The Sculptor Crafting Works From Naturally Felled Wood

By Tilly Macalister-Smith

Since starting her brand Completedworks in 2013, the British jeweler Anna Jewsbury has sold her signature organic forms and asymmetrical earrings online and through retailers like Dover Street Market and Bergdorf Goodman. But she wanted to have more direct interactions with her customers and, as of January, she’s created a space for just that. In a former pub located in London’s North Marylebone, Jewsbury has opened a store, showroom and workshop that she describes as an “ideas laboratory.” During the renovation, the British interior designer Hollie Bowden riffed on Jewsbury’s designs: Her crinkled and folded Cohesion earrings, for example, inspired the hammered metal cupboard handles. Completedworks will also offer free monthly classes starting during London Fashion Week, promoting “the dying art of practical work,” Jewsbury says. “We want people to spend more time using their hands — making, foraging, gardening.” First up, on Feb. 23, is a pottery class led by the brand’s in-house ceramics designer; future programming includes an ikebana workshop and a talk on sustainable food practices with the Los Angeles-based chef Junya Yamasaki. completedworks.com

Eat This

A Cape Town Ramen Restaurant Serving Handmade Noodles

The chefs Peter Tempelhoff and Ashley Moss must have sampled over a hundred bowls of ramen during their research trip to Japan ahead of the December opening of their new restaurant, Ramenhead, in Cape Town. “Sometimes we had 16 ramens in one day,” says Tempelhoff, who, along with Moss, is a co-owner of Fyn, one of the city’s most sought-after fine-dining restaurants, which fuses local ingredients — including dune spinach and springbok — with Japanese flavors and techniques. While ramen joints may seem common in a place like New York City, in Cape Town the options are limited. “We felt there was space to do something new here,” says Tempelhoff. “We’re the only place in the city that makes our own noodles and imports our flour from Japan.” Located on Church Square in the Central Business District, directly below Fyn, Ramenhead is Fyn’s cooler, more laid-back cousin. The restaurant’s interior and tree-filled courtyard are reserved for walk-ins only, and the queue that often wraps around the block is proof that there is indeed a local appetite for ramen. The menu is concise, consisting of a few starters like edamame, Wagyu biltong (a local dried beef) and springbok gyoza, with a limited selection of ramen. One of Tempelhoff’s favorites is the tonkatsu, a rich, creamy broth with pork chashu, shoyu and star anise oil. ramenhead.co.za

“I still go out to collect random logs on the side of the road, or off-cuts from arborists when I see them cutting down a tree,” says the California-based sculptor Vince Skelly. With his carved works, which call to mind megalithic histories and the Flintstones’ furniture, Skelly follows the wood’s grain and knots, letting the raw material inform each design. For a new show titled “A Conversation With Trees,” opening this month at the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art in the artist’s California hometown, Skelly responded to some of the recent events that have affected the surrounding landscape. Last year, a fierce windstorm swept through Claremont, downing some 300 trees. “I drove around clearing roads and parks in an attempt to help the community,” he recalls. “Each piece of wood I salvaged came from a special place like the Botanic Garden, which I’ve been visiting since before I could walk.” Another two pieces in the show use naturally felled old-growth redwood bearing the scars of wildfire. Skelly hopes that his work honors the lives of the trees he uses. “We have a direct relationship with trees,” he says. “We use their shade. They provide oxygen and beauty. When they get taken down, they don’t have to be gone forever.” The show will feature seven new works, including chairs, side tables, stools, totems and large-scale sculptures intended for outdoor installation. “A Conversation With Trees” will be on view from Feb. 17 through April 23, clmoa.org.

