Spencer Bailey | The Slowdown

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Spencer Bailey

Spencer is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Slowdown. From 2013 to 2018, he was the editor-in-chief of Surface magazine. He has written at length about architecture, art, culture, design, and technology, and contributed to publications such as Town & Country, The New York Times Magazine, and Fortune.

Spencer's Articles

Clockwise from bottom left: Gohar World Egg Chandelier, Mini; Salvatori Ellipse Mortar and Pestle; Sohn Foot Pillow; Theory11 x Eleven Madison Park Limited-Edition Playing Cards; “Not Too Late”; “Philip Glass Piano Etudes”; Molteni & C Porta Volta Chair; Tom Dixon Tank Wine Set; Haws x Gardenheir watering cans. — Nine Timeless Gifts for the 2023 Holiday Season
6 minute read

Stefan Sagmeister. (Photo: Victor G. Jeffreys II) — Stefan Sagmeister Finds Optimism in the Long View
24 minute read

Cover of “Roman Stories” by Jhumpa Lahiri. (Courtesy Knopf) — The Gossamer Glow of Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Roman Stories”
7 minute read

Installation view of Edmund de Waal’s solo exhibition “this must be the place” (2023) at Gagosian in New York. (© Edmund de Waal. Photo: Rob McKeever. Courtesy Gagosian) — 5 Exhibitions You Can’t Miss This Fall
9 minute read

David W. Orr. (Photo: John Seyfried) — David W. Orr on the Inextricable Links Between Climate and Democracy
30 minute read

Christopher John Rogers. (Photo: Robin Kitchin. Courtesy Farrow & Ball) — The Vibrant, Kaleidoscopic Color Theory of Christopher John Rogers
26 minute read

Cover of “The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Essays on Desire and Consumption” by Katy Kelleher. (Courtesy Simon and Schuster) — Desiring Beauty, Even If It Kills Us
8 minute read

Courtesy Eddie Stern — Eddie Stern on the Physiological and Spiritual Power of Pranayama
29 minute read

vanessa german. (Photo: AJ Mitchell Photography. Courtesy Kasmin, New York) — vanessa german on Art as a Way of Life and Love as a “Human Technology”
43 minute read

Courtesy Daphne Javitch — The Go-To Routines and Rituals of Daphne Javitch
11 minute read

Cover of “Look: How to Pay Attention in a Distracted World” by Christian Madsbjerg. (Courtesy Riverhead Books) — In “Look,” Christian Madsbjerg Celebrates the Slow, Patient Act of Observation
8 minute read

Courtesy Sara Auster — Sara Auster on Fine-Tuning Your Life Through Sound Therapy
19 minute read

Vivian Rosenthal. (Courtesy Frequency Breathwork) — Vivian Rosenthal on the Profound Power of Holotropic Breathwork
12 minute read

Pedro Gadanho. (Courtesy Actar Publishers) — Pedro Gadanho on How Architecture Must Adapt to Our Ecological Emergency
24 minute read

David Adjaye (Photo: Anoush Abrar. Courtesy Adjaye Associates) — The Alchemy of David Adjaye’s Architecture
32 minute read

(Courtesy Millana Snow) — Millana Snow’s New Well-Being Plan
12 minute read

Installation view of “Thaddeus Mosley: Forest” at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. (Photo: Kevin Todora. Courtesy Nasher Sculpture Center) — 5 Exhibitions You Must See This Summer
8 minute read

Jaé Joseph. — Jaé Joseph on Broadening Notions of Luxury and Well-Being
11 minute read

Lina Ghotmeh. (Photo: Harry Richards. Courtesy Serpentine Galleries) — The Poetic, Humanistic Architecture of Lina Ghotmeh
29 minute read

Cover of “Worlds Without End” (2023) by Chris Impey. (Courtesy MIT Press) — Chris Impey on the New Space Race and Exoplanet Habitation
17 minute read

Courtesy Leonard Koren — From “WET” to “Wabi-Sabi”: Leonard Koren’s Adventurous Aesthetic Journey
31 minute read

The cover of “Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility” (2023). (Courtesy Haymarket Books) — In “Not Too Late,” a Vital, Kaleidoscopic View on the Climate Crisis
6 minute read

Rachelle Robinett. (Courtesy Pharmakon Supernatural) — Rachelle Robinett’s Science-Backed Approach to Herbalism
9 minute read

Jasmine Marie. (Photo: Gerald R. Carter Jr.) — A Breathwork Practitioner Making Space for Black Women to Feel Free
16 minute read

John Pawson. (Photo: Gilbert McCarragher. Courtesy Phaidon) — John Pawson’s Approach to Making Life Simpler
23 minute read

Daniel Humm. (Photo: Craic McDean) — Daniel Humm’s Giant, Thought-Provoking, Plant-Based Pivot
15 minute read

GUBI’s presentation at Bagni Misteriosi for Milan Design Week. (Courtesy GUBI) — 15 Standouts From Milan Design Week
13 minute read

Frances Moore Lappé. (Photo: Mamadi Doumbouya) — Frances Moore Lappé on Fifty-Plus Years of Plant-Based Eating (and Living)
19 minute read

