An Evening with Xavier Veilhan's new exhibition "Architectones"


"I am feeling very warm right now 
Please don't disappear
I am spacing out with you..
Well it's very hard for me to say these things in your presence 
So how does it make you feel? " (here)

all photos by David John

Last night, Xavier Veilhan kindly showed us his latest works from the "Architectones" series that are currently installed at the Sheats-Goldstein Residence. (Read about his preview work at Neutra's VDL here).  I arrived early, shuttling up the hill, walking solo down the dense jungle driveway, passing the sci-fi mailbox to the home.  The night was strangely gray and cold. On my last visit to this home, I spent hours inside the James Turrell skypsace, watching the colors drip from the warm enveloping LA sky as if I was in a melting hologram. (Thank you Duncan!)  

But tonight, we were here for Xavier Veilhan.

Two of Veilhan's works are based on photographs that were taken during construction of the home.  He has brought memories of the home to life in a bronze table work (complete with a dog) and a green-painted aluminum sculpture that casually rests, staring into the vastness of a mesmerizing and confusing city that many of us call home, Los Angeles. Many of the works are based on the form of the triangle, an ode to Lautner.

A City of the Future: Though Veilhan's works appear to gaze into history's eyes and its famous dweller, James Goldstein,  they also appear to be presenting a gift to the home, and to us onlookers.  Over the pool, white cords are carefully stretching, creating a new triangular form, a further nod to Lautner.  As I left the installation, driving down into manic Beverly Hills, I thought to myself about the positive energy this home has created over the years, drawing "light" visionaries, fueled poets, rocking musicians, and even supermodels to visit and celebrate.

Veilhan's work are unexpectedly sentimental when you are in their presence, and when you take the time to stand next to them on the edge with the doors opens, the air still, gazing into the grey night speckled with city lights.  You can almost feel John Lautner over your shoulder, whispering about the city below, all that is to become.  

And you believe. And you feel. And you even know. - David John

"Don't be light.
Fabricating a new abandon 
We don't see the master' hand 
We bang on gold tamourines "

Xavier Veilhan explaining his latest audio work with Nicolas Godin, of AIR, framed.

If you have a look 
Outside on the sea 

Everything is white 
It's so wonderful
Universal traveler 

thank you:
Galerie Perrotin, Xavier Veilhan, Francois Perrin for kindly inviting me to join in.

all lyrics used in this article by AIR.

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Zachary Leener  vs  Josef Frank
"when the modernist yearns for color"
aka
"a response to the light"
"He told me that he liked the idea of things living on the sun, assuming that it is of course a sunny, but also joyful place. But everyone, including Zach, knows that it’s super hot up there and totally unlivable and this is where the paradox that’s close to this body of work resides."  - Tif, on Zach's work

"Initially, Josef Frank’s work in Sweden was very similar to earlier Viennese designs. But within a year or two his work became more colourful and more varied. His interest in an even brighter color palette was probably the result of the influence of Swedish folk art, but it was also undoubtedly a reaction to the dark Swedish winters. Frank hoped a lighter look would help counteract the bleak winter days. His work also became more eclectic, a result of working with Estrid Ericson, the owner of Svenskt Tenn, who pushed him to explore new design possibilities. " - taken from here

"Since I have a lot of different interests, high and low, I try to exploit that. A sculpture that reads as potentially crude can coexist with one that's more sweet, or fragile. - Zachary Leener


1. Zachary Leener's latest work @ Tif's Desk till April 27. Run- Skip-Hop!  A couple weeks ago I attended the opening of Zachary's latest works in clay: hand-built forms, awkward textural complexities.  His recent Dr. Seussian sculptural pursuits are taking pride in their ability to grow and activate the space & air.  Bold color-seeking modern California forms feeling nostalgic of utopian 60's craft and "of the sun."  Some call it noodling, others call it doodling.  Tif's Desk is in the back of Thomas Solomon Gallery, and it is actually the desk of Tif.  Ask her for a tour, and some conversation. The above work is from the flat files.

Read a past conversation here with Zachary Leener.


2. A Josef Frank Cabinet.- "Heartbreakingly beautiful modernism"
"Throughout his career as a designer, Josef Frank sought to forge a modernism that was responsive to people’s needs, both physical and psychological. His furniture was comfortable—he typically used soft, upholstered seating, rounded edges, and pieces that allowed their users to relax. He rejected the then common practice of employing tubular steel, which Frank thought was cold to the touch and unyielding. But his designs also sought to respond to our need for the familiar. He did not reject older, historical forms. Like Loos, he believed that many things and ideas from the past still had validity. And he often relied on color and pattern to make his rooms and individual pieces appealing." (taken from here)

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Upcoming : Design 
@Phillips, April 25th, 2013

Gino Sarfatti

"Pair of rare and early table lamps" circa 1938-1941 
 Brass, tubular brass, painted tubular metal. 
 Manufactured by Arteluce, Italy 

