Jan Vormann

Tommi Toija

The child-like figures in Tommi Toija’s sculptures and installations have a certain Mr. Bill-like quality about them with their blank eyes and perplexed expressions. Read more

Katherine Mangiardi

I learned of the work of New York artist Katherine Mangiardi from the Merchant’s House Museum of all places. So appropriate. Mangiardi’s paintings of lace are unbelievably haunting, like the delicate, filmy fabric of a ghost, or like the painfully decaying lace of an antique dress. I also found her fabric installations at various historic museums around the East Coast rather beautiful. I find the idea of being able to set up an installation in a historic house pretty intriguing. Read more

Mark Dean Veca

This is at last the artist the 1960s was desperately trying to produce. Mark Dean Veca’s installations electrify galleries and museums with an ethereal pop ecstasy the previous generation only dreamed of. This is the drug we have all been waiting for. Read more

Plumen

The tightly-wound compact fluorescent light bulbs we’ve welcomed into our homes have a little sister. Plumen is low-energy, yet she’s trendy, twisted and a designer’s dream. Not yet in production, you can see Plumen hanging alone in MOMA.

Sky Planter

Fancy a fern in the face? The Sky Planter will fulfill your greenest fantasies. It is designed to conserve water, save floor space and puzzle visitors. An internal reservoir system to feeds water directly to the roots, so no water evaporates or drips. And somehow the soil is ‘locked in’. Woo!

The Pileus internet umbrella

From the what will they think of next box comes [drum roll please] Pileus — an umbrella connected to the Internet, ‘to make walking in rainy days fun’. Pileus has a large screen on the top, a built-in camera, a motion sensor, GPS, and a digital compass. And it provides two main functions: social photo-sharing and a 3D map navigation. Yes, indeed, rainy days will never quite seem the same again.