1) Italian Studio Creates an Armchair You Can Grow 

Italian-based design company Studio Nucleo has created an armchair that you can grow in your backyard. When it’s finished, Terra is a grass-covered hill of an armchair that rises out of your lawn. The chair is shipped to buyers as a folding set of cardboard plates, which are then slotted together, filled in with soil and grass seed, and left to grow. Terra is an update on a more complex design that the company had already created in 2000, but the earlier design was not publicly available. According to the designers, the new green space created by the chair effectively cancels out the carbon footprint caused by its shipping process.

2) Mariko Mori and Others at the Rio Olympics

Hyperallergic has compiled a list of the greatest public artworks appearing as part of the Rio Olympics, and Mariko Mori tops the list. The artist created a simple yet powerful work atop a 190-foot waterfall in Cunhambebe State Park. The work, titled Ring: One With Nature features a 10 foot acrylic ring that is luminous and changes color, from light blue to a golden hue, as the sun hits it at different angles. Other notable contributions are a kinetic sculpture by Anthony Howe - that stood beside the torch as it was lit for the opening ceremonies – and a possible record-breaking outdoor mural by Eduardo Kobra.

3) Jewish Museum Offers Art to Crowdfunding Supporters

The Jewish Museum in New York has launched a crowdfunding campaign – its first – to facilitate the launch of its latest exhibition “Take Me (I’m Yours)”. The exhibition itself is a revamped version of an exhibition of the same title that took place at London’s Serpentine Gallery in 1995. The show featured works by several artists, components of which could be taken home by the viewers, thus challenging notions of the value and exclusivity of art ownership. Contributors to the Jewish Museum’s crowdfunding campaign will have the opportunity to receive specially-design art merchandise, and when the show itself opens, viewers will be able to take home bits and pieces.

4) An Exploration of Monsters in Art

A little early for Halloween – but here’s an article in The Guardian about the long revered process of artists creating monsters. Many artists throughout the ages, including a young Leonardo Da Vinci have created fantastic beasts by combining elements of exotic (and local) animals. The resulting concoctions have been appearing in famous and unknown works of art for many centuries, with some monsters living on to become part of pop culture. More interesting are the bizarre mythical creatures that faded into oblivion and are being rediscovered by art historians and appreciators.