Fanciful chefs and diners need not continue. Jon Liow’s Lean Dish is a minimal, function-focused design that feeatures two subtle ridges raised just high enough and spaced apart enough to support toasty slices of your choice. The concept was inspired by food running together, which not all eaters are into. Instead, the ridges prevent food from touching the other items on your plate. Nicely done.

More images after the jump.

Jose Parla opened a solo exhibit at OHWOW LA over the weekend.

Character Gestures is a solo reveal of José Parlá’s latest body of work. Comprised of paintings, mono-transfers and installations, this exhibition builds on the artist’s earlier work that dealt with the concept of psychogeography and depicted distressed architectural surfaces layered with calligraphic text. While he continues to broach the idea of how we experience urban landscapes and the visual language of mark making, the shift within Character Gestures stems from a deeper engagement with process and abstraction.

The notion of “character” is as much about text, integrity, and specific traits, as it is a literal nod to Parlá’s performance, wherein he assumes the role of hypothetical pedestrians who interact with marred city walls, as he creates the work. “Gesture,” encompasses the ideas of movement, communication, and demonstration, and is mutually respectful of the artist’s accidental and calculated actions when applying medium to surface.

With Parlá’s new paintings, as seen in No Return, Here Again, 2011, marks mix with textures, bright colors, and media, yet the process is as involved and significant as the visual outcome. In a collection of work on paper, which Parlá refers to as “mono-transfers,” he experiments with a form of frottage, documenting his new paintings via the impressions they leave on paper.

Character Gestures exemplifies Parlá’s deftness at technical execution; the complexity of layering, combined with erasure, still manages a translucent effect. His fluency in visual communication is mindful of the fact that any emotion or memory that attempts physicality can only serve, in reality, as an abbreviation of its original essence. He mitigates this condition through his poetic and individualized form of aesthetic dialogue, while navigating the art historic doctrine of Abstraction.

José Parlá
Character Gestures
September 9 – October 22, 2011
OHWOW
937 N. La Cienega / Los Angeles / CA / 90069

Photography by N. Joseph for Curated.

More looks after the jump.

New York, September 9, 2011 -Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld and Andy Valmorbida are proud to announce Richard Hambleton: A Retrospective, a survey of selected historical works from the legendary painter. Presented in collaboration with Giorgio Armani, the exhibition will be on show at Phillips de Pury & Company.

This exhibition will be the final installment of an international series curated by Roitfeld and Valmorbida in collaboration with Giorgio Armani, which has included solo shows in New York, Milan, Cannes, Moscow, and London. Richard Hambleton: A Retrospective will highlight 50 of Hambleton’s most influential works spanning from 1982 to the present, as well as twenty iconic images of the artist’s work chronicled by photographer Hank O’Neal. A new catalogue will accompany the exhibition, featuring an essay by Christian Viveros-Faune

More looks after the jump

Patrick Martinez just released a smaller, more affordable version of his signature neon art yesterday with Known Gallery’s online store. With only 20 pieces available, some have probably already ended up in virtual carts and wishlists. The 12″ x 18″ sign is signed by the artist and running for $475.

More images after the jump.

Illustrator Laura Bifano recently created an intriguing series of animals portrayed as amalgamated pixels. See more of the series after the jump.

Earlier this month, the San Diego Art Fair invited the Canadian based artists “En Masse” to create and onsite mural at the fair. The piece ended up being a collaboration between En Masse and a couple of local California based artists. Some of the contributing artists were Jason Botkin, Fred Caron, Kevin Ledo, and Kirsten McCrea, (of En Masse), along with Mike Maxwell and Kevin Peterson of San Diego.

More looks after the jump.

ZEVS is currently exhibiting his latest at Art Statements Tokyo. The installation goes through September 23, 2011.

Renaissance, ZEVS’ first solo exhibition in Tokyo, feature Leonardo Da Vinci anatomic drawings (Codex) sporting liquidated logos of fashion brands. A large painting showing Da Vinci’s The Vitruvian Man on a Milky Way background and surrounded by the painter’s LDV logo are displayed amongst the Codex

ART STATEMENTS TOKYO
3-2-12 Ebisuminami, Shibuya-ku,
Tokyo 150-0022
tel.03-3712-7708

More looks after the jump.

Mensa6 is a table with a 6mm-thick table top and only four separate pieces. The minimal construction comes from designer Michael Schougaard Svane, whose passion for simplicity has earned him a Reddot design award. The construction of Mensa6 achieves maximum strength and sustainability by using minimal materials.

More images after the jump.

Interior and exterior architecture in churches has been examined since grand cathedrals were built in the earliest years A.C., but Dutch designer Lotte van Laatum has given holiness a modern touch with Liturgical Elements for the Maasstad Hospital in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.Description from the designer:

The concept of ‘light’ was the starting point for the designs of the liturgical elements. The oecumenical services are taking place at the auditorium. This is an internal space lacking natural daylight. Patients of the hospital are the visitors of the services and the concept of ‘light’ can positively contribute to their personal issues.

The auditorium is a neutral space without ecclesiastical architectural elements. The main concept behind the design is formed by light passing through church windows lighting the liturgical elements.

The design of the church windows is based on the circle and the sphere, both symbols of the divine and perfection. It also symbolizes the sun as a heavenly body.The basic shape of the sphere is also used for the designs of the textile and the tableware. This way the different layers in the design come together. The textile is made from linen and lamb’s wool, also materials with a biblical meaning. The textile is produced by the Textile Museum Tilburg. The tableware is made of mouth blown Bohemian crystal.

More images after the jump.

Andreas Englund has created a series of large scale portraits imagining the daily ins and out of a superhero who is past his prime. Englund depicts the superhero’s facial expressions and mannerisms in a quasi photo realistic way that almost makes the scenarios believable.

View the rest of the set after the jump.

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