Studio Tashtego is pleased to announce Bends & Folds: a group exhibition featuring artists who incorporate curvature within their forms.The show will open on November 4th and run through January 14th at our Cold Spring gallery.
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 4th, 5-7pm
Exhibition Dates: November 5th-January 14th
On view will be furniture from American woodworker and artist Kentaro Takashina and ceramic artist Natalia Engelhardt; sculptures by Chilean ceramic artist Soledad Christie, Swedish ceramic artist Alvina Jakobssen, and French ceramic artist Camille Le Dressay; vessels by Japanese ceramic artist Hiroshi Toyofuku, American ceramic artist Bonnie Levine, and Irish woodworker Alan Meredith, and a hanging light fixture by American ceramic and lighting designer Scott Strickstein.
These multi-disciplinary artists explore the ways curves can be employed to create form, convey visual rhythm, or communicate an idea. Each of their work can be understood alone, but together they create a dialogue on form that intrigues and inspires us.
Curves in art are most often associated with feminine bodies, perhaps because we collectively seek maternal comfort in many forms. Bonnie Levine's We series depicts this maternal energy as two vessels snuggled together, with one form often partially enveloping the other in a protective embrace. Similarly, Natalia Engelhardt's ceramic furniture brings to mind the subtle dimpling and softness of flesh. Soledad Christie, through the soft forms of her hand burnished vessels, evokes the curves found in bodily movement. Each piece sways and leans like a dancer bending through graceful movements.
Morten Stenbaek's stack laminated Columnea wall shelf draws on similarly nature-inspired organic curves, its carefully carved and curving stem giving way to a tabletop that blooms upward. In Alvina Jakobsson's Lystra, pleated curves repeat to create a mesmerizing and complex surface on an otherwise monolithic form, like a trunk covered in mushroom caps. Inspired by terrestrial formations both underwater and on land, Camille Le Dressay’s work invites the viewer to explore a variety of angles on different cavities, voids, and slopes.
Curves are at their most impactful when used with restraint to create distinctive yet pared down forms. Kentaro Takashina employs a unique woodworking method called cold molding to bend strips of wood around a hollow frame, resulting in simple elemental forms with complex patterned surfaces. In similarly elemental forms, Hiroshi Toyofuku uses curved planar surfaces to create vessels that wrap and bend around their interior space.
Together, the lines of these works represent both the visual and conceptual aspects of curvature found in art. Lines and planes that curve convey a sense of movement that can be either short or meandering, rhythmic or dissonant, soft or steep. Even in the descriptive terms we use to describe curves, we discover a musicality. There's an innately pleasing quality about them that goes beyond the visual and strikes at something deeper within our collective experience. Our shared appreciation for nature, the human body, and visual rhythm.
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 4th, 5-7pm
Exhibition Dates: November 5th-January 14th
On view will be furniture from American woodworker and artist Kentaro Takashina and ceramic artist Natalia Engelhardt; sculptures by Chilean ceramic artist Soledad Christie, Swedish ceramic artist Alvina Jakobssen, and French ceramic artist Camille Le Dressay; vessels by Japanese ceramic artist Hiroshi Toyofuku, American ceramic artist Bonnie Levine, and Irish woodworker Alan Meredith, and a hanging light fixture by American ceramic and lighting designer Scott Strickstein.
These multi-disciplinary artists explore the ways curves can be employed to create form, convey visual rhythm, or communicate an idea. Each of their work can be understood alone, but together they create a dialogue on form that intrigues and inspires us.
Curves in art are most often associated with feminine bodies, perhaps because we collectively seek maternal comfort in many forms. Bonnie Levine's We series depicts this maternal energy as two vessels snuggled together, with one form often partially enveloping the other in a protective embrace. Similarly, Natalia Engelhardt's ceramic furniture brings to mind the subtle dimpling and softness of flesh. Soledad Christie, through the soft forms of her hand burnished vessels, evokes the curves found in bodily movement. Each piece sways and leans like a dancer bending through graceful movements.
Morten Stenbaek's stack laminated Columnea wall shelf draws on similarly nature-inspired organic curves, its carefully carved and curving stem giving way to a tabletop that blooms upward. In Alvina Jakobsson's Lystra, pleated curves repeat to create a mesmerizing and complex surface on an otherwise monolithic form, like a trunk covered in mushroom caps. Inspired by terrestrial formations both underwater and on land, Camille Le Dressay’s work invites the viewer to explore a variety of angles on different cavities, voids, and slopes.
Curves are at their most impactful when used with restraint to create distinctive yet pared down forms. Kentaro Takashina employs a unique woodworking method called cold molding to bend strips of wood around a hollow frame, resulting in simple elemental forms with complex patterned surfaces. In similarly elemental forms, Hiroshi Toyofuku uses curved planar surfaces to create vessels that wrap and bend around their interior space.
Together, the lines of these works represent both the visual and conceptual aspects of curvature found in art. Lines and planes that curve convey a sense of movement that can be either short or meandering, rhythmic or dissonant, soft or steep. Even in the descriptive terms we use to describe curves, we discover a musicality. There's an innately pleasing quality about them that goes beyond the visual and strikes at something deeper within our collective experience. Our shared appreciation for nature, the human body, and visual rhythm.