Arts and minds
Contemporary art and design to provoke and challenge in a trio of cities.
The work of 70 artists will be on show at seven venues during the 21st Biennale of Sydney, opening on 15 March with an address by China's Ai Weiwei at the Sydney Opera House. His work
Law of the Journey (above) will be on display on Cockatoo Island. From its HQ at the Powerhouse Museum, the Sydney Design Festival runs 2-11 March. And contemporary art in small galleries is the focus of Art Month Sydney (1-25 March).
Opening this month in the Southbank arts precinct, this gallery designed by Fender Katsalidis houses the extensive Australian art collection of Melbourne property developer Michael Buxton (above), assembled over 23 years.
A packed program of performance and parties during Hong Kong Arts Month culminates in the city's chapter of Art Basel, drawing a who's who of international gallerists, art patrons and global artists for high-level schmoozing from 28 to 31 March.
Gucci has opened the Gucci Garden Galleria in Florence: part museum, part boutique, and home to the stunning 55-seat restaurant Gucci Osteria da
Massimo Bottura. The food is by Osteria Francescana chef Massimo Bottura and the dining room is painted bright green with Instagram-friendly velvet banquettes and rose-patterned crockery. Bottura's all-day menu includes the likes of a fried corn tostada with bonito and the Emilia, a burger with a cotechino patty, Parmigiano-Reggiano and salsa verde. Come dessert, you could opt for a Spritz sorbet or sour-cherry cheesecake, perhaps, or skip it and head next door for a spot of shopping or an experimental film in the Gucci cinema. Upstairs, a display of archival pieces from the fashion house dates back to the 1920s.
Saint Peter chef Josh Niland is giving the humble fishmonger a reboot. At Fish Butchery, slated to open in April a few doors along from Saint Peter, he intends to revolutionise the way we buy and cook fish for home. Fish will be handled dry, and kept in static fridges below two degrees Celsius, as per the protocols used by serious seafood restaurants. Larger species such as albacore and Spanish mackerel will hang in a case as eye candy, while the lesser-known fish will be championed – including Mooloolaba broadbill on the bone, fillets of Port Lincoln nannygai and butterflied Nelson Bay garfish. The shop will also serve as a new takeaway outlet for Saint Peter's celebrated fish and chips.
Joseph Abboud (Rumi, Moor's Head) has taken over the old Rosa's Kitchen site in Chinatown's Punch Lane. The new Middle Eastern restaurant, Bar Saracen, is headed up by former Rumi chef Tom Sarafian, with Abboud's business partner Ari Vlassopoulos (Rosa's Canteen) on the floor. When it opens this month, expect the likes of fried kaak with fish tarator, a Lebanese tahini-style sauce, and lamb heart iskender with tomato and yoghurt. And the drinks? Arak and raki, of course, and wines from Sicily, Turkey, Lebanon and “anywhere the Saracens got to”, says Abboud.