The Chair

Apr 2019 - May 2019

The Chair

 

The Future Perfect is pleased to present The Chair, an exhibition of one-of-a-kind chairs from an international roster of artists and designers. Reinventing the chair is a singular challenge and one that begs the question: Why?

For generations the function of a chair has remained the same: an object specifically made for seating a person. The history of the chair echoes human evolution and over the millennia, this item has symbolized every facet of the zeitgeist, from Napoleonic thrones to the humble plastic school chairs produced in mid-century America.

In the words of the late David Bowie “Why bother choosing a certain chair? Because that chair says something about you.” Any budding aesthete knows instinctively that the chair represents the most sacred meeting of form and function; it’s a piece synonymous with support, the reliable foundation of our everyday lives. And yet the simple chair is in perpetual reinvention mode: it is the unending challenge for the designer and the first thought for the collector, regardless of whether one prefers the humanistic contours of Nakashima or the complex modernism of Le Corbusier.

Notwithstanding its strictures, the chair offers plenty of diversity: open or closed back, finials, leather, metal or wood. Four legs, two, or one. Is it glass, as posed by John Hogan, or ceramic, as posed by Reinaldo Sanguino? Where does technology come into the equation or does the handmade reign?

For this special exhibition, The Future Perfect decided to answer some of these questions by issuing artists, industrial designers, ceramicists, sculptors and interior designers with a brief to create a single chair of their own imagination. The final selected works, which range from fully functional examples to pieces of pure art and sculpture, will be one-of-a-kind pieces for sale exclusively through The Future Perfect. The resulting show is ambitious and the results are vital and often surprising, much like The Future Perfect’s gallery program. The Future Perfect Gallery Director Laura Young expresses it in ethereal, yet relatable terms, “We asked each artist to create a single one-of-a-kind chair that embodies who they are as an artist and maker. The results are overwhelming and extremely personal.”

EXHIBITED WORKS