EXHIBITION STATEMENT
Library Street Collective is excited to announce an ongoing partnership with Carpenters Workshop Gallery, a leading gallery for contemporary collectible design, that will present rotating selections of thoughtfully curated functional art and collectible design objects by some of the world’s most respected artists within the newly opened cultural arts centre, the Shepherd. Among the colonnades, niches, and altars, works by Virgil Abloh, Nacho Carbonell, Wendell Castle, Vincenzo De Cotiis, and Rick Owens can be found as part of the first presentation of this unique collaboration, placed in response to the Shepherd’s grand architecture.
Founded in 2006 by Julien Lombrail and Loic Le Gaillard in a former carpenter’s workshop in Chelsea, London, Carpenters Workshop Gallery focuses on producing and exhibiting the work of international artists, designers, and architects, who look to push the boundaries of what is traditionally presented within the confines of the gallery and art fair space. In the years since, they have expanded to include locations in Paris, Los Angeles, and New York In 2015, the gallery opened The Workshop in Mitry-Mory, a unique 8,000 square meters space dedicated to artistic research, bringing together the elite of practitioners and artisans.
Included in the collection is Abloh’s Alaska Chair (2018), which was created for the 2018 Venice Biennale; the front leg of the polished bronze chair is cut short and appears as if it is sinking into the floor. As part of the Acqua Alta installation, the exhibition that debuted the works took its name from the tide peaks that regularly affect Venetian life, causing the city to partially flood. Abloh sought to encourage viewers to think about rising sea levels, the fate of Venice, and the effect of climate change worldwide. Considered the founding father of the American Art Furniture Movement, Wendell Castle’s A New Seeing (2018) is also included, as well as Rick Owens’ Half Box Black Plywood Chair (2011).
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