Carpenters Workshop Gallery are pleased to return to Design Miami/ 2023 with an exhibition highlighting the global impact of Dutch design, seen primarily through the lens of two leading visual artists, Maarten Baas and Nacho Carbonell.
Historically, the Dutch have placed less emphasis on distinctions between creative disciplines than other nations, and their non-conformist mindset echoes through the country’s singular artistic output. This holistic approach is instilled through the pioneering institution, Design Academy Eindhoven, of which both Baas and Carbonell are alumni. The two have learnt to work in a way that tempers their highly conceptual artworks with an eminent practicality.
The Design Miami/ presentation centres around major works from both artists, including Baas’ latest addition to his Real Time series, Grandfather Clock – The Son. Baas assumes a Peter Pan-like character within the functional timepiece, removing himself from the linear effects of time’s passing in a continuation of his performative regression towards childhood. Baas’ impulse to channel the unrepressed creativity he feels only children possess is also seen in his Childrens’ Clocks, a collaborative collection made with school children from across the Netherlands.
Examining a different temporal perspective, Nacho Carbonell’s artistic practice looks to the future. His sculptures mirror the inner vitality of Baas’ personified clocks, but express themselves through a natural language, imbuing raw urban materials with an organic sensuality. The series of light sculptures throughout the booth, including One-Seater Concrete Tree and Growing Glass 2 and Stone Table Lamp demonstrate Carbonell’s unique approach to materiality, with each piece illuminated from within shades of metal mesh, recycled glass, and concrete rubble.
Carbonell’s work centres around a sense of natural displacement. His time spent in Eindhoven was informed by an acute sense of being uprooted from his native Spain, which subsequently imbued his artworks with a tenacious vitality, channelling plants’ ability to survive in even the most unlikely environments.
Booth G03 includes further work by Dutch or Dutch-influenced creators, as well as highlights from the gallery’s historic programme and masterworks from core artists.
As series of figurative bronze lamps by Dutch artist Atelier van Lieshout populate the booth, each exploring bodily movement and interpersonal relationships, whereas DRIFT include Flylight, an interactive sculpture that mimics migratory bird murmurations in the flow of its lights. Kostas Lambridis, another Design Academy alum, details his multidisciplinary expertise in Faux Baroque A, ordering a cacophony of found, recycled, and bespoke components into a catalogue of material.
A collection of chairs from Brazilian mid-century designer Zanine Caldas bolsters the gallery’s historical offering, complementing a unique table from Vincenzo de Cotiis rendered in a chocolate fibreglass finish.
