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by Wava Carpenter | Read full Article HERE

4 historical design specialists spotlight their favorite 20th-century design masters.

Today, we’re comparing notes with four experts in historical design to find out which 20th-century talents they idolize most and why. Our panel includes Robert Aibel of Moderne Gallery in Philadelphia, specialized in the American Studio Craft[...]

The Studio Craft movement is no stranger to the art enthusiast; a huge craft initiative originating from the US in the few years after World War II. The movement has seen artists experiment with traditional[...]

Robert Aibel opened Moderne Gallery in 1984, and for decades he was accustomed to acting unilaterally, being the boss.

The gallery’s origin story goes like this: An academic, Aibel was a full-time art and film professor at Drexel when a work trip took him to France. Coincidentally, he and his wife had recently bought[...]

The new documentary George Nakashima: Woodworker explores the indelible legacy of the iconic Japanese-American furniture maker

The designer George Nakashima was fond of saying that he kept some pieces of wood in his studio for long periods of time, and “it would only be after 10 years that it would occur to him what to do[...]

Wharton Esherick, Hessian Hills Child’s Chair, 1931. Red oak and leather. In 1924, Wharton Esherick created a prototype for a child’s chair, now in the permanent collection of the Wharton Esherick Museum, of which he would make six the following year. These chairs were made in lieu of tuition payment for his then[...]

Just released: two-hour documentary DVD with 30 minutes of extras by John Nakashima, George’s nephew. $30 incl. domestic shipping.

“PICK UP A sheet of copper and you’ll reflect the environment; you’ll get ideas for shapes,” says the artist-enamellist Paul Hultberg (1926-2019) in a short film about his practice made in 1966. Flex the metal, and those images “distort and change, picking up what’s around you.”

Paul Hultberg, ‘Hieroglyph’, 1958 COURTESY: Moderne Gallery / PHOTOGRAPH:[...]

Rediscovering Paul Hultberg (1926-2019): Abstract Expressionism in Enamel at Moderne Gallery.

Currently at Moderne Gallery in Philadelphia: Rediscovering Paul Hultberg (1926-2019): Abstract Expressionism in Enamel. According to the gallery, the exhibition  tells the underappreciated story, “not only of Hultberg’s career in enamel but also his incredible legacy as a seminal figure in the abstract expressionist[...]

Ryo Toyonaga treats ceramics as a sculptural art form, or more specifically, uses clay as a medium through which to explore and express personal aesthetic goals. Moving from Japan to the U.S in 1986, he has worked in clay but has produced drawings as well as sculptures in wax, papier-mache, bronze and aluminum casting.[...]