COOL HUNTING®

Drawing on found objects (and people), kitsch and the banal, Philadelphia-based artist Alex Da Corte makes multimedia work that belies its material origins. This video visits his studio/apartment and his recent gallery show at Fleischer-Ollman to gain some insight into his ideas and technique. We also interview Fleischer-Ollman's director William Pym to get his take on the young artist.

A Pratt graduate who cut his teeth in the Brooklyn design scene, jewelry and furniture maker Kiel Mead represents the next generation of New York designers. Taking inspiration from such disparate sources as everyday objects (car keys, chewing gum, retainers) and Catholic iconography (Saint Sebastian, crucifixes), his work mixes irreverence with first-rate craftsmanship. In this video, we visit his Brooklyn studio where he shows us his work and walks us through his thought process. We also head to Brooklyn's renowned design outpost, The Future Perfect, to see his show with German design duo 45 Kilo called "Cleanliness is Next to Godliness."

Juxtaposing nature with man-made objects, Pennsylvania-based artist Lee Stoetzel uses woods chosen for their natural flaws to make large-scale sculptures. In this video we visit Lee at his home studio where he's disassembling his life-size replica of a VW bus to transport to an art fair. He also shows us his latest work?giant models of fixed-gear bikes?and his workshop.

Brooklyn-based tattooist Scott Campbell has taken the art form to another level?not just by being one of the most sought-after tattoo artists in NY (if not the world) but for using a laser cutter to etch his intricate old-world designs into everything from laptops and books to leather chairs, tables and paintings. In this field trip to Scott's Brooklyn tattoo parlor and studio, he shows us around, demonstrates how the laser works and does some coloring on a tattoo.

For nearly a decade the Lever House in New York City has been home to some of the most daring public exhibits of contemporary art. In this video curator Richard Marshall gives some background on the architectural landmark and explains the ins-and-outs of putting together the biannual commissions that have included the likes of Barnaby Furnace, Sarah Morris and Damien Hirst. In addition to past shows, we also get a close look at Richard Dupont's installation of larger-than-life distorted figures, the making of which we documented in our video profiling the artist.

To document MoMA's wonderful, monumental exhibit spanning design, science and technology, "Design and the Elastic Mind," we enlisted the help of the show's esteemed curator, Paola Antonelli. Paola speaks in detail about several of the exhibits, including "The Afterlife," a system for turning corpses into batteries, robots that act as personal climatizers and DNA origami. She also weighs in on her curatorial approach, addressing the role of the designer, her mission to shift public perception of design and how design revolutionizes our lives.

For our final video taking a closer look at this year's Whitney Biennial, we travel to the Harlem studio of video artist Mika Rottenberg. Known for videos depicting women engaging in elaborate systems of production that often harvest their own body, Mika shows us the set of her latest piece (and Biennial installation), "Cheese" and tells us the backstory of making the video. We also spend some time at the former brewery talking over her motivations and strategies?from the role that sound plays to finding her actors online.

This time around we chose to cover the Whitney Biennial with help from the museum's exhibition designer, Mark Steigelman. Last week's video on Olaf Breuning included a glimpse of his Biennial installation at the Park Avenue Armory (an off-site component that's new this year) and this episode is a select survey of the works by the 50-odd artists showing at the Whitney. Mark explains the challenges of laying out such a monumental exhibit, shows us a few of his prized sight lines and points out architectural features unique to the Marcel Breuer-designed building.

In honor of Swiss artist Olaf Breuning's inclusion in the 2008 Whitney Biennial, this video visits his Manhattan studio. In the midst of working on his two-part installation for the show, Olaf takes the time to explain his inspiration and thinking behind his mini army made of readymade objects and a recreation of a 1932 photograph. There's also plenty of examples of his other playfully absurd photographs, videos and sculptures as well as a few comments about how materials spark his creativity, pop culture and the differences of working out of a place of pleasure vs. struggle.

At the artisinal candy shop Papabubble in Manhattan (the first U.S. outpost following Barcelona, Amsterdam and Tokyo), mounds of colorful, flavor-packed "caramels" get whipped up daily. In this video we meet co-owner Fiona Ryan, watch her and another candymaker, Jelly, prepare a batch of the little treats and learn how Papabubble's quite unlike any other confectionery out there.

This video joins Simone Pace, best known as one-third of Blonde Redhead, on one of his vintage Italian motorcycles from an East Village garage, across the Brooklyn bridge, to the band's recording studio. Simone shares some of the design elements that make him a fan of Motoguzzis, offers some insight on Blonde Redhead's music and tells the story of the first time he played drums.

For our 99th episode, we visit the Manhattan studio of Richard Dupont who makes arresting figurative work using military scans of his own body. In this video he unmolds one of his distorted replicas of his body that he made using military scans, walking us through his process and some of the ideas that inform his work.

Mixing and manipulating corporate logos and traditional Chinese symbols, Shanghai-based artist Chen Hang Feng makes intricate paper cutouts that riff on both the era of mega-businesses and his own ancient heritage. This video visits Feng in his studio and accompanies him on a paper-finding walk while he talks about his work, his teacher and materials.

Following sculptor Michael DeLucia from his Brooklyn studio (shortly after completing studies in London) to his first gallery show, this video tells the story of a talented emerging artist's path. When we first visited Mike early last year, he showed us his current works incorporating industrial materials (brooms, mops, chain link fences) and walked us through some of his influences and ideas. Last December, we caught up with him at the Manhattan gallery, Rivington Arms to talk about the experience of getting a show and what's next.

If you've happened upon an unusual work of glass in a design store, magazine or Donna Karan's NY flagship over the last decade or so, it's probably a piece by the Portland-based studio Esque. In this video we visit the workshop and meet the duo behind Esque, Andi Kovel and Justin Parker, who formed the creative partnership in 1996 and have been subtly reinventing the artform since. Here, Andi explains her choice of medium and the two walk us through the process of creating one of their renowned water drop jugs.