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 Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A.
Venice Eclectic: Modern Architecture from the 1970s and '80s

"an open-minded community made Venice of the 1970s and ’80s the right place and time for experimental young architects to cut their teeth on new designs using unorthodox materials in limited spaces." 

photo credit Larry Underhill

The Los Angeles Conservancy is pleased to present Venice Eclectic: Modern Architecture from the 1970s and '80s on April 20, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. This one-day-only architectural tour and architects’ panel discussion will explore how affordable land, a culture of creativity, and an open-minded community made Venice of the 1970s and ’80s the right place and time for experimental young architects to cut their teeth on new designs using unorthodox materials in limited spaces. The result is an impressive collection of surprising, whimsical, and innovative modern structures by architectural greats such as Steven Ehrlich, Frederick Fisher, Frank Gehry, Frank Israel, and many others. The tour is part of Curating the City: Modern Architecture in L.A., a series the Los Angeles Conservancy is producing as part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A.

Venice Eclectic is one of several tours featured in the L.A. Conservancy’s Curating the City: Modern Architecture in L.A. series (April 20-July 27, 2013), part of Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A. This collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together several local arts institutions for a wide-ranging look at the postwar built environment of the city as a whole, from its famous residential architecture to its vast freeway network, revealing the city’s development and ongoing impact in new ways.  

more info about the tour here.. 

The Los Angeles Conservancy is a member-based nonprofit that works through advocacy and education to recognize, preserve, and revitalize the historic architectural and cultural resources of Los Angeles County. Formed in 1978 as part of the community-based effort to prevent demolition of the Los Angeles Central Library, the Conservancy now has nearly 6,500 members and hundreds of volunteers, making it the largest local preservation organization in the U.S. For more information, visit laconservancy.org.

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"how winter kills"

An Otto Schulz stained birch and mahogany 
cabinet, by Boet, Sweden 1930's. 

"Green in your love on bright days 
You grew sunblind you thought me unkind 
To remind you how winter kills 
Lost in daydreams you drove too fast and got nowhere 
You rode on half fare when you got too scared 
How winter kills"

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Xavier Veilhan 
returns to Los Angeles
for the third installment of Architectones

Xavier Veilhan "Architectones" 
Sheats-Goldstein Residence, 
Los Angeles 25-26 April 2013  

August 2012, I spent a sweltering afternoon at Neutra's VDL while Xavier Veilhan gave a tour of his recent sculptures that were the second installment of Architectones celebrating modernity. (See images and more text here) I'm very much looking forward to this third installment, contemporary art in dialogue with the spirit of architecture, in collaboration with curator Francois Perrin and Galerie Perrotin.   - David John

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"The Sheats-Goldstein Residence will host Xavier Veilhan’s third installment in his Architectones project in Los Angeles. The artist will create a new body of work specific to the modernist house designed and built by architect John Lautner in 1963, one of LA’s masterpieces of residential architecture. The show will consist of a site-specific installation, sculptures, models and a soundtrack.  Xavier Veilhan recalls, “when I first visited the house three years ago, the spectacular and modern beauty of the architecture struck me instantly. Like a modern version of a cave, the house interacts perfectly with the surrounding nature, anticipating the dialogue that contemporary architecture established later with environmental issues.”  

A site-specific installation of one of the artist’s “Rays” structures — compositions created by stretching cords in space — will be created around the swimming pool. The rays descend from the air into the water as a metaphor for the continuity between indoor and outdoor proposed by modern architecture. A sculpture of the architect of the house, John Lautner, will be placed in the dramatic overhang in the bedroom echoing a famous shot taken during the construction of the house. Other sculptures and models will refer to the house and its specific structure, such as its triangular roof beams, as well as to the new owner, James Goldstein, who has been living in the house for more than forty years. A new musical piece "Lautner's theme" has been composed especially for the house and Veilhan’s Architectones series by Nicolas Godin of the band AIR, perpetuating the relationship between music and architecture.  

Veilhan’s Architectones project in Los Angeles, curated by local architect Francois Perrin, is organized by Xavier Veilhan studio and Galerie Perrotin at Sheats-Goldstein Residence. Perrin notes, “this project participates in the long tradition of the interaction of artists with architecture and writes another chapter in this ongoing dialogue, as well as reactivating an important building in Los Angeles architectural history through the eye of a contemporary artist.”

