Back in the living room of her Chevy Chase, Maryland, home, Luttwak discusses the major theme of her art. “I like the idea of uncovering roots, taking them out of the ground, revealing what nature chose not to show,” the sculptor says. Long before shaping these forms, she collected root specimens found on neighborhood walks or dug up in her garden. 

One day while disposing of a late-summer basil plant, she noticed its distinctive root nodules. “Plants have such different root systems; some are fantastic looking,” she points out. “I was inspired, but didn’t do anything with it. ‘Nature is so perfect,’ I thought, ‘Who am I to even try to make anything like it?’” 

Then, in 2006, she did just that. After only two attempts, Luttwak recalls, “I immediately knew that this was mine. I’m not copying nature; my aim is to create interesting visual effects for the viewer.” 

At that stage, her metal-working skills had advanced. Since first taking metal classes at Montgomery College 15 years earlier, she had been designing and making one-of-a-kind silver and gold jewelry, along with pewter vessels and Judaica.

Deciding to scale up in 2006, she began to work in steel. Heating and connecting two pieces using that material produces a blobby residue, which typically is removed as an error. In her sculptures, it remains. “For root systems,” she observes, “the more weld-building that shows, the more organic and natural it looks.”

Luttwak’s works, both outdoors and in, are intended for specific sites, from the 100-foot-wide Root of Sweet Potato that courses 30 feet down the stone walls of a Sicilian castle to the attenuated, branch-like structures, echoed as shadows against the white walls of a residence in Israel. 

Whenever possible, the artist begins by taking a photo of the location, printing it out and hand-drawing the sculpture on top. Designs are often constructed in her light-filled basement studio. Starting with at least five steel rods of different dimensions, she cuts them to size, heats them up in her studio forge and, once malleable, shapes them on an anvil. When the steel is red-hot, “it’s as soft as butter,” she says. “But you don’t have much time; steel becomes hard very quickly.” Formed pieces are then fused together by welding.

Each sculpture is composed in sections. For works that are too heavy, too awkward or too big to handle, the sculptor heads to Metal Specialties in Spencerville, Maryland, for help with fabrication and installation.

Since first presenting her work at the 2011 International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, she has received five public and private commissions in Italy, with more underway. 

Luttwak’s ongoing fascination with roots may have been instilled early on. She was born on a kibbutz in Israel’s Upper Galilee, in a valley of relatively plentiful flora and fauna. Later attending Hebrew University in Jerusalem, she studied law before transitioning to art history and political science. “Basically,” she remembers, “I always wanted to be an artist.” A part-time job guiding visitors through the Israel Museum’s ceremonial art collection enhanced her appreciation for these historical metal forms. She met her husband in Jerusalem; the couple moved to Washington in 1972 when he pursued a doctorate. 

Luttwak starts a piece by researching root systems online, unearthing their structures and exposing their hidden meanings. In Roots of Winter Wheat, a series exhibited at the World Bank, four sculptures illustrate an entire life cycle. “As the plant’s energy moves from the roots to the flowers,” she reflects,“its roots shrink. We don’t see that the roots are dying, but they are.” Her interpretation: “When we see something that is at its peak, something else has to give.”

In the sculptor’s front garden, several pieces once exhibited around the region are now on display. A cluster of bright-orange mangrove roots shoots from the earth like joyous trumpeters blaring. The long, lively Alfalfa Root at 4.5 Months ascends a huge evergreen.

Luttwak remarks, “Sometimes from inside the house, I see people stop and ask themselves, ‘What’s going on? Is it real? What is it?’” Brightening, she adds, “I like the process the viewer goes through—noticing the sculpture, thinking it’s like nothing they’ve seen before, then moving closer. I want people to stop and look and try to figure it out.”

For more information, visit dalyaluttwak.com. 

