Traditionally, furniture was built to satisfy a practical or ceremonial need. It was claimed beforehand: it was bespoken. "Studio furniture," a term coined to describe the work of the mostly college-trained makers of the second half of the 20th-century in this country, includes speculative work -- that is, furniture that no one has requested or specifically needs. The emergence of speculative work was fueled, in part, by the idea that furniture, like art, can be expressive of its maker.

That furniture could have a personality as individual as its maker has been a trademark of the studio furniture movement ever since the first group of self-taught practitioners began their work in the early-to-mid 20th-century. Of these makers, Wharton Esherick, George Nakashima, Art Carpenter, Sam Maloof, and James Krenov are perhaps the best known of the era. They built one-of-a-kind, functional, mostly wood furniture. The codification of this approach -- furniture as a means of self-expression -- took place largely in the 1960s when the university became the standard training ground for craftsmen.

It should come as no surprise that the cross-fertilization of ideas that a university environment fosters would inevitably give substance to the revolution brewing within traditional crafts. Craft mediums like glass, clay, and fiber seemed to absorb the functional and non-functional duality of their nature easily. However, because of its historical ties to use, furniture was probably the last of the craft disciplines to embrace the non-functional compact with contemporary art.

In a 1991 New York Times article, Witold Rybczynski asks, "If a Chair is a Work of Art, Can You Still Sit on It?":

These issues would play out in the 1980s as university-trained makers challenged the orthodoxy of wood, conventional methods of construction, and the axiom that the crafting of the object was more meaningful than the concept or idea behind it. In the 1960s and 1970s, while Wendell Castle’s stacked, carved, subtractive forms brought the attitude of a sculptor to furniture, process innovations like Jere Osgood’s pioneering work in tapered laminations and compound shell constructions, or Bill Keyser’s innovative vacuum bag pressed forms, or Richard Newman’s sophisticated shaping jigs, provoked their own creative breakthroughs. The 1990s underscored this dual creative channeling -- part sculptural, part process-driven -- as furniture making was stretched against the background dichotomy of function versus art.

In order for the spec makers to realize their artistic goals, a gallery system was needed to present, promote, and market their work. It would take time to develop this new marketplace, but by the mid-1980s there were signs of its early strength. Also, it can be said that studio furniture benefited from the post-modernist movement of the times because that decorative arts vogue provided a broader context in which to place it. As one furniture maker notes, “We were almost fashionable in the '80s.” In the 1990s, the saga of studio furniture unfolded with the emergence of New York galleries that sought to have furniture accepted on the same terms as fine art. It would be fair to say that the partners’ representation of furniture as furniture was, to some degree, overshadowed by what went on in New York during the halcyon art-boom days of the 1990s.

High-end gallery marketing can bring its own pressure on the kind of work that gets made. This, in turn, can encourage makers to create pieces visualized for a gallery setting rather than furniture’s traditional context, the home. The ultimate divorce between furniture and its historical milieu takes place, however, when the museum enters the picture. By 1990, inclusion in curated/invitational museum exhibits was sufficiently seductive that few furniture makers questioned the appropriateness of new furniture making its first appearance in a museum. Museum exhibits produce lists, and these lists -- whose name is on and whose name is not -- become powerful operatives in the marketplace. Now that the museum has entered the marketplace, a new concept can emerge -- furniture bespoken by the museum, and offered for sale. The sine qua non for success in the craft world appears to include the same roster that dominates the fine-arts world: the museum, curator, patron, dealer, and artist. The auction house will be added to this list shortly.

Rybczynski observes:

As some furniture makers aspired to be called artists, some artists lamented what they sensed was their loss. In 2005, Art Spiegelman, artist and writer, observed that the two biggest changes in the last 50 years in art have been the proliferation of museums of contemporary art and art fairs, and budget travel. “This means,” he says, “that more and more artists make works that they never expect will be lived with, looked at day-in and day-out by the same person; that much art is made for fairs or museums, designed to grab a distracted passerby's attention without needing to be experienced twice." Thus, he says, "culture slides into the realm of entertainment.” Until recently, furniture had avoided this unenviable outcome because of its close ties to the home.