Visitor Information
Private visits : Thursday 25th of April - 12pm, 2pm or 4pm
Friday 26th of April - 11am, 2pm or 4pm

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"Symmetry and geometry are the inspirations 
for this small capsule collection" - David Collins

Irish interior designer David Collins has teamed up with Italian furniture brand Promemoria on his first furniture line to date - albeit a capsule collection. Launching at the Salone del Mobile, the lamps, tables and chair take the brand in a decidedly pared-back direction. Forms are elegant and clean, while details are luxurious yet subtle, as in a slim panel of bronze gripping the centre of the side table.  'Symmetry and geometry are the inspirations for this small capsule collection,' says Collins, whose weighty design CV includes stores for Alexander McQueen, hotels such as The London NYC in New York and The Apartment at London's Connaught, as well as residential projects across the globe. 'The pieces articulate the strength in restrained and deceptively simple shapes.' Lamps bear triangular or hexagonal bases and shades, while the chair has an elongated wooden back that extends to the floor.

via wallpaper

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1940's oak coffee table
 by Jean Royère. 

1940's oak coffee table
 by Jean Royère. 

"Look what you've done, you gigolo 
Another hustle has been run, 
but now you ought to know 
That this fool can no longer be swayed 
By the tools of your trade, you gigolo"

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Indoor | Outdoor

"Mattia Bonetti, known for his limited edition works and unique commissions, has approached the distinction between art and design not as a barrier, but as a wellspring of creative dialogue." 

Mattia Bonetti, Indoor | Outdoor
10 April – 4 May, 2013
293 Tenth Avenue, New York

Paul Kasmin Gallery is pleased to present Indoor | Outdoor, an exhibition of new functional sculptures by Mattia Bonetti, on view from 10 April – 4 May,  2013 at 293 Tenth Avenue in New York. 

"The series epitomizes Bonetti’s unique vision, including an exciting debut of new outdoor furniture, a career first for the artist. Since the beginning of his pioneering practice in the 1970s, Bonetti, known for his limited edition works and unique commissions, has approached the distinction between art and design not as a barrier, but as a wellspring of creative dialogue. Inspired by the dynamic between indoors and out, these works swing both conceptually and formally between the organic and the geometric, playing in the space between the natural and the crafted. Blurring these familiar boundaries, the majority of the works have been designed to thrive both inside and outside. Bonetti’s forms also consciously reinvigorate classical and timeless silhouettes, suggesting cultural influences as diverse as Ancient Greece and imperial India. From the patterns of woven reeds translated in bronze, to shaped travertine filled with colored resin, to illuminated Madagascar rock crystal, to cast aluminum that bears the raised grain of hand-milled elm—these works tantalizingly combine and reimagine the world of design into a realm of dueling materials, forms, and evocations."

more here...

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Louise Nevelson:
The 70s March 22 - May 11, 2013

"I love to put things together. My whole life is one big collage. Every time I put on clothes, I am creating a picture, a living picture, for myself... I like clothes that are upholstered. I like that you build up your clothes…You can do it two-dimensionally, and every time I do it, when I go back to my work, I use that again.” - Louise Nevelson

L&M Arts is pleased to present Louise Nevelson: The 70s, an in depth look at a diverse and defining decade of work by the woman deemed the “Grande Dame of Contemporary Sculpture.” This extensive exhibition will include over thirty works described by the artist at the time of their making to be about the now, which have since matured over the past three decades to take on new and evolved relevancy. The first exhibition to focus solely on works from this era examines a culminating crest of her investigations into the relationship between elements, sculpture, and architecture to achieve her distinct material alchemy.

L&M Arts 660 South Venice Boulevard, Venice, CA 90291

Read a past YHBHS Entry: Sergei Jensen 2011 & Louise Nevelson 1969 "The Leftovers"

Photos by Joshua White/JW Pictures

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DISC Interiors featured on  CA Home + Design
"DISC Interiors believes homes should be, "filled with personality, warmth, and simply feel good." We couldn't have said it better ourselves and were thrilled to hear Krista and David's answers to our Designer Crush Q&A!"

We are thrilled that DISC Interiors was included in Designer Crush series. CA Home + Design Magazine is "a powerful voice, declaring what California design is today. Like the most celebrated interior designers, artists and architects, we have our own distinct creative vision that inspires, informs and influences. We believe that design is personal. Without the story of intention and the emotion of expression, design means nothing to us. To us, the people are what give the products meaning." 

Read the entire interview on CA Home + Design blog.


Designer Crush Q& A:  DISC Interiors was established in 2011, and is a full service interior and commercial design firm run by Krista Schrock and David John. Although their company is young by industry standards, Krista and David's understanding of the careful balance between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary materials is inspiring, as is their focus on texture. DISC works closely with artisans and furniture and textile designers to create these lush looks, and we think it really shows.

What's your dream design project? Who would it be for (dead or alive)?  

DISC Interiors: Our dream project would be to design a boutique hotel in Northern California, or the countryside in Japan, where we could invite our friends when it was completed. We both love traveling to new areas, and exploring the craft and design tradition of that area. We'd love to create a hotel where people travel to rest, relax, eat, and be surrounded in beauty. We are drawn to materials that feel good to touch and to look at, and also have a sense of history or story behind them.

more here....

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