PERFECT PERCH  Designed by Sacha Lakic for Roche Bobois, the diminutive APEX pouf buries its wood frame entirely under a quilted cover. Available in a host of colorful fabrics at showrooms in Friendship Heights and Tysons. roche-bobois.com

UNDER GLASS  Orbit, a blown-glass side table by Jean-Marie Massaud for Poliform, boasts a round top seamlessly welded to a conical base for an airy silhouette. Find in two sizes at Poliform’s new Cady’s Alley location in Georgetown. poliform.it/en-us

CLOUD NINE The Elle Fabric Sofa by Bernhardt streamlines a classic kidney shape to conjure the softness of a cloud. The seat reaches to the floor, concealing its framework. Available at Belfort Furniture in Dulles. belfortfurniture.com; bernhardt.com 

HAPPY HOUR Made of lacquered MDF and rattan with brass, copper or nickel feet, the Traje de Luces bar cabinet by Portuguese design company Dooq recalls delicate architectural flourishes found in the south of Spain. It comes in a range of lacquered hues. dooqdetails.com

SKIN TIGHT As designed by Marie C Dorner, Ligne Roset’s Uncover seating collection comprises light, all-foam structures clad in stretch fabric for a skin-tight fit. Find at Ligne Roset in Upper Georgetown; the armchair is pictured. ligne-roset.com

SMALL WONDER The Wally workstation, a small-space solution by Resource Furniture, comes in melamine or lacquer. A touch lowers it via slow-open pistons while tech integrations add convenience. Find at the Cady’s Alley showroom. resourcefurniture.com

GOING MODERN Saka Home Furniture, which recently opened a showroom in Upper Georgetown, offers seating and tables in sleek, contemporary style. Pictured: The Demi Sofa combines matte-black steel legs with a tight seat and back in a wide selection of fabrics. sakahome.com

SLEEK SHAPE A curved, open silhouette distinguishes Room & Board’s Rhodes accent chair. A minimal metal base supports a hardwood frame concealed in foam and fiber and covered in leather or fabric. Available at Room & Board locations in DC and Bethesda. roomandboard.com

From the company’s T-shirts to runway attire, every piece is embellished with a thin red line that suggests a typo. “Someone can look at what you’re doing and think you’re living life the wrong way,” explains Brown. “But that’s just their opinion. The red line shows that you can own that typo and be proud of who you are.” 

Runway collections—including a wool-blend blazer and wrap skirt, pictured—will soon be available to pre-order at generationtypo.com.

The Ruse, a restaurant on site, has garnered accolades for its seafood-centric fare. It offers a raw bar and a beverage program focused on small-production beers and wines as well as contemporary cocktails.

Rates including Continental breakfast range from $249 to $559. thewildset.com; ruserestaurant.com

Against a traditional backdrop of shiplap siding and weathered oak floors, Merida introduced a fresh palette of white walls and upholstery that reflects the light, ensuring the owner’s distinctive paintings, sculptures and collections take center stage (vintage sand pails from the 1930s playfully displayed on a bookshelf, for instance). Pieces done by the owner also adorn the walls—primarily collages of textiles, paper and paint. 

No sooner was the project completed than Hurricane Ian arrived. “The owner barely got one season,” Merida says ruefully. Though the main floor was destroyed, luckily most one-of-a-kind pieces were saved. Designer and client are already at work restoring the home.

Architecture: Leslie Kelly, Leslie Kelly Architecture LLC, Wilmington, Delaware. Interior Design: Jamie Merida, Jamie Merida Interiors, Easton, Maryland. Builder: The Wolter Group, Fort Myers, Florida. Landscape Architecture: R.S. Walsh Landscaping, Fort Myers, Florida. Styling: Charlotte Safavi.

Sited on a hill overlooking vast plains, the 5,000-square-foot home was conceived in what the designer calls “California Spanish Modern” style—a distilled interpretation of Spanish architecture that embraces local vernacular with archways, stucco siding and a terracotta-tile roof. Walls of steel-framed glass create flow between airy interiors and outdoor spaces, which include sheltered gathering areas, a swimming pool and terraced gardens.

