• Art & Design,  Design,  Features,  Interior Design,  Interviews

    Tête-à-Tête with Design Talent, Darrin Varden

    Interior Designer Darriv Varden
    http://modernsmile.com/products/smileactives-whitening-pens/ Interior Designer Darrin Varden

    New York-based interior designer Patzicía Darrin Varden loves getting people together by designing spaces that are warm, rich with colors, undeniably sensual, and filled with metaphors and symbolism. With all his skills, his passion for design, and inventive vision, it was of no surprise that he was invited by The New Times and world-renowned luxury porcelain brand Lladró to fashioned an elegant dining pavilion with an opulent residential feel for DIFFA’s Dining by Design. High End Weekly™ recently met with the designer who is not only one of NY’s top design talent, but a charming gentleman as well.

    High End Weekly™: You were invited by the NYT and Lladrò, the handmade porcelain company from Spain to design a table at DIFFA this year. How did you approach that project? And was the process similar to some of your residential projects?

    Darrin Varden: My residential work is often inspired by and anchored with large-scaled fine art. I was putting a Claire Sherman painting in a home I’m working on and had just been looking at her work when I got the call for DIFFA. The painting I used as the jumping off point for this scene was her “Diagonal Tree” which put me in the mindset of the charitable component of the occasion, Design Industries’ Foundation Fighting AIDS. I saw these gorgeous, broken, fallen redwoods, once so strong, ravaged yet still beautiful, still imposing in their beauty, paralleling the destruction of AIDS on the landscape of humanity. The beauty of the memory of those we lost is juxtaposed against trees that are still standing, those for whom HIV is no longer a death sentence. It was perfect.

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    Top design talent Darrin Varden at the lavish table he created for DIFFA, the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS which is one of the country’s largest supporters of direct care for people living with HIV/AIDS and preventive education for those at risk.

    Once D.C. Moore Gallery said we could borrow the piece, I started thinking about a modern, organic look, similar to what Lladro is doing in some of their sculpture lines. And I got this little click in my head about The New York Times, our host, that old saw about ‘Black and white and re(a)d all over,’ and that became my color scheme.

    I was so lucky with collaborating on custom chairs from Artistic Frame, which specializes in custom and made-to-order furniture. They partnered with me to create an elegant ebonized strié styled finish that just complements that painting. Everyone was so generous – we got custom upholstery fabric for the chairs in a deep red velvet by Stark. A wool sateen by Stark worked really well on custom benches of our own design, fabricated by Peruvian Touch custom workroom. The entire tableau is finished in a glistening frame, painted in Benjamin Moore’s aptly named Dinner Party red. We couldn’t believe that was the name of the color!

    ” Design is all about the people who will inhabit the spaces, not about the things in the space. It is about how people relate to one another within the space – especially a dining room”. Interior designer Darrin Varden

    HEW: The stallion sculptures from your table design were graceful, yet very strong. Would you say that this description is synonymous with your design aesthetic?

    Darrin Varden: Yes, in my work I very intentionally honor the masculine and feminine in everything. Those wild horses are like that – though graceful they’re also fierce and muscular. I love how Lladro used the matte finish on the porcelain, it has just the same level of gloss as a horse’s coat, smooth but not pristine. Those juxtapositions are what makes art.

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    HEW: I remembered your past projects, especially the one you did a few years ago at The Holiday House. Looking at your work, I see this fabric of togetherness which tells me that you like to bring people together. Is that right?

    Darrin Varden: Design is all about the people who will inhabit the spaces, not about the things in the space. It is about how people relate to one another within the space – especially a dining room. You want to give people unexpected touches, a reason to come present to the moment and to each other. Great design, and the use of fine art within a design, can do that. It’s pretty exciting. At the same time, you want them to feel comfortable. I tend to call my living spaces lounges rather than living rooms for that reason.

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    Darrin Varden/DIFFA 2016

    We often talk about ‘table-scapes’ in doing these events, but to your point about togetherness, I wanted to have an actual table-scape, with multiple levels and dimensions and a horizon line and a focal point that draws the guest out beyond the space and into their own imagination, which also creates conversational ice-breakers,” said Varden. That focal point, the large painting that centers the room, is given additional notice through the use of the backless custom benches, and by flanking it with two chandeliers rather than using one large chandelier in the center. This up-and-down table-scape keeps the eye moving through the design, and I also worked closely with floral designer Shula Weiner of Flowers by Special Arrangement to achieve his vision for a rich, tonal mix of deep wine and berry hues in various textures, a sumptuous field for the graceful black porcelain horses.

    “When it comes to personal travel, I’m not a beachgoer or a sun worshipper. I’d rather go where there are museums or architectural or design oriented things I want to explore, like Barcelona with all that Gaudi”. Darrin Varden

    HEW: How important is art to you, and your clients? Do you advised them on their art choice?

    Darrin Varden: There are clients that I do advise but others are already collectors. In fact as my practice grows I’ve found that art collectors gravitate toward my interiors and become clients for that very reason. I sometimes go in to an initial meeting with Benjamin Moore fan deck and pull colors from their favorite art pieces to create the color scheme.

    HEW: What do you love about design, why do you find it exciting?

    Darrin Varden: Well you know, Vyna, “Changing the world one room at a time!” Seriously I do actually believe that transforming where a person lives and how they live can contribute to the transformation of people’s lives, at least in some ways.

    For me the really energizing thing about design is that it’s always evolving. So as a designer I have to evolve with it, and to me, that evolution and growth is the purpose of living.

