From freestanding ovens in pastel shades and a New York City tea shop to locally crafted furniture and Olympic medals made from recycled smartphones, these are top VISI picks of the week series – week 292.

1. Louw Roets’ Pareto Table

The Pareto Table by local furniture designer Louw Roets is a simple, versatile design. Named after Vilfredo Pareto, who discovered the 80/20 rule or Pareto principle (the idea that 80% of results is usually caused by 20% of the effort), the light-weight table can be used for dining or as a workspace.

Images via louwroets.co.za

2. Recycled Olympic Medals

All 5 000 medals for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, designed by Junichi Kawanishi, will be made from precious metals extracted from used smartphones and small electronic devices. The devices, which include 6.21 million smart phones, were donated by the public.

Images and video via olympic.org

3. Spiritea Tea Shop

Designed by New Practice Studio, this tranquil tea shop in New York City features a palette of light pink and blue, with a cylindrical-shaped bar as the focal point in the space. The gallery-like shop also features artworks and sculptures created by artists Kun Wei and Yafang Zhi.

Images courtesy of spiriteadrinks.com

4. Freestanding AGA Ovens

AGA’s Freestanding Ovens come in a range of cheerful pastel shades. The AGA Module comes with a slow cook oven, fan oven and grill, as well as a gas or electric hob. At only 60 cm wide, the AGA 60 is ideal for smaller spaces. It comes with two ovens and a hotplate.

Images courtesy of agaliving.co.za

5. Loop Lamp by MUT Design Studio for LZF

MUT Design Studio, namely Alberto Sánchez and Eduardo Villalón, are behind the creation of the Loop Lamp for lighting design brand LZF. Made up of a single opaque LED lens, this table lamp is ideal for both concentrated and dispersed light. Also have a look at Ilama Palm Pendants by Mash.T Design Studio.

Image credit: Daniela Trost, courtesy of MUT Design Studio

The post VISI Picks of the Week Series – Week 292 appeared first on Visi.

Nigerian visual artist Laolu Senbanjo, known as Laolu NYC, has showcased his talent through a series of collaborations with big brands and celebrities, using his work as a way to celebrate his Yoruba heritage.

He produces a variety of artworks using different mediums and creative processes in a unique style, which he has coined “Afromystics”.

Following five years spent practicing as a human rights lawyer in his home country, Laolu decided to move to New York City to pursue a career in art.

His style of body painting art, The Sacred Art of the Ori, was featured in Beyoncé’s popular visual album Lemonade, creating a hype surrounding the artist’s exclusive work.

Laolu also recently joined forces with Belvedere Vodka on a limited-edition bottle.

Follow Laolu on Instagram to keep up to date with his work.

The post Laolu Senbanjo’s Striking Artworks appeared first on Visi.

Contemporary Australian artist CJ Hendry’s Monochrome exhibition sees a 2 000 square-metre industrial space in New York City transformed into seven colourful rooms.

If you haven’t been viewing insta stories over the last couple of months you will have little to no idea what’s going on, and you can’t rewatch that shit. Those of you staying up to date know the full backstory. If you want a spoiler watch my story for a full walk through of the Monochrome house. SEE YOU NEXT WEEEK 5,6,7,8 April: 10am – 5pm 276 Greenpoint Ave Brooklyn NY

A post shared by Cj Hendry (@cj_hendry) on Mar 30, 2018 at 11:23am PDT

Each room in this “home” is painted in a specific colour, namely yellow, pink, purple, green, blue, orange and red, corresponding to the art displayed on the walls, which are made from modular plastic blocks called Everblocks.

The art is a showcase of CJ’s colourful drawings of crumpled Pantone swatch cards, a first for the artist, who works predominantly in black and white. For her, the idea behind the exhibition was to design each room around the art hanging on the wall, and not the other way around.

Follow CJ on Instagram for more.

(h/t) designboom.com

The post Artist CJ Hendry Creates Monochrome “House” appeared first on Visi.

Johannesburg-based street artist Sonny, whose work we previously featured here, has created a new, massive 10-metre-high lion mural in NYC.

The large-scale mural, created in partnership with IFAW (International Foundation for Animal Welfare), forms part of Sonny’s To The Bone project, which raises awareness for endangered animals.

The mural, which can be spotted in Lower Manhattan, is just one of a series that Sonny is planning on creating, with stops in Canada, Russia and India next on the agenda. The first instalment, completed in 2016, entitled Jelani, was created in Rosebank in Johannesburg and features a giant 14 x 16 m painting of an elephant that aims to celebrate the beauty and importance of these animals.

Sonny is releasing limited edition hand-finished prints online, with 10% of each sale going to South Africa landscape work, as well as IFAW’s work with tigers in Russia.

To The Bone will come to a close with an exhibition of original works in London. You can read more about the To The Bone project here.

The post Street Art We Love: New Murals By Sonny appeared first on Visi.

Porky Hefer’s solo exhibition Heart of Lightness recently opened at the prestigious R & Company gallery in New York City, in collaboration with Southern Guild.

