The Design Edit

Quentin Bell, ‘A Tiled Table’ side view, 1985 COURTESY: © Dreweatts IN NOVEMBER, TATE Britain will open its major winter exhibition, Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury (12th November 2026 – 11th April 2027).

Joseph Walsh, ‘Fadó’, 2026 at Hôtel de Sully COURTESY: © The Artist / PHOTOGRAPH: © Alice Casenave A GIGANTIC, GOLDEN, twisted ring gleams in the sunshine in the gardens of Hôtel de Sully, headquarters of the Centre des monuments nationaux in the Marais district of Paris. It belongs to Joseph Walsh’s ‘Magnus’ series and forms part of his exhibition, ‘Arcanum Formae’ (until 25th October). The lower half of the sculpture is cast in bronze and the upper section is oak, finished in gold leaf.

‘Vase Charpin’ No. 2 by Fabienne Verdier COURTESY: Fabienne Verdier, Manufacture de Sèvres © Audrey Falet This vase, an entirely hybrid object, is brought to ecstatic life by the vigorous brush work of French painter, Fabienne Verdier. It is the product of a unique collaboration, supported by the insurance company AXA Group, between Verdier and the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres.

Wu Gaozhong, ‘Chair’, 2019 COURTESY: © The Artist & Sun Media / Reviving Craft THIS FRAGILE WHITTLED chair is an emblem of vulnerable resilience. It is all that remains of an antique chair salvaged by Chinese artist Wu Ghaozhong from a flea-market and then subjected to a process of what the artist calls, “slow-killing knife marks.” Despite the ravages of his precise chiselling, the original calm dignity of the simple vintage chair, its design reaching back through history, remains intact.

Wendell Castle: Living COURTESY: © Friedman Benda & Wendell Castle Inc. / PHOTOGRAPH: Izzy Leung ON THREE SPREADS of the magazine House Beautiful’s June 1973 issue, the upstate New York home of seminal American designer Wendell Castle and his wife, renowned ceramicist Nancy Jurs, came into full, colourful view. The feature and the experimental residence it presented is the subject of a new retrospective curated by their daughter – photographic book editor and historian, Alison Castle.

Woo Jin Joo, ‘Dokkaebi Feet 1’, 2024 COURTESY: © The Artist & Ruup & Form WOO JIN JOO, born in South Korea and now based in London, is a new talent already attracting significant institutional interest. In 2023, she was the inaugural winner of the Bagri Craft Award at Cockpit, offering three years of subsidised studio space and mentorship at the south London incubator.

A significant collection of work from two of the most influential studio potters of the 20th century.

Contemporary works that embrace the transforming medium of tapestry. You Stretched Diagonally Across It: Contemporary Tapestry The Fabric Workshop and Museum Philadelphia, PA 16th July 2026 – 3rd January 2027 Caroline Achaintre, ‘Seeker’, 2024 COURTESY: © The Artist & Art: Concept, Paris IN A LETTER written to his father, Czech author Franz Kafka described the potential of one’s presence being so pervasive that it could be woven diagonally across the breadth of the entire planet.

Catch these four compelling exhibitions before they close.

The new jewel in the crown of Saint-Étienne’s design district.