“Untitled (Coalescence)” (2021), an installation made of resin, LED lights, and a microprocessor, by New York–based artist Palden Weinreb in the Rubin Museum’s Mandala Lab. (Photo: Rafael Gamo. Courtesy the Rubin Museum) — Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen on the Science-Backed Pleasures of Neuroaesthetics
8 minute read

Paola Navone. (Photo: Antonio Campanella) — Paola Navone on the Radical Act of Giving Things Away
23 minute read

One of three versions of Thomas Ball’s sculpture “Emancipation Group” on view at “re:mancipation.” (Courtesy the Chazen Museum of Art and the Colby College Museum of Art) — Sanford Biggers, a Collective of Artists, and a Museum Interrogate a Problematic Abraham Lincoln Monument
10 minute read

Lesley Lokko. (Photo: Murdo Macleod. Courtesy the African Futures Institute) — Lesley Lokko Positions Africa as a Laboratory for Harnessing the Vast Possibilities of the Future
16 minute read

Cover of “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life” by Dacher Keltner. (Courtesy Penguin Press) — Dacher Keltner on Why We All Need Daily Doses of Awe
17 minute read

Overlapping copies of “No Finish Line.” (Photo: Weston Colton. Courtesy Nike) — Nike Imagines the World 50 Years From Now
15 minute read

The classic “Blue Marble” image of the Earth, taken by the Apollo 17 crew on Dec. 7, 1972. (Courtesy NASA) — Marina Koren on Rethinking the “Overview Effect”
16 minute read

Cover of “Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory” by Janet Malcolm. (Courtesy Farrar, Straus and Giroux) — The Piercing Prose of the Late Janet Malcolm
9 minute read

Pieces in Brush’s “Wave” series of steel objects. (Photo: Takaaki Matsumoto. Courtesy Rizzoli Electa) — Remembering Daniel Brush and His Immaculate, Otherworldly Objects, Paintings, and Jewelry
16 minute read

The cover of “Question Everything: A Stone Reader,” co-edited by Simon Critchley and Peter Catapano. (Courtesy Liveright) — Simon Critchley on the Sheer Delight of Questioning Everything
13 minute read

Washington Square Park in New York City’s Greenwich Village. (Photo: Spencer Bailey) — A Walking Tour of Greenwich Village With Architecture Critic Michael Kimmelman
28 minute read

“Ilan's Garden” (2022) by Doron Langberg. (Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro) — As Art Basel Turns 20, Miami Art Week Enters a New, Slightly Less Hyped-Up Dawn
12 minute read

Courtesy Artisan Books — Ghetto Gastro’s Jon Gray on “Durag Diplomacy” and the Beauty of the Bronx
11 minute read

The Sculpture Gallery at The Glass House. (Photo: Michael Biondo) — Robert Stadler Has a “Playdate” With Philip Johnson at His Glass House
11 minute read

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s Shaku chair for Koyori. (Photo: Hiroshi Iwasaki) — With Jasper Morrison at Its Creative Helm, Japanese Furniture Company Koyori Makes Splendid Seats
3 minute read

Installation view of the “Hermès in the Making” exhibition in Troy, Michigan. (Photo: William Jess Laird) — In Detroit, a Six-Day Hermès Exhibition Celebrates Craft and Community
6 minute read

Rebecca van Bergen. (Photo: Wesley Law) — For Rebecca van Bergen, Craft Is a Means to Change the World
14 minute read

MASA gallery’s exhibition “Intervención/Intersección” at Rockefeller Center — Embracing Playfulness, an Exhibition Engages in the “Creative Porosity” Between Mexico and the U.S.
7 minute read

Vuslat Doğan Sabancı in front of artist Giuseppe Penone’s sculpture “Idee di Pietra–Olmo,” commissioned by the Vuslat Foundation for the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. (Photo: Enrico Fiorese) — Vuslat Doğan Sabancı Imagines a Better, Brighter World Full of “Generous Listening”
13 minute read

A Letter from Mother Teresa, submitted to the Museum of Material Memory by Siddharth Sunder. (Courtesy Museum of Material Memory) — A Digital Museum Tells Time-Honored Stories of the Indian Subcontinent Through Everyday Objects and Family Heirlooms
12 minute read

Elyn Zimmerman's 1993 World Trade Center bombing memorial — Elyn Zimmerman Created a Memorial to the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing—Then It Was Destroyed on 9/11
7 minute read

Menu items from Stephanie Goto's ice cream and champagne Omakase — Pairing Champagne and Ice Cream, Stephanie Goto Masterminds an Extraordinary Omakase
7 minute read

Potter Edmund de Waal with books — Master Potter Edmund de Waal on the Necessity of Revisiting the Past
6 minute read

A concrete home with a large window flanked by two trees — A New Book Surveys 11 Transcendent, Light-Filled Homes Designed by Tadao Ando
2 minute read

Stylist Kate Young in her office with high fashion dresses hanging in the background — Hollywood’s Go-To Stylist Kate Young on Her New YouTube Show
5 minute read