Daniella Ohad

Take a glass of wine before dinner and join me for a storytime, the story of modern design – at your home. Wherever you are across the globe, every Friday at 5:00 pm (EST), I will teach the program ‘The Story and History of Modern Design, 1850-2020’ – on Zoom. With the Center for Architecture/AIA. […]

This morning I had the sweet taste of going back to normal, when my program Collecting Design at the Center for Architecture/AIA has resumed as a webinar on Zoom. The topic,  as originally planned was ‘Japanese Contemporary Design.’ In order to understand 21st-century Japanese design, one has to know the traditional concepts that have shaped

As we all face the challenges of COVID-19, I have started a series of posts on a variety of themes related to design and architecture. I have asked influencers and key players in the world of design and architecture to express their voice on those questions. ​What is the most intriguing contemporary piece of furniture created this

​As I am currently writing a magazine article on Japanese contemporary design, it has occurred to me that while we have all been aware of the Japanese aesthetics in crafts – simplicity, vernacular, imperfection, irregularity — we should recognize its father. Tomorrow will mark the birthday of the man who is known as the guru

AboveI was first introduced to the work of American designer David Wiseman in the 2006 National Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt. For that legendary show, entitled ‘Design Life Now,’ he created a site specific installation in the form of Cherry Blossoms. His most ambitious work to date, it consisted of 500 porcelain blossoms, which grew

How sad. Italian architect Vittorio Gregotti (1927-2020), the father of the Venice Architecture Biennale has passed today of coronavirus in San Giuseppe clinic, Milan, at 92. Urban planner, architect, educator, curator, industrial designer, and a key figure in the Italian Communist Party, Gregotti was the embodiment of the Italian Renaissance Man. A pillar in the world of modern Italian

Misha Kahn opened his third solo exhibition at Friedman Benda last week and hosted my class in discussing the pieces, the process, the narrative, and what they mean. I was introduced to him at his first solo show four years ago. He was 27, created a space of chaos, full of tapestries, painted tiles, enormous

The pursuit of taste and developing eye and judgment for aesthetics is a life-long journey. I believe that taste can be acquired, that beauty is objective, and that one can develop a refined taste even if not growing up in a refined environment. In my program Collecting Design, I seek to show objets d’art through

Congratulating my dearest friend Brian McCarthy for receiving the prestigious Albert Hadley Lifetime Achievement Award tonight in the annual gala of the New York School of Interior Design. In a wonderful and chic evening,  at the University Club, McCarthy was cemented as a leading figure in the world of interior design. I was fortunate to be

Who is the ultimate connoisseur? With the opening of the remarkable retrospective “Eileen Gray” at the Bard Graduate Center last week, the name of the visionary modernist has re-entered the public consciousness, and surfaced in exhibition reviews and in conversations within the design community. Gray’s works have long been considered blue chip, and when her