Boutlier clad the floors inside and out with limestone tile. He weighed in on room size and door placement and mocked up archways. Against crisp-white walls, he established a modern aesthetic with Italian furniture, abstract art and sculptural lighting. 

“The house is really meant for family to get together; the rooms are scaled well, so it feels intimate,” observes the designer. As a bonus, he adds, “On a clear day you can see all the way to the beaches of Del Mar—and to Tijuana.”

Architecture: Friehauf Architects, Solana Beach, California. Interior Design: Christopher Boutlier, Christopher Boutlier Interiors, Washington, DC. Kitchen Design: Anne Decker, AIA, Anne Decker Architects, Bethesda, Maryland. Builder: Mulvey Custom Builders, Del Mar, California. Landscape Architecture: TCLA Studio, Capistrano Beach, California. Styling: Anita Sarsidi.

The Lucid Air Sapphire brings a new level of luxury and performance to the electric-vehicle market. Featuring three motors, carbon-ceramic brakes and track-tuned suspension, it speeds from zero to 60 mph in under two seconds. California-based Lucid Motors is taking reservations for the 2023 limited-edition model, with delivery expected later this year.
From $249,000. lucidmotors.com 

AI for Avians

Bird Buddy, an AI-powered feeder, identifies and captures close-up photographs of feathered friends as they pop by for a snack. Connected to a smart phone via wifi, the camera-equipped device also records sound and notifies humans whenever a bird alights. Species data collected by the company helps experts study bird populations and migration. From $199. mybirdbuddy.com  

Deep-Sea Drone

QYSea’s V6s Professional Underwater ROV Camera captures and live-streams 4K HD footage of ocean adventures. The stainless-steel underwater drone can plumb depths of 328 feet and powers up to six hours on a single charge. Two LEDs illuminate marine scenery. Designed for professional and recreational use, the device also drags, drops and tows objects with a robotic arm. $3,199.
urbandrones.com

Monaghan was asked to engage with art from The Phillips’ collection for this show. He drew inspiration from two works, including a Théodore Géricault painting of horses cavorting among Greco-Roman ruins. “These ruins are a signifier of a lost or collapsed civilization,” says the Washington-based artist. “In my practice, I engage with history and ancient mythologies and reinterpret them for the digital age.”

Though his prints, sculptures and animation imagine a technology-driven future, Monaghan’s body of work is influenced by art, architecture and emblems of the past. His visually stunning imagery draws viewers in to experience “a cautionary tale,” as he describes it, posing questions about power, technology, consumer culture and the environment. Cloaked in ermine, robotic figures with LED lights for eyes stand in for royals. Gilded columns and frescoes adorn spaceships that undulate like jellyfish. Empty coffee shops and supermarkets with unmistakably familiar logos gleam like long-forgotten shrines.

Monaghan has exhibited globally, from the Sundance Film Festival to solo shows in Paris, St. Petersburg and Istanbul. His work can also be found in private collections.

H&D paid a visit to his bright studio at Catholic University, where he teaches digital art and design. Monaghan started out by explaining that his artistic path began when he was a kid in Rockaway Beach, New York, playing video games in his parents’ basement. He taught himself how to use 3D Studio Max—software he still uses today. “I didn’t have a whole lot of drawing or painting skills but knew I wanted to create moving and still imagery,” he recalls. “Anything you could dream up you could create using this software.” He went on to study computer graphics at the New York Institute of Technology, where he was inspired to craft more “challenging and experimental” pieces.

“I began to exhibit in galleries and have been an artist ever since,” Monaghan says. In 2011, he completed a master’s program in studio art at University of Maryland. “Having that experience was very valuable because I was going from making virtual forms to making physical forms,” he notes. “I got experience with sculpture and metal-casting and continue to make physical work and art objects.”

One of these, a faceless bust with a surface resembling tufted leather, was inspired by Apollo Belvedere, an ancient Roman relic. Monaghan’s sculpture was carved out of Carrara marble by a robotic milling arm in Italy and hand-finished by local artisans. A collaboration with Visionnaire, an Italian furniture brand, it was unveiled at Salone del Mobile in 2022 and at press time was shown at Art Basel Miami.

