MODERN MODULAR
Just five months—that’s how long it took 20 students from the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Urban Design to design, build, and transport their ambitious, not-so-academic product—a modular modern house. Prefabricated in a warehouse near campus, the 1,200 sq. ft., two bedroom, one bathroom house has taken root in a struggling-to-be-gentrified neighborhood in Kansas City. The voluntary but “for credit” project, headed by Professor Dan Rockhill, energized students with the chance to deliver not only a modern aesthetic to a stagnant urban area but also afforded a valuable business lesson for aspiring architects: how to acquire financial backing. Laying the foundation, participating students established a successful partnership with the local community development corporation, El Centro Inc., which helped seed development. And profits from the sale of the reasonably priced abode will end up in the pockets of El Centro, with which the school hopes to work again next year.
www.studio804.com

PEARLS AND A WHITE WIG
From the collection of eccentric Toronto philanthropist Salah Bachir comes Wall to Wall Warhol, an exhibition featuring more than 50 works of Warhol’s photographs, venerated silkscreens, and prominent paintings from the “Death and Disaster” series. Here Warhol’s own legendary eccentricity might be surpassed by the popular and peculiar persona of the collector, Bachir. A flamboyant businessman, president of Famous Players Media (Canada’s largest theater chain), and publisher of the magazines Famous, Famous Québec, and Premiere, he’s rarely caught without his trademark strands of pearls. An enthusiastic and discerning collector of gay art, Bachir is providing the first public glimpse of this special collection, on view at Oakville Galleries, in Oakville, Ontario, until Aug. 27.
www.oakvillegalleries.com

THIS IS LOVE AND WAR
Two advertising executives are waging war this summer—well, and love. Eng San Kho, former creative director at production house Hornet, and Peter Tashjian, an independent brand strategist, are launching a new branding and creative agency in New York dubbed Love and War, presumably with a mind to invoke the gauntlet of emotions. It’s tempting to think that hiring an outside branding firm to come up with a more relevant name would have worked in their favor. But their impressive portfolio of past work—a reel of TV spots for Burger King, Smirnoff, and the New York Jets, among others—is attracting new business allies like MTV2, their first client.
www.thisisloveandwar.com

LIFE INSIGHT
Independent curator Gail M. Brown of Philadelphia is trying to raise the visibility of contemporary craft with her latest exhibition, Life Insight: The Human Experience, at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, July 8–Nov. 4. For those who tend to associate craft with clutter, this show won’t immediately break the stereotype as it features nearly 100 artists across the country. That said, there will be something for everyone. Two curiously functional sculptures are bound to draw visitors in for a closer look: Hiro Tashima’s “Moonlight Dinner”—a copper-cast couple lounges and pours sake while holding a sushi tray on its shoulders; and Nancy Slagle’s “Playing the Odds”— two decidedly female rabbits embrace a pewter cup that is inscribed “Human fertility starts to decline earlier than previously believed.” All the craft pieces on display are said to “address aspects of the human experience in the context of physical, social, cultural, and political matters as well as the more personal subjects of birth, life, and death.” We’re glad, but what kind of art doesn’t?
www.kentuckyarts.org

SIMPLICITY AT ITS BEST
Closed for nearly three years while undergoing a major expansion, New York City’s beloved Morgan Library has reopened. And to complement the striking $106 million building project designed by world-renowned architect Renzo Piano, Pentagram has provided a simple and elegant new identity, exhibition graphics, and signage for the library and museum. No easy task: The singular collection houses artistic, literary, musical, and historical works including three Gutenberg Bibles, the sole surviving manuscript of Milton’s Paradise Lost, and the largest collection of Rembrandt etchings in the country. Only one font was utilized for the design project, the suitably named Dante. Customarily used for books, Dante guides visitors clearly throughout the museum “with absolute, relentless consistency,” says Pentagram partner Michael Bierut. (A regular Virgil, this Dante.)
www.morganlibrary.org

THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE
Noticed: a recent surge of designers rolling up their sleeves and hand-printing limited-edition posters for indie rock bands—Aesthetic Apparatus, Patent Pending Industries, and Asterik Studio, to name a few. And while the practice of printing psychedelic rock posters isn’t new (Stanley “Mouse” Miller’s memorable “Skull and Roses” for The Grateful Dead in 1971 is still a favorite, as is Warhol’s tongue for the Rolling Stones), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art believes a collection of 26 contemporary rock posters by two studios—Urban Inks and Bay Area designer-turned-artist Rex Ray—deserves high praise. The work is eye-catching and certainly embodies the energy and motion of the music it promotes. But the exhibition lacks range. Plenty of talented studios across the country produce similar designs, leaning on the old laurels of Russian Constructivist imagery and Warhol- and Lichtenstein-inspired Pop Art. More here would be better. The Art of Design: The Architecture and Design Collection poster exhibit will be on view inside SFMOMA until Sept. 5, but perhaps the posters should have been left outside where they were meant to catch the eye.
www.sfmoma.org