Furniture Design Trends

A Boulder, California resident, Michael Beitz graduated from the University of Buffalo and holds a master of fine arts in sculpture. Michael Beitz is also the owner of an associate of applied science in fine art and specializes in sculpture and furniture design.

Furniture made out of natural materials is a trend in 2021 furniture design. Items and products manufactured from wool, wood, or stone offer a multi-sensorial pleasure and experience that other types of furniture made from plastic or metals cannot provide. In a world that is starting to be dominated by technology and virtual reality, natural material home and furniture designs offer a little bit of reality and a sense of human dimension in this technology-driven world. Painted furniture is still popular in 2021 and one of the reasons why is because it provides limitless opportunities.

Painting the furniture can offer fresh and innovative designs to a house and change its entire look. It is also a cost-effective solution to change the look of the house or renovate it and can easily be fixed with more paint if a person does not like it. It can offer both classic or modern looks depending on the view and personality of the person that paints the furniture.

K11 Musea Reimagines Shoppers’

An artist with over a decade of experience, Michael Beitz and his pieces have appeared in multiple international exhibitions. In 2019 a sculpture called Just Wait joined the rotating collection of pieces at K11 Musea, a multifaceted shopping mall in Hong Kong. K11 Musea aims to reimagine how consumers interact with fine art and culture, by pairing them with a familiar shopping experience.

Adrian Cheng conceived of K11 Musea, the latest shopping mall in the K11 chain, to not only modernize the Victoria Dockside district, but to create experiences absent from strictly retail shopping malls. He explains that although luxury retail is an in-demand industry, consumers’ expectations of retailers have increased. Therefore, by turning the act of shopping into a story that a visitor can tell to others, K11 Musea will outperform similar facilities.

K11 Musea contains fine art, luxury stores from well-known and upcoming brands, and dozens of restaurants, all intertwined. Over 40 curated artists’ pieces, scattered throughout the building, make fine art more accessible by placing them in the familiar shopping mall context. K11 Musea also hosts musical and theater performances, as well as cooking classes and cultural courses, to further promote Cheng’s vision for the site.

Scottsdale AZ Announces 1st Pocket Park

Since January of 2009, the Boulder, Colorado-based artist Michael Beitz has designed pieces in diverse media for display in international exhibitions of all sizes. In April of 2021, KJZZ, a local public radio station, announced the construction of a pocket park, designed by Michael Beitz. The pocket park, the first of its kind in the area, will ideally perform several functions.

Scottsdale Public Art public art manager Kevin Vaughan-Brubaker discussed the rationale behind the park’s construction during the interview announcing the project. Vaughan-Brubaker cited Scottsdale’s World War II origins, and the heightened importance of the automobile at the time, as leading to a neglect for the pedestrian experience. Due to the public’s interest in environmentally-friendly ways to commute to work, and the COVID-19 pandemic compelling workers to focus on their local communities, Vaughan-Brubaker wants the pocket park to liven the community in a way only experienced on foot.

During the same interview, Beitz elaborated on how his training as a sculptor and furniture designer informs how he will design the park, his first project on this scale. He plans to visit the location, to learn how people use the preexisting space. Then, using those observations, he will determine what features to include, and where to place them, to best serve the park’s users. As stated repeatedly during the interview, he wants the park to offer a reprieve from the urban environment around it and, whether a resident merely walks through it on their commute or stops there, that it makes them “feel good”.

How NYFA Helps Artists through Grants

Michael Beitz is an artist with a focus on sculpture and furniture design. Over the course of his artistic career, Michael Beitz has been a beneficiary of a few grants, including the New York Foundation for the Arts grant.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an organization that offers support, resources, and professional development tools to artists, art administrators, and emerging art organizations. The organization does this through its awards and grants, providing more than three million dollars every year to people in pursuit of artistic excellence.

One of the NYFA’s recently created grants is the City Artist Corp Grant. The grant is a part of the City Artist Corps, a 25 million dollar outlet meant to help artists impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The NYFA partnered with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs on this project. The City Artist Corp Grant will distribute $5,000 grants to more than 3,000 artists. The grant is open to artists who have been living in New York City since at least January 2021, among other conditions.