Initially, Monaghan brainstorms a new work on an old school sketch pad. “I start by making doodles, thumbnails and storyboards,” explains the artist, who also considers the environment where a work will appear. “Though it originates on a computer, it’s designed with the physicality of an installation in mind.”

“After Fabergé,” a 2017 exhibit at The Walters in Baltimore, displayed the museum’s jewel-encrusted Fabergé eggs alongside Monaghan’s digital prints; his takes on the precious objets d’art are embedded with tiny computer screens, satellite dishes and a Starbucks.

In these and other works, he often references the lavish ornamentation of the Baroque period. “The era defined by Baroque aesthetics—an era of strong central power and authority—didn’t do so well,” he asserts. “I recreate that opulence and draw connections between it and the decadence of the digital age.”

Beaches also recur in his dreamscapes. “I grew up between the natural expanse of the Atlantic and the concrete jungle of Manhattan,” says Monaghan. “The relationship between manmade and natural, between organic and synthetic—all of my work deals with the tensions between these different things.”

Monaghan’s surreal worlds are devoid of people, yet the human presence is always there. From Amazon to AirPods, he riffs on brands and technologies that are ubiquitous in daily life. “I think of my work as a dream,” he reflects. “In dreams, your fears and desires manifest as familiar imagery. In my animation, things we’re familiar with come together in a cryptic dance that’s hard to understand at first, but I think has an impact."

For more information, visit jonathanmonaghan.com.

New York-based architecture firm ODA conceived the project, known as The Wharf Parcel 8. Massed in the shape of a U, the structure comprises the hotel (pictured above) on one side with the apartments contained on the other. “We decided the hotel rooms would benefit from clear, unobstructed views of the water, while the residential units would be better suited to private outdoor spaces,” explains Eran Chen, ODA’s principal-in-charge on the project. “So the residential wing steps back and the hotel is pushed forward, creating a harmonious give and take.” 

Glass and metal clad the hotel while wood-stamped aluminum accents “warm and connect it to its natural context,” Chen notes. Courtyards inspired by those found in old European cities promote a strong indoor-outdoor connection; one at street level spills out to a shaded plaza and a boardwalk while another on the second floor is open to residents and hotel guests. 

The hotel cantilevers above the courtyards to facilitate water views from every guest room. This design creates more usable rooftop space for Moonraker, the hotel’s Japanese-inspired restaurant. The Pendry is also home to a Latin eatery called Flora Flora, the intimate Bar Pendry and a full-service spa. pendry.com/washington-dc

Architecture & Architect of Record: Eran Chen, AIA, founder and executive director, ODA, New York, New York. Interior Design: DesignAgency, Washington, DC. Contractor: Donohoe, Washington, DC.  

Just after sunset on a June outing, Sites watched as a great blue heron alighted on a rock near the historic beacon. “Clouds were so thick that the sky lit up yellow. I was sort of in the dark so the heron didn’t notice me,” he recalls. “It was an opportunity to get a picture of him.”

Sites loves capturing the beauty of the bay all year round. “I go out whenever I can,” he affirms. “It relaxes me.”

Eventually, the ships—dubbed the Ghost Fleet—evolved into artificial reefs that protect fish, birds, turtles and other species. And in 2019, the former ships’ graveyard was designated a national marine sanctuary.

When shooting his photo of Mallows Bay, “I laid down flat in my kayak to get close to the water,” Turcik recalls. “The angle made the ship look quite tall and proud.”

“When you talk about a vessel, you’re talking about the lip and body and foot,” she begins. “I want to use that comparison in a kind of autobiographical way.”

Beneath the surface of her pretty, feminine pieces lies deeper commentary. “Clothes imply bodies,” says Briegel, who often recasts items from her own closet in her art. “Instead of wearing the clothes, I’m reclaiming their identities to make functional objects that provide nourishment. It’s a little bit of body acceptance,” explains the potter, who traces a long line of artists using ceramic vessels as stand-ins for bodies, from the anthropomorphic bottles of Peru’s Moche society to modern vases by Picasso and Betty Woodman.

