Westweek 2010 offers parties and pottery <br> at the Pacific Design Center
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Westweek 2010: Design Revolution is upon us. Sponsored by the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, the event Wednesday and Thursday can be less revolution and more self-promotion, two days of pushing new high-end products and interior designer services amid the panels, signings and awards.
Still, for home decor fans, it’s a great opportunity to prowl the ‘Blue Whale’ (the industry nickname for architect Cesar Pelli’s 1975 building), check out new furniture, rub elbows with decorators and get tipsy on complimentary white wine. (From 5 to 8 p.m., things tend to get mighty bubbly.) Most of the events are free and open to the public. Celebrations also spill out of the PDC to nearby showrooms such as Hollywood at Home, which presents a cocktail-party preview of textile designs by Peter Dunham and Martyn Lawrence Bullard on Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. This year’s schmooze-fest might be muted considering the hard hit that the industry has taken from the economy. In fact, the PDC’s most innovative initiative in the last year has been to offer vacant showrooms as free art gallery spaces.
Artist and curator Roger Herman has taken advantage of that ‘Design Loves Art’ program at PDC to launch the art show Keramik during Westweek. The exhibit (in suite B 324) features work by more than a dozen ceramic artists, including Erik Otsea, a co-designer of L.A.’s Plain Air furniture, whose hand-thrown modernist-primitive earthenware vessels, above left, sell from $350 up. Herman’s wheel-thrown stoneware pieces, above right, are ‘hand glazed with cats and dogs and naked girls.’ They cost $900 and up.
In keeping with Westweek tradition, Herman adds, there will be a reception for the artists Thursday, 3 to 8 p.m. ‘No food,’ says Herman, ‘but we’ll have some booze, I guess.’
-- David A. Keeps
Become a fan: For daily design headlines and sales alerts, click to our Facebook page. Photo credits: Erik Otsea pottery, Erik Otsea; Roger Herman pottery, Josh White