Ode to Eva
Industrial designer Eva Zeisel lived to the age of 105 before passing away in December. A child of the Art Deco era and the Weimar Republic, she combined modern lines with classical forms to create dinner pieces that changed the way Americans thought about tableware. This Thursday, in her memory, Cooper-Hewitt director Bill Moggridge will host a discussion with designers James Klein and David Reid, and art critic Jed Perl on Zeisel’s life, work, and legacy (The Greene Space, 44 Charlton St., at Varick St.; 6:30-8 p.m.; $17, $10 seniors, free to students and Cooper-Hewitt members; cooperhewitt.org).
Be Still My Cube
The Times Square Alliance’s fourth annual Valentine’s Day sculpture has been unveiled. This year’s project, designed by the Bjarke Ingels group and produced with the help of local studios Flatcut and Local Projects, is a ten-foot glowing cube consisting of 400 acrylic tubes lit up by motion-sensor-powered LED lights. The greater the chaos around the heart sculpture, the faster the lights will pulsate, and the brighter the cube will glow. See it in front of the TKTS booth at Father Duffy Square (46th St. and Broadway, thru 2/29).
Hot for Pocket Protectors
Start-up consultancy Magenta Labs’s Nerd Valentine project (tagline: “Valentine’s Day gift ideas for the nerd in your life”) is a simple Tumblr updated a few times a day with items culled from across the web. You’ll find merch with prints referencing HTML code, tech-geek in-jokes, and comic memes, all with an emphasis on graphic design. So if your sweetheart would find a pendant necklace in the shape of a computer power button to be a turn-on—get it?—it’s your lucky day ($75; nerdvalentine.tumblr.com).
Glass House
In the event that you didn’t make it to the last two Venice Biennales, you can catch up on what you missed beginning next Tuesday at the Museum of Arts and Design’s new exhibition. “Glasstress New York: New Art From the Venice Biennales” features glass objects created in collaboration with Adriano Berengo and Venice Projects and includes work by Jan Fabre, Patricia Urquiola, and Vik Muniz. Pieces range in style from simple design objects to monumental sculptures (2 Columbus Cir., nr. Broadway; madmuseum.org; through 6/10).