Marteen Vrolijk, Sakura TFO23025. Courtesy of L’Appartement and Objects with Narratives.
Credit Marteen Vrolijk
Artistry: A Celebration Beyond the Season — Works That Move Us Still
Art possesses the rare ability to transcend time. Beyond seasonal trends, some works continue to inspire us—not through spectacle, but through depth, purpose, and emotion. This celebrates artistic expression that endures, inviting reflection and reminding us that creativity, at its core, is timeless.
At the end of 2025, L’Appartement Gallery group exhibition Convergent Lines brought together the expressive canvases of painter Mariana Oushiro in dynamic conversation with the work of artists and designers Jojo Corväiá, Maarten Vrolijk and Marius Ritiu. Spanning the gallery’s three distinct rooms, the exhibition traces the intersections between fine art, sculpture and design through a shared reverence for materiality, process, and architectural influence. Each artist engages deeply with organic forms and natural materials—whether through hand-molded ceramics, sculptural metalwork, fluid vessels, or layered brushwork—foregrounding the tactile and the elemental.
Marteen Vrolijk, Sakura TFO25006. Courtesy of L’Appartement and Objects with Narratives.
Credit Marteen Vrolijk
Maarten Vrolijk (b. 1966, Netherlands – based in Amsterdam, Netherlands) offers delicate lamps and vessels that blur the line between sculpture and utility, each object inviting close inspection.
Marteen Vrolijk, Sakura TFO25005. Courtesy of L’Appartement and Objects with Narratives.
Credit Marteen Vrolijk
Mariana Oushiro, Color Wheel Shaped the News, 2025. Courtesy of the artist © Mariana Oushiro
Credit Jason Martin/Buchmann Galerie
Mariana Oushiro (b. 1992, Brazil – based in New York) creates a counterpoint with her paintings—floating on the walls, gestural and geometric, , introducing a sense of movement, emotion, and spatial rhythm.
At its core, the exhibition explores how divergent practices can converge through a shared language of material exploration, and how architecture, in its many guises, informs and inspires the creative act.
PROTOTYPE – An exhibition of the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection at Studio Odeonsplatz
Credit Salomé Chatriot/Mercedes-Benz
At the beginning of 2025, under the title “PROTOTYPE – An exhibition of the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection at Studio Odeonsplatz,” the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection presented works by six international contemporary artists. These artists explored the concept of the prototype and its potential for innovation in various ways. Drawing inspiration from automotive design history, modern media, and digital culture, their artworks blend physical and digital elements. The collection included everything from an experimental video game and blockchain-based integrations to visual compositions inspired by human breath. The exhibition was curated by the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection, in collaboration with external curator Christopher Dake-Outhet.
In Salomé Chatriot’s artworks, machine and organic qualities merge into bodily landscapes. Through sculpture, painting, and a rendering program that translates the artist’s breathing into images, she expands the exploration of technology to include aspects of gender, identity, and physicality.
Untitled (Aqua blue), 2020 – Cold process dye on watercolour paper 77 x 58 cm / 30¼ x 22¾ in
Credit Dave Morgan, Jason Martin Studio, London, 2024 Courtesy the artist and Buchmann Galerie
At the Buchmann Galerie earlier in 2025, Pole Star was presented as a solo exhibition by Jason Martin, featuring 20 new large-scale works on paper and five oil paintings. In the works on paper, Martin experiments with dyes that do not contain traditional pigments, like oil or acrylic paints. These dyes have complex, reactive interactions with moisture, light, and heat, leading to unpredictable effects. This process creates a dynamic interplay between control and chance, offering the artist unique opportunities for experimentation.
JM Mangazaou V 2023 Cold process dye & gouache on watercolour paper 58x38cm
Credit Dave Morgan, Jason Martin Studio, London, 2024, Courtesy the artist and Buchmann Galerie
Sheik Zayed Road, Léa Mestre
Credit Nicky Roding
Carpenters Workshop Gallery returned to Design Miami. Paris 2025 with a display of artworks featuring lighting, seating, video and other mediums that together testify to the rich diversity of practice found in modern and contemporary design.
Léa Mestres, a French artist and designer based in Vernon, Giverny, challenges a design world that she believes often feels too serious and masculine. She stands out with fun, colorful objects that are intentionally bright and breezy, reflecting her own personality. It is crucial to her that she designs objects that bring joy to others rather than something elegant but characterless. She finds inspiration in the absurd and mentions her frequent visits to the Salvador Dali Museum in Figuras, Spain, as particularly influential. Quirky details like the stylized pattern of brioche and eggs that cover the museum’s walls have influenced the uninhibited expression in her work.
ROOT Sofa and ROOT Side table by Roham Shamekh, 2025.
Credit Courtesy of Roham Shamekh Studio
At the 2025 Design Miami Curio Programme in December, multidisciplinary artist and designer Roham Shamekh presented his new R O O TS collection: a sofa and two side tables that invite visitors to explore their sense of belonging within an immersive sound environment inspired by natural soundscapes.
ROOT Sofa and ROOT Side table by Roham Shamekh, 2025.
Credit Courtesy of Roham Shamekh Studio
Conceived in Shamekh’s Dubai-based studio, the R O O T S collection exists as both object and organism, challenging traditional definitions of design. The centerpiece of the booth is a hand-carved white sofa made from ceramic and epoxy resin, accompanied by two side tables with flowing surfaces that resemble root-like tendrils. Positioned at the intersection of sculpture and soundscape, this new body of work encourages us to question how our origins connect to each other, forming a unified system. It reflects how roots never stop growing and spreading everywhere—just like humanity.
Museum of Art Pudong (MAP)
Credit Salomé Chatriot/Mercedes-Benz
Museum of Art Pudong and the Louvre’s first-ever collaboration exhibition, The Wonder of Patterns, showcases about 300 works that demonstrate the artistic brilliance of India, Iran, and the Ottoman worlds.
Joining forces with the Musée du Louvre in France, one of the most renowned institutions in the world, the Museum of Art Pudong (MAP) will present another major exhibition, The Wonder of Patterns: Masterpieces from India, Iran, and the Ottoman World from the Musée du Louvre, starting December 13, 2025. This exhibition marks the Louvre’s first-ever showcase in Shanghai and is the largest the museum has ever organized in China. Spanning from the 16th to the 19th centuries and covering three continents—Asia, Africa, and Europe—the exhibition is divided into three sections, featuring approximately 300 treasured pieces from the Louvre’s collection.
These exhibits include a wide range of important categories from Indian, Iranian, and Ottoman art, such as ceramics, jewelry, jade and hardstone objects, glassware, metalware, carpets, calligraphy, paintings, sculptures, and wood carvings. Importantly, several works that have never been shown publicly at the Louvre since their acquisition will be unveiled for the first time through this exhibition. As this journey travels across regions, these masterpieces are set to initiate a new dialogue between civilizations in Shanghai.
