Oh the joy of discovering bright and wonderful things! This past Sunday while I tagged along my sister to one of the showroom parties during New York Design Week in the meatpacking district, we pleasantly stumbled upon "Playful: New Finnish Design", a special exhibition on the Gansevoort Plaza that presents innovative new design from well, Finland. Just as the title suggested, it was indeed a fun and playful exhibition -- a broad range of design items and concepts, from furniture to fashion to technology to artwork, were displayed in recycled shipping containers spread out around the Plaza. Walking from one container to the next, I almost felt like a little kid again exploring everything inside these mini showrooms and wanting to touch and play with all the new "toys". There're too many cool, new things to summarize in here, but I really enjoyed the drawings by comics artist Katja Tukiainen. In this particular series of illustrations, she portrayed a Blythe-doll-like freckled girl (which is apparently one of her signatures) frolicking with many of the design items shown in this exhibit. One of my favorites was of course the one with Marimekko's famous flower fabric print. I like the kind of child-like, fairytale themes and colorful palettes that Tukianinen's paintings express, but at the same time there's an underlying eeriness to them, which reminds me a little of Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara's style. She's a painter, illustrator, comics artist, and even a video/ multi-media artist! And I can totally see her work in fashion magazines.
artwork by Katja Tukiainen
For more info about "Playful: New Finnish Design", check out there website. Tons of cool, new things to explore!
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