his productions. It’s rightful then that when they enter the space, they learn about his studies at college and his stint working as an apprentice animator at Disney. Slowly, they may get acquainted with his signature stop-motion animation, a recurring approach to some of his movies, once they step inside the ‘Crafting Imagination’ space of the exhibition. It’s an art and design convention for the director, especially when visitors explore the designs of the 13 key feature films in ‘Building Worlds’, including the TV series, Wednesday.
Hundreds of artworks come forth in the other room to inform the visitors how much of a visual storyteller and artist Tim Burton is. Sketches here and there, at times just drafts, are laid down and encased in glass or hung on walls, as if the Design Museum in London becomes a work studio itself. While Tim Burton is mainly known to be a director, he’s done several other works out of his field, including publishing books and working on music videos. They’re documented in the ‘Beyond Film’ room in the exhibition, which also displays and narrates the designers who have been inspired by the Burton flair, such as the photographer Tim Walker.
the Design Museum in London hosts The World of Tim Burton
It’s not a Tim Burton exhibition without physical staging inspired by his style, and at the Design Museum, it occurs just that. Specific landscapes that recall the director’s cinematography are present, from the suburbs to angular corridors and film soundstages. As the visitors walk through them, they listen to the custom soundscape created especially for the Design Museum by sound designer Tomi Rose. While the majority of the exhibition demonstrates the long-term collaborations of Tim Burton with designers working across costume, set, and production design, parts of the show inject some of his earliest unrealized projects as a form of looking back to his roots.
They all fall under the umbrella of the 600 items present at the Design Museum, which includes loaned objects from Tim Burton’s very own personal archives and a few key film studios, including Paramount, Amazon MGM Studios, and Warner Bros. This is the last time visitors can see hundreds of Tim Burton’s sketches, drawings, and works that he has created since childhood. ‘It’s a strange thing, to put 50 years of art and your life on view for everyone to see, especially when that was never the original purpose. In the past, I have resisted having the exhibition in London; however, collaborating with the Design Museum for this final stop was the right choice,’ says the director. The World of Tim Burton is on view at the Design Museum in London between October 25th, 2024 and April 21st, 2024.
it’s the first time that the director brings the traveling show to London
the World of Tim Burton at the Design Museum is the final show and stop of the traveling exhibition
exhibition view of The World of Tim Burton inside the Design Museum in London
the exhibition sums up 600 items detailing Tim Burton’s expansive repertoire
the show is a comprehensive retrospective on the director’s 50 years of creative outputs
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