It is difficult for the partners to talk about the 1990s without talking about Peter Joseph, their client of nearly ten years. In November 1989, at the Quilted Giraffe Restaurant in New York City, Joseph proposed that the partners join him to create a New York gallery. Initially, the three discussed a partnership, but it became clear that their views for the direction of this gallery were divergent. The partners stepped aside, and Peter Joseph opened his Fifth Avenue gallery in New York in 1991. Many eyes were trained on this event. For those on the roster, as well as for those who wanted to be, this gallery venture seemed like a long-awaited validation of their artistic worth. In an important sense, the next moment in studio furniture’s dialectic was played out within the white walls, hardwood floors, and fine arts setting of this urban gallery. There, the work of some makers looked at ease, while others seemed out of place.

The Peter Joseph Gallery contracts with makers required world-wide exclusivity. In return, the gallery provided promotion of their work through featured shows, along with catered openings, and color catalogues. This is the art-gallery prototype. By its own terms, this artist-to-gallery relationship required productivity, and the exclusivity of the arrangement required support for the makers. This led to a system of stipends. In order to attract a new clientele, the gallery offered a regular change of shows. The amount of work produced for these shows, however, was ahead of the market, which led, in turn, to a surplus of unsold pieces. The surplus of unsold work led eventually to a practice of serious discounting. It also left a serious question: when a design is constant, productivity is the key. But if the key is creativity, how does the pressure of productivity affect the outcome?

Ultimately, the expensive gallery catalogues and commissioned testimonials from academicians and intellectuals like Arthur Danto and Witold Rybczynski notwithstanding, the Peter Joseph Gallery failed to secure the imprimatur of an art establishment. The art world seemed largely indifferent and even hostile to the idea of studio furniture as a 20th-century art form. When the New York gallery closed in 1996, it seemed to underscore the dubious practice of marketing furniture like fine art. An effort, observes Tom Hucker, akin “to trying to bake a chocolate cake with no chocolate. No matter how long you mix it, you ain't gonna get a chocolate cake.”

After he closed his gallery and before his death in 1998, Joseph returned to Pritam & Eames as a client. Setting aside differences in their approach to marketing and recent history, he said he wanted to work together and publish the book of interviews begun by the Johnsons in 1989; a project he joined as co-editor in 1992. Sadly, he died before the project was realized.

Some questions linger from this period. How does the perception of value get shaped? What makes one artistic pursuit more valuable, viz., remunerative, than another? What makes a chair by Scott Burton, the sculptor, more valuable than a chair by Jere Osgood, a master furniture maker? And who, ultimately, will determine the value of studio furniture: the galleries, collectors, museums, historians, critics, or auction houses?

Throughout the 1990s, Pritam & Eames continued its mix of group, featured, and one-person shows. It also initiated the P&E Editions series. By this time, the furniture makers associated with the gallery had evolved distinctive, well-defined styles in their work, which they continue to refine throughout the 1990s. Explosively new and original work by two furniture makers emerged during this period: Kristina Madsen in the mid-1990s and Brian Newell at the end of the decade. By 2001, Pritam & Eames felt fortunate to have been in place for over 20 years, to have hosted a consistently high level of studio work and, also, to have been the beneficiary of a loyal and discerning public.

If a Chair Is a Work of Art, Can You Still Sit on It? by Witold Rybczynski. DESIGN VIEW; The New York Times, May 5, 1991.

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Furniture by William Walker

NOTES: This is William (Bill) Walker’s first one-person show and it ushers in the second decade for Pritam & Eames. It is also the first time the gallery has hosted a solo exhibit to someone trained by James Krenov. [Brian Newell, another Krenov-trained maker, will have his first one-person show in 2002.]

Absent, though, to any considerable extent in this Walker work is an obvious reference to his mentor, James Krenov. In fact, the curved and aerodynamic quality of his side table and his solid fan-backed dining chair seems more in line with the thinking of the Finnish-born architect/designer, Eero Saarinen, or even Jere Osgood. Still, Walker's maple Silver Cabinet does reflect Krenov's attention to material as a major source of inspiration.