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    World renowned porcelain brand Lladró and interior designer Darrin Varden have fashioned an elegant dining pavilion with a luxury residential feel for DIFFA’s Dining by Design 2016. Starring Lladró’s porcelain lighting and sculptures and elegantly furnished by luxury residential design showrooms Stark and Artistic Frame, Varden’s sophisticated tableau is that of an actual dining room centered with the painting Diagonal Tree by artist Claire Sherman, on loan from DC Moore Gallery.

    HEW: What inspires you during your travels? Tell us about some of your favorite places to visit.

    Darrin Varden: When it comes to personal travel, I’m not a beachgoer or a sun worshipper. I’d rather go where there are museums or architectural or design oriented things I want to explore, like Barcelona with all that Gaudi. I’m also a foodie so I like to go where I can dine adventurously. I love Greece, the ancient-ness of Athens and the Acropolis and the Parthenon, Delos with those mosaics from antiquity that I would totally put in a home today juxtaposed with a piece of mid-century furniture, that truly timeless aspect of design. And I love to see any place with great modernist and newer iconic buildings. That’s also why I love living in New York – I’m that design geek always looking up. When it comes to cities, I think a great benchmark for the future is Vancouver, a growing city, civically mindful in its growth and with a forward-thinking architectural and design point of view.

    Photo credit: Alan Barry Photography. All rights reserved

  • Art,  Interviews,  Véronique Dalla Favera

    Meet Véronique Dalla Favera

    High End Weekly™ welcomes Véronique Dalla Favera as one of the first artist to take part in our interview series! Ms. Favera’s fine art paintings and sculptures are often described as avant-garde, her paintings go from light to dark forms, and are both harmonious and purified in style. HEW sat down with the French artist last month, and discovered that because she has a deep fondness for New York, she decided to move here – part-time.
    Below: Véronique Dalla Favera

     

     

     

     

    HEW:  Describe your style, like a good friend of yours would describe it.

    VDF:  Through my techniques, I use my art as a vessel for sobriety, simplicity, and honesty. That universe suits me just fine.
    HEW:  How and when did you first become interested in art?
    VDF:  Honestly, it all began when I was about 11 years old, but I didn’t start out painting, and creating sculptures, writing was my muse, and I began writing different novels about  crime, detective stories and the like.  Sadly enough, my environment wasn’t open to that universe.
    So little by little, I started to transform my desire to write into painting instead.  Through art, I started to become more expressive about my wish to write.  So twenty years later, I began working on a sculpture and then another one, and another, and before you know it, my need to continue to do so became insatiable, and it became an obsession.  Since then, I’ve never stop creating, imagining. This all became part of my fantasies, which eventually came alive through my work. Today, I cannot imagine my life without creating art, it simply has become who I am.
    HEW:  Where do you work on your designs and projects?
    VDF:  My studio is in France, a little village in Bourgone with about 60 inhabitants.  Lately, I’ve been contemplating moving to another studio in Dijon, which is larger than my current one, since my work is expanding.
    “My art is inspired by harmony, logic, the perfect equilibrium, but it is also about a meeting of profound individuality which allows for a marvelous, and sincere overture.” Véronique Dalla Favera
    HEW:  What is the best moment of the day?
    VDF:  The moment is right here, now. Anytime that I am at my studio, creating art – without any hesitation.
    HEW:  Do you discuss your work with other designers and artists?
    VDF:  All the time. Whether I’m exhibiting in France (Dijon, Beaune, Pommard, Chassagne, Montrachet, Paris, Lyon, Monaco), I’m in constant contact with my artist friends.  I had an exhibition in Italy, and for the last nine months, I’ve been in and out of the US, and it’s been great conversing with fellow artists, as our talks are always constructive, and immensely interesting.
    HEW:  Is there any artist or artists from the past you appreciate?
    VDF:  I am fascinated by artists whose works are specific and have a strong identity.  There’s a number of them which I admire profoundly:  Arcimboldo, Magritte, Mondrian, Giacometti, Kandinsky, as well as Niki de St Palle.
    HEW:  And those still working?
    VDF:  Juane Genoves, Soulage, Dean Byington, Yan Pei Ming, Andy Goldsworthy…. I’m constantly discovering fascinating artists, everyday.
    HEW: What is your favorite city, and why?
    VDF:  Without a doubt, New York City. Twenty five years ago, when I first visited the big apple, I promised to come back, but as time passes, we tend to forget the impressions that a moment can make. But in March 2010, I was chosen to exhibit my work at MAISON FRANCE, and was beyond thrilled to come back to the city that I fell in love with, all those years ago.
    HEW:  What projects are you working on now and how do you expect your work to develope in the future?
    VDF:  There’s a number of things going on now, and some of them have to do with the projects I’m involved with here in the United States. The LivenLu collection is going towards a new dimension, and we are now preparing to sell them on-line. In May, I will be exhibiting in Los Angeles and San Fancisco. I am staying focus on my current projects as well, and plan to continue participating at various noteworthy venues in the US and France.
    HEW:  What project has given you the most satisfaction?
    VDF:  Every project is a source of satisfaction in the sense that they are an added step into my research. It is true that the LivenLulu collection is very close to my heart. They are pieces devoid of any distinctive exterior, and that allows me to express an enormous amount of emotions.  I have a lot of ideas for LivenLulu, and currently I’m working on extending that collection.

    HEW: What is the most important lesson that life, so far, has taught you?
    VDF: Life is a daily education, yet, what we learn one day doesn’t necessarily apply for tomorrow. What I keep is not to forget the past and at the same time, continue to progress, continue to look forward. I love life, and even though it can be quite capricious, we can always take the good out of it. With life, one must be open.

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