Mid-Century Modernism Goes Rogue in "Chair-ish"

"Multiple examples of such objects can be found in the group show The Heresy of Legacy, currently on view at Volume Gallery, which recently decamped to a new and larger location a few blocks from their old place in West Town. The exhibition title is a bit on the nose, but the experimental chairs are delightful."

"Chitty is a sculptor known for taking high-design objects as her raw material; Teague is an exceptionally artful furniture designer. Both are well loved and well represented locally, but they have never worked together before. Indeed, the exhibition isn't exactly a collaboration, though it was originally meant to be."

"A 2003 riff by the late master woodworker Garry Knox Bennett jams Gerrit Rietveld's Zig Zag with an old-school ladder back by literally inserting a miniature ladder into its seat back. Matt Olson/OOIEE takes apart an imitation Marcel Breuer Cesca then puts it together again, upside down and backwards, yet somehow still functional."

Two exhibitions showcase artists who subvert classic furniture design through radical reimagining. At Volume Gallery, The Heresy of Legacy features experimental chairs that deconstruct modernist icons, including works by Garry Knox Bennett, Matt Olson, and Norman Kelley that combine, invert, or hybridize celebrated designs. At the Cleve Carney Museum of Art, sculptor Alex Chitty and furniture designer Norman Teague present Chair-ish, a parallel exhibition where both artists work independently yet in dialogue with each other. Rather than direct collaboration, they inspire and grant each other permission to challenge design conventions, transforming high-design objects into provocative sculptural works that question the sanctity of design legacy.

Read at Hyperallergic