Masterpiece London Is Canceled, Nifemi Marcus

By Alia Akkam

From significant business changes to noteworthy product launches, there's always something new happening in the world of design. In this biweekly roundup, AD PRO has everything you need to know.

Masterpiece London is canceled

Since its launch at Royal Hospital Chelsea in 2010, Masterpiece London has attracted visitors from around the world to peruse rare artworks, antique furniture, and collectible design from more than 140 exhibitors. But six months shy of its 2023 edition, MCH Group has canceled the distinguished fair. The marketing company, also behind the Art Basel powerhouse and brand-new modern and contemporary art showcase Paris+ par Art Basel—successfully held for the first time last October at the Grand Palais Éphémère—has cited on its website that because of rising costs and a waning international presence, Masterpiece London "is not commercially viable this year." The bright side? MCH is "considering future options for the Masterpiece brand," the statement continues.

Marta presents Nifemi Marcus-Bello exhibition

Nifemi Marcus-Bello's Oríkì (Act I): Friction Ridge opens January 26.

Uplifting praise poetry is integral to West African Yoruba culture. Fitting then, that for his inaugural solo show in the US, the spiritually-driven, Lagos, Nigeria-based designer Nifemi Marcus-Bello chose to pay homage to this multigenerational oral tradition. From January 26 through March 4, LA gallery Marta will host Oríkì (Act I): Friction Ridge—the first of multiple acts in a series focused on the fusion of identity, materiality, and craft—at its temporary satellite space in Culver City. Six glittering polished bronze benches that draw from the Ethiopian Surma people's reverence for painting with their fingers are the star of the installation. Crafted using a lost-wax technique, the sculptural, tactile pieces are bolstered by a soundscape featuring the voice of Marcus-Bello's mother reciting her own powerful Oríkì.

The Vitra Salon Series returns

Once again, the design community can look forward to convening at Vitra's Salon Series this spring. Held at the brand's New York studio in NoMad, the monthly talks series—accompanied with convivial happy hours provided by Le Moné—kicks off February 15 with a panel devoted to federal projects sprung from the US General Services Administration's Design Excellence program. Next up: March, April, and May events that focus on craftsmanship and scale, design communications, and a NYCxDesign showroom installation, respectively.

NYSID names 2023 award recipients

At this year's Alexa Hampton–emceed New York School of Interior Design (NYSID) Gala, slated to unfold in a private Manhattan club on April 11, three industry talents will be honored. San Francisco designer Suzanne Tucker, of Tucker & Marks and Suzanne Tucker Home, will receive the Albert Hadley Lifetime Achievement Award, while John Edelman, president and CEO of the furniture brand Heller, will be given the Larry Kravet Design Industry Leadership Award. Peti Lau, the NYSID alum who runs an eponymous LA studio fueled by her signature AristoFreak style, will receive the 2023 Rising Star Award, sponsored by the Shade Store. The gala, which marks the design school's most significant annual fundraiser, benefits scholarship funds.

The new Modernity gallery will carry works by Hans Wegner, Finn Juhl, Arne Jacobsen, and Alvar Aalto.

Nordic design gallery Modernity to move into new London digs

After wowing Stockholm denizens for over two decades with its stash of furniture, ceramics, glassware, lighting, and jewelry from celebrated 20th-century Nordic designers, Modernity sprouted in London in 2019. First, it set up shop in Marylebone, then in Notting Hill, and on January 24, it will unveil its new permanent space at the Newson's Yard development in Pimlico. Works from the likes of Hans Wegner, Finn Juhl, Arne Jacobsen, and Alvar Aalto will be backdropped by Victorian-era brickwork, industrial steel beams, and sleek oak flooring.

Designer Dan Mazzarini launches online shop

Dan Mazzarini has been crafting interiors and hatching brands for some two decades, and now the creative director and principal of bicoastal firm BHDM Design is broadening his reach with Archive by Dan Mazzarini. The online platform melds his shoppable home decor picks from 1,500 different retailers, including a Soho Home chestnut leather Horton armchair and a gilded Morton table lamp from Burke Decor, with magazine-style content spanning trends, videos, home tours, and artisan profiles, such as the history of polka dots and the allure of timeless black-and-white beach houses.

Inside the newly unveiled Cult Gaia flagship in LA.

Cult Gaia opens in LA, followed by NYC

The celebrity-beloved lifestyle brand Cult Gaia was born in LA, so naturally founder and creative director (and LA native) Jasmin Larian Hekmat chose the city as the site for her first flagship brick-and-mortar location. The store, courtesy of AD100 designer Alexis Brown and Anno Mille, will open its doors on Melrose Avenue on January 26, featuring chalky, neutral textures juxtaposed with polished stainless steel and brass and dreamy hues that conjure the Aegean Sea.

"This city holds so much sentimental value to me," Larian Hekmat tells AD PRO, so finding the perfect space was important to her. This one initially beckoned "because of its shape. A half circle and the way the sun rises above it has a powerful meaning to me," she adds. "My favorite part is the floor, a puzzle of over 600 individual slabs of limestone, each painstakingly hand drawn and custom cut to create a unique pattern. To me, this is like our source code." As part of Larian Hekmat's growth plan, a New York outpost arrives in SoHo on February 8.