The Painter Whose Canvases Have Hidden Messages

16.01.2025 - 11:17 / nytimes.com

Sarah Dusek first spent time in Africa in her twenties, as an NGO worker in rural Zimbabwe. The experience, she says, “ignited a profound appreciation for Africa’s landscapes and cultures, and for the resilience of its people.” In 2009, she and her husband, Jacob Dusek, co-founded Under Canvas, a zero-waste luxury glamping outfitter with camps across the U.S., modeled after African safaris. Now based between Montana and Cape Town, the couple have brought the lessons they learned with their first hospitality venture back to the continent that inspired it. In South Africa’s Soutpansberg Mountains, surrounded by baobab trees in the province of Limpopo, Few & Far Luvhondo opened Jan. 1 with six Cliff suites: Inside, curved beams recall tree trunks, and earth-toned patterns take their cues from local foliage and rock formations. The property’s vantage point means you might catch glimpses of giraffes and elephants from your terrace. Chef Nhlakanipho Sokhela serves seasonal tasting menus in the lodge’s restaurant, along with alfresco barbecues and gourmet bush picnics. For even loftier views, the lodge plans to unveil a 25-mile-long aerial experience called Solfari. Via a solar-powered cableway inspired by clusters of weavers’ nests, guests can silently soar above the UNESCO-designated Vhembe Biosphere Reserve’s mountains and rivers to spy on herds of buffalo and stalking leopards far below.

The Swiss watchmaker Movado was founded in 1881 under the name LAI Ditesheim & Frères; it adopted its current name in 1905. means “always in motion” in Esperanto, the language that was invented in the late 19th century in the hopes that it would become a universal lingua franca for international business. Though Esperanto never took off, Movado has been in business since, releasing minimalist women’s and men’s watches as well as regular artist-designed collaborations, the first of which was with Andy Warhol in 1987. Now, that tradition continues with a seven-piece collection of watches and wall clocks designed with the Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Derrick Adams. To Adams, the pairing immediately made sense: “Movado has a great sense of working with color-blocking and geometric form, both things I think about in my painting and art-making practice,” he says. Adams selected works that he felt best translated to the scale and circular form of a watch face. One watch features an image of a snorkel-masked swimmer clutching an inner tube, from his “Floaters” series (2016-19); another depicts an abstracted face recalling Cubist compositions inspired by his 2022 double portrait “Arting.” The latter’s strap features a bright pattern, which is not a print but a patchwork of individually dyed leather pieces.

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