The exhibition, which is inspired by Joseph Conrad’s renowned book Heart of Darkness, deals with stereotypes that still hold strong in post-colonial Africa.

It is described by R & Company as “an exploration of perception and instinct, encouraging the viewer to go back to what is human, what is natural and what is playful.”

The exhibition showcases Porky’s distinctive nests, all of which have been handcrafted. “Each piece is meant to be inhabited like a hermit inhabits shells,” explains Porky.

The exhibition runs until 23 February 2017. For more information, visit r-and-company.com.

The post Porky Hefer in NYC appeared first on Visi.

Come 23 June 2016, Andile Dyalvane, award-winning ceramicist and co-founder of Imiso Ceramics, will present Camagu, his first international solo exhibition at New York’s prestigious Friedman Benda gallery.

Since founding Imiso Ceramics together with Zizipho Poswa in 2005, Andile’s unique creations have gained him attention locally and abroad, and in the process they have become collector’s items. Most recently, he won the Southern Guild Design Foundation Icon Award.

“Andile’s is a completely unique voice in the global design world,” says Trevyn McGowan of Southern Guild, the Cape Town-based collectible design gallery that represents Andile. “The extraordinary techniques he has developed, both at home and through residencies in Denmark, France, California and Taipei, and his ability to work in such an oversized scale, something extremely rare in ceramics, offers an exceptional complexity seldom witnessed in this medium, while still forming a narrative that remains true to his African identity.”

A huge part of the appeal of his work lies in the way he seamlessly blends cultural heritage with a contemporary urban energy, resulting in completely unique, handmade pieces. A particularly favoured technique by ceramic enthusiasts is the way he references African scarification, more specifically the style of scarification practiced in Xhosa tradition. For this upcoming two-month New York show, he will present more than 20 pieces, which include ceramic screens, lighting, shelving and over-scaled vessels, with surface designs that will continue to explore the scarification technique.

“I’ve always wanted to do a solo show, creating works I’d only ever dreamed of producing, and this show is it,” explains Andile. “It’s been my chance to realise designs that would otherwise have remained in my sketchbooks. So Camagu references my gratitude.”

Andile joins an exclusive list of 15 celebrated artists at Friedman Benda, which represents some of the top names in global design, from Marcel Wanders and Wendell Castle to the Campana Brothers. “It is undisputedly one of the most important galleries in the world and the recognition that this solo exhibition is affording Andile is remarkably significant for him as an artist, and for the South African design industry as a whole,” says Trevyn.

Camagu runs from 23 June to 19 August 2016. Follow #camagu to see Andile Dyalvane’s progress for this solo show.

The post Andile Dyalvane Off To NYC appeared first on Visi.

Watch this incredible time-lapse of artist Pat Vale creating an intricate drawing of the New York City skyline in pen and ink.

The result consists of three large A1 pieces of paper, which were then scanned and transformed into a wallpaper. Amazing!

To see more of Pat Vale’s work, follow him on Instagram.

The post WATCH: Colossus By Pat Vale appeared first on Visi.

The extremely talented Lorraine Loots is on her way to exhibit 730 of her miniature paintings in New York City.

If you’ve ever wondered how the tiny creations come together, watch Gareth Pon’s time-lapse of Lorraine painting a mini hot dog, in celebration of her #ANTSinNYC exhibition.

The exhibition runs from 8 – 15 July 2015 at Three King Studios, 754 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn. The gallery is open from 12pm until 7pm, Thursday to Sunday.

Keep up to date with all things Lorraine on Facebook and Instagram.

The post Lorraine Loots: Paintings For Ants Time-lapse appeared first on Visi.

1. Eiffel Tower, Paris
2. Disney World, Florida
3. Burj Khalifa, Dubai
4. Big Ben, London
5. Empire State Building, New York
6. La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona
7. Disneyland Paris, Paris
8. Colosseum, Rome
9. Top Of The Rock, New York City
10. London Bridge, London
11. Buckingham Palace, London
12. London Eye, London
13. Sydney Opera House, Sydney
14. The Vatican, Rome
15. Moulin Rouge, Paris
16. Tower Bridge, London
17. Statue of Liberty, New York City
18. SeaWorld, Florida
19. Universal Orlando Resort, Florida
20. Busch Gardens, Florida
21. Alcatraz, San Francisco
22. Madame Tussauds, London
23. The Shard, London
24. Tower of London, London
25. London Zoo, London
26. Kew Gardens, Surrey
27. Stonehenge, Wiltshire
28. Harry Potter Studios, London
29. Port Aventura, Tarragona
30. The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Pisa
31. Chichen Itza, Yucatan
32. St Paul’s Cathedral, London
33. Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh
34. Camp Nou, Barcelona
35. Guinness Storehouse, Dublin
36. Blackpool Tower, Blackpool
37. Cadbury World, Birmingham
38. Siam Park, Tenerife
39. Hampton Court, London
40. Discovery Cove, Florida

The post The World’s Top 40 Selfie Spots appeared first on Visi.

The post A New York minute (vol. 2) appeared first on Visi.