On a recent morning, Briegel is standing in the Randallstown, Maryland, farmhouse she shares with her partner, Matt Nierenberg. After the two met online, he wooed her with an offer of studio space in his childhood home. “I moved in on our third date and never left,” she says, smiling. “It worked out.”

As light streams into her basement studio, the ceramic artist demonstrates a few steps in her rigorous handcraft. It starts with a plaster mold of her creation. To make one, Briegel takes a lacy swatch cut from one of her dresses, flattens the 11-by-17-inch fabric on a sticky surface, places a barrier of boards around it and plugs up the edges with clay. She then pours in wet plaster and waits for it to dry, generally over two days. With this technique, the potter has amassed some 40 molds, each based on a different garment or fabric border.

Using a mold, Briegel creates a clay slab formed of three layers—the first painted into the mold’s crevices with a liquid clay called slip, the second a poured slip, then a layer of rolled clay pressed on top. Once all are bonded together, Briegel peels off the clay slab. Its pattern stands out in high relief, just like the lacy fabric it came from.

Porcelain is the potter’s clay of choice. “It captures all the details of fabric texture,” she says. “Its translucence relates to the see-through fabrics I use. And it is very challenging to work with. I’ve always been attracted to challenges.”

Case in point: Building a useful object out of pieces cut from the textured slab. Like a professional tailor, Briegel plans out patterns for cutting into the clay slab before joining pieces together. A single bowl may involve 10 seams. “With porcelain, the more seams you add, the more potential places there are for the object to crack,” says the potter, who fires most pieces three times in electric kilns located in a barn near her studio.

She minimizes breakage in part by throwing a separate base on a potter’s wheel, then attaching it to the object’s upper body. “I call that quilting them together,” she says. “I like to use the same language for the throwing and sewing processes.”

When she was nine, Briegel received a sewing machine as a Christmas gift; it now holds a place of honor in her office. “I grew up in the ‘Project Runway’ generation,” observes the 31-year-old. A highlight was the show’s “unconventional challenge” competition, which involved making garments from something other than fabric. “It had a big influence on what I do now,” she reflects.

Besides sewing, Briegel was also interested in painting and drawing, and intended to study arts education upon entering The University of Tennessee, Knoxville in her hometown. After taking a pottery class and meeting graduate students in the program, her goals expanded; she went on to receive a master’s of fine arts degree in ceramics at Ohio University.

The ceramicist also learned advanced clay techniques as an intern at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Montana—“a very formative experience,” she says. Landing the first residency at DC’s District Clay Center brought her to the East Coast; that was followed by a second residency at Baltimore Clayworks. Briegel is now an adjunct professor at Maryland Institute College of Art and teaches workshops on her technique around the country. For the past three years, she has exhibited at the Smithsonian Craft Show.

Briegel continues to experiment in her studio, striving to make pieces that are ever more comfortable to use. “I like my work to be functional—but beautifully functional,” she clarifies, continuing, “Wouldn’t you want to use a beautiful mug for your morning coffee? My work is pretty indulgent in that way. It adds a little bit of sparkle to the day.”

For more information, visit samanthabriegel.com.

Sound Control
Bluesound has introduced the Powernode Edge—a single-zone, wireless music-streaming amplifier. Once connected to speakers, the device delivers audiophile-grade amplification and supports MQA playback. More than 20 integrated music services and thousands of Internet radio stations are accessible on the Powernode Edge, controlled via app. Available in black or white; $649. bluesound.com

Into the Fold
C SEED recently unveiled the M1—a foldable MicroLED TV. Its sculptural column, which conceals an integrated sound system, rises from the floor and unfolds a display framed in aviation-grade aluminum. When not in use, the TV seamlessly disappears back into the floor. Available in silver, gold, black and titanium. From $247,000 for a 103-inch model. cseed.tv