While much buzz has been generated around Art Basel-Miami, there’s still room to celebrate the contemporary a little further south. Crea en Cuba, focusing on contemporary Cuban design is currently on view in Havana, and remains so until December 20, 2008. (Via Design Boom).

A Selectism favorite after the jump.

When Alisa from Kiosk offered Andy Beach a chance to have a shop of his own, he jumped on the opportunity. “It was a test and challenge of my decision making and proxy bidding skills,” as Mr. beach tells us. His project, Reference Library, is a collection of found objects on eBay and other collected works of things which attracts the eyes of thousands of views daily to his blog. The Mini-Exhibition inside of Kiosk is a chance for readers to come views and even purchase some of Mr. Beach’s finds. 

For Mini-Exhibition #8: Reference Library, visitors can expect goods from the likes of Workers, Sear, Roebuck and Co.,IKEA, Geoff McFetridge, Colby Printing, and more. Mini-Exhibition #8 will open this Friday, Nov 28th at 95 Spring St between Broadway and Mercer in NYC.

More views of the items available at the Kiosk Mini-Exhibition #8 after the jump.

Open now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Frank O. Gehry: Design Process and the Lewis House explores the architects decade long commission (1985-95) for Peter Lewis’ home in Lyndhurst, OH. This project was critical in allowing Gehry to experiment and ultimately devise the geometric language that has become his calling card. What began as a remodeling job ended up changing the course of Gehry’s design process — and with it the face of some much loved public architecture.

The exhibition includes models, drawings and jewelry — all which help illustrate the Gehry design process. The exhibit runs until April 5, 2009. (VIa The Bee).

A few Gehry bits and bobs to wet the appetite follow.

Often, the unbuilt is more exciting than the built. For example, Henry Hobson Richardson’s design for the Connecticut State House or the work of Italian futurist Antonio Sant’elia. Paper architecture, as the historians call it, allows us to see visions of the world that never come to fruition.

In Baghdad, dreams of hosting an Olympic Games yield such visions. Le Corbusier was commissioned to design the stadium and related venues. The project became the basis for Baghdad’s bid for the 1960 games, and remained on Le Corbusier’s desk until his death. In 1981, the gymnasium was actually constructed, but all other buildings failed to materialize.

The Olympic Stadium Project: Le Corbusier and Baghdad at the V&A, allows a glimpse into the project and a rare view into Le Corbusier’s vision of an Olympic facility. The exhibition is on view until March 29, 2009.

Opening today is the Eltobb Tep Issey Miyake’s ‘Laundromat’ exhibition in collaboration with Own magazine. Located in Issey Miyake’s store, the exhibition opens today and carries on until December 25, so there’s plenty of time to pay a visit if you’re not based in Osaka. The collaboration also extends to accessories, as they’ve also created a laundry bag to mark to occasion. Take a look at that and the exhibition after the jump.

Forty quid for a masterpiece is, you might agree, quite a deal. And, it’s also the essential idea behind the RCA Secret sale, which will take place in London starting from today (and remains open one week). Prominent artists and designers, for instance Paul Smith and Yoko Ono, are invited along side art students to donate a post card size work of art (like those pictured above). These are then sold anonymously. Over 2,500 are available during the 2008 show. The idea is, presumably, try you’re luck you might end up with a Hirst. However, you might be more optimistic and go in thinking that whatever strikes your fancy might just turn to art gold.

The sale is housed at Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, SW7.

Via: Wallpaper*

Eugene Masselink (1910–1962) joined Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesan Fellowship in 1933 as a graphic designer and assistant to Wright. Known as Gene to his colleagues and Wright clients, he quickly became one of Wright’s most trusted protégés and one of the significant talents in the Wright office, producing decorative designs for interiors of many Wright commissions.

Masselink was born in Capetown, South Africa, and moved with his family to Grand Rapids where he grew up. He remained with Taliesan after Wright’s death in 1959 and died suddenly from a heart attack three years later in 1962. In recent years, the designs that he created for the Wright office have gained increased recognition. In 2006 the art museum acquired an important screen that Masselink designed for the Elizabeth Gordon House in 1956.

Eugene Masselink: Drawings for Frank Lloyd Wright opens tomorrow at Grand Rapids Art Museum. The Museum is the worlds first LEED certified museum. The eight drawings exhibited are on loan from Taliesan West, and this is the first time they have been displayed outside of Arizona.

After the bad taste generated by the recent Chanel “exhibition” Zaha Hadid is back in the news with a more tasteful show. The collection of her swirling furniture forms at Sonnabend, with some material at a recently vacated garage. Yanko Design has a strong write up of the material, mentioning that its strength comes in range. A number of forms are represented, and the ideas Hadid brings to them explored fully.

Zaha Hadid remains on view until December 13, 2008.

Via: Yanko and Rove TV.

Favorites from the show follow.

The Contemporary Craft collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is one of the institutions hidden gems. Interest in that collecting sub-section emerged in the 1860s, and continues strongly today. Cultural Convergence represents the PMAs most recent craft acquisitions. Among the group, and pictured above, is George Johnson’s Rooster Six-Pack (1992). The work is among several treasures on display from now until mid-march.

The PMA’s commitment to Craft extends to one of the nations finest juried fairs. This year, it takes place from November 13-16. Not to be missed. Proceeds from the fair help fund education, conservation and publication programs at the museum.

What we eat, where we eat and how we eat is an inescapable component to “culture.” Foodways, you might have noticed, is a common – if subtle – theme here. A new exhibition at Winterthur opens tomorrow, November 1, and will help satiate our interest for a while.

Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500 – 2005 draws objects from the Cooper-Hewit and documents from the Winterthur library together to tell the tale of flatware. Lest you think the knife, fork and spoon are boring, changes and design developments in these implaments reveal a rich and exciting history of dinning. The theater of the table! Perhaps an overly grand sentiment, but still the exhibition has all the elements of a great material culture exercise. Start small, reveal a wealth of cultural discovery.

Couple a trip to the exhibit with next weekends Delaware Antique Show (the fall’s best collection of dealers, objects and amusingly attired collectors), tag on dinner at MORO, and you’ll have pretty much exhausted the first state’s big city of Wilmington.