Visit This

A Renewed 19th-Century California Inn

When Auberge Resorts Collection took on the renovation of the Inn at Mattei’s Tavern, situated in California’s Santa Ynez Valley about a three-hour drive from Los Angeles, the hotel group sought to reflect the history of the property (it dates back to 1886) while also incorporating contemporary elements. Take the check-in area for the Tavern, the hotel’s flagship restaurant: The snug space, known as the Stage Room, features antique rugs and vintage velvet chairs, as well as a new custom-designed rug with splashes of sage green and lavender, colors inspired by the hills around the hotel. Its menu takes cues from California ranches with grilled meats and bright salads, while cocktails include one of the inn’s longtime signature drinks: The Old Gus Berg is an Old-Fashioned named after the founder Felix Mattei’s right-hand man. The updated vintage aesthetic extends to the 67 whitewashed bedrooms and cottages, where four-poster beds and claw-foot bathtubs sit atop original wood flooring in many of the rooms. “We had the privilege of reigniting the original soul and character of this special place,” says Dave Elcon, the property’s general manager. In keeping with the old-meets-new theme, guests can try their hand at pastimes such as knife making and trail riding, as well as more modern pursuits like guided e-bike tours. Rooms from $950, aubergeresorts.com.

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Larry Stanton’s Portraits of Vulnerability

You can’t tell what they’re thinking: The men stare outward with a look that suggests they’re scared, maybe, or horny, or just acclimating to the portraitist for whom they’re sitting and, thus, slightly uncomfortable. (It’s weird being drawn.) They must have felt all of that: The artist, Larry Stanton, often made colored pencil and conté crayon portraits of guys he hardly knew — those he befriended, or slept with, or ran into on Fire Island, sometimes writing their names in the corners so he wouldn’t forget. Stanton had arrived in New York in the 1960s and quickly became notorious for his good looks; he found a partner, a financier named Arthur Lambert, and together they became close with people like the painter David Hockney and the Met curator Henry Geldzahler, both of whom inspired Stanton’s work. Most of his best drawings were made between 1980 and 1984: It was then, according to the gallerist Daniel Cooney, who’s hosting his second solo show of Stanton’s work at his Chelsea space through March 4, that Stanton stopped drinking and began focusing on large, brightly shaded portraits, where the subjects look both very ’80s and eternally vulnerable. These, of course, were the disappearing years, when so many gay men started losing each other. Stanton died of pneumonia complications in 1984, a year before the first HIV test was approved for use. He was 37, and you can sense — particularly in his paintings — that he still had much left to learn. Now, with help from Lambert (who’s in his 80s), there’s something of a Stanton renaissance underway: A monograph, “Think of Me When It Thunders,” came out last year; Acne Studios is doing a capsule collection. But seeing the works in person on the walls of Cooney’s gallery, you’re reminded of what it means to make your own family. “Larry Stanton: Drawings and Paintings 1974-84” is on view through March 4, danielcooneyfineart.com.

Contrary to its name, the 400 or so attendees at the first Lobster Club in Los Angeles this past November did not indulge in a meal centered on the crustacean. Instead, there was bread. Lots and lots of bread, along with a giant butter sculpture to dip it in. The new collective of independent artists, which was founded by the 30-year-old self-taught painter Maja Dlugolecki, will hold its third event, and second in Los Angeles, during the Frieze art fair on Feb. 19 at the former Echo Park home and studio of Tiwa Select’s Alex Tieghi-Walker. This time, among the artwork, there will be an edible installation by the food stylist Allison Jacks called “ciudad, sándwich de miga,” a towering arrangement of the traditional South American snack typically made with ham, egg, cheese and bell pepper (the makeshift “city” will gradually deconstruct as attendees pluck off the mini-sandwiches it’s made of). While food is not the focus of Lobster Club — one goal is to offer participating members a group show in which they’ll retain more than the traditional 50 percent of profit from any sales — it’s integral, Dlugolecki says. “It’s a community moment. When you do a solo show, it can be really intimidating. We wanted to create a fun, unpretentious yet elevated atmosphere with a group of peers.” Those peers include a growing roster of 20 artists from various disciplines such as the Los Angeles-based Michael McGregor who specializes in still lifes and the Swiss abstract painter Caroline Denervaud. Dlugolecki herself has only been painting for eight years, but her pastel-colored acrylic canvases can be seen at Hudson Yards and the Soho House in Miami Beach. She’ll hold a solo show in New York City this May while also playing agent and curator through Lobster Club. In addition to its events, the organization has launched a mentorship program and an artist’s residency. The first resident, the Brooklyn-based metal sculptor Lane Walkup, created a large-scale piece in the Yucca Valley that sold at the group show for more than any of her previous works. “It was a real full circle moment,” says Dlugolecki. lobster-club.com

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