The centerpiece of scale for this exhibit was Walker’s first dining room extension table. He called his previous table, shown at the gallery in 1987, a breakfast table. This time the table is a fully-fledged dining table with a set of eight chairs. And with this piece, Walker joins a small group of studio furniture makers willing to speculate on a piece of this scale. Richard Newman and James Schriber did so in the gallery's first decade and, although George Gordon, John Dunnigan, and Ron Puckett also made extension tables during this period, they did so on a commissioned basis.

Walker's table establishes certain features that he will continue to use in future dining tables. Each one will have beautifully decorated surface created by sequential band-saw cuts of unusually thick veneer. The advantage of this veneer process is that it allows the best use of the most beautiful wood but, by being unusually thick, (1/8”), it also provides opportunity to refinish a daily used surface without fear of going through a delicate veneer.

The second feature of this table is that the top is not just supported by four legs, but the legs are set into the top in such a way that they establish a dramatic design character for the entire table. By joining the legs at 45-degrees to the apron sides, they seem to stand proud of the apron and define the projection or extension of the table itself. This impression is augmented by their interesting shaping. Three forward facets create the surface that project out and into the room. The leg, itself, intersects with the table's apron with two larger facets which themselves join to define a corner of the eating surface. The part of the leg that faces towards the table’s interior is completed with a rounded section. At cross section, this is a complex shape. The three flat surfaces are flat only in their width, as these faces travel down the leg to its foot, the leg has a gentle saber curve. The crisp intersection of these facades is one of the table’s tailored features.

The downward curved surface of the apron supports and reinforces the curves found in the legs. With unusual perception, Walker combines the tailored aspect of precise intersections with the flowing and biomorphic quality of his curves. The apron also gives the top a dimension of depth and solidity.

The top of the table presents a dining surface with a difference: the apron that joins the legs has a flat top surface several inches wide that gently cants away from the eating surface. This is a friendly invitation to rest the diner’s arm. The dining surface itself is raised slightly proud of this apron surface and is defined by an ebony line. A band of veneer further defines the dining surface within the ebony line with grain pattern running from table edge to center suggesting the area for flatware. These bands are mitered at the corners and pleasantly suggest the diagonal projection of the legs. A narrow rectangle of veneer surface is left to the inside.

The third feature of this extension table that Walker will continue to use in future dining tables is its wood extension mechanism. Despite the inherent strength of steel mechanisms, this wood feature universally pleased gallery visitors. There is something about the pleasure of secret treasure when a feature of quality is hidden within.

Eight chairs accompany the table. In the solid wood fan-back dining chair, you can see Walker looking back at Eero Saarinen. This, however, is no Arts and Crafts-era chair, but a fully conceived contemporary design that would appear on the cover of Fine Woodworking later this year. To be comfortable, the coopered solid back was not only curved around the back, but also fitted to the incline of the spine and shoulders. It is kept as a simple unbroken form that joins into an upward extension of the rear legs. The legs themselves reference the dining table, as do their aprons. The upholstered seat sits into the chair’s frame, upping the difficulty of the process considerably over the use of an overlapping upholstered form.

Every accomplished maker creates work that comes to be seen as his or her signature piece. For Walker, the bubinga sideboard or console is one such piece, and one well remembered by gallery visitors. Within Walker’s body of work, it is unusually sculptural. The boat shaped volume of its top has less to do with functionality, although it does house two narrow drawers, and has more to do with form: in this case, a streamlined and water borne volume floating serenely above its supporting table base. The curve of the rail of this table base strengthens the form, suggesting surface tension and buoyancy. The same curve is nicely reversed to add visual tension in the lower stretcher, which runs lengthwise between the legs. This piece again reflects more the quality of Saarinen’s work and less traditional table architecture. The single tonal drama is produced by a maple veneer rectangle that is centered on the top.

Walker’s Silver Cabinet or sideboard was another candidate to steal the show. In this piece, he looks back to his 1987 sideboard in ash that set the theme for his affection for long, chest-high cabinets that sit on a delicate, elegant table base and whose legs seem improbable supports for the cabinet mass they carry. In the 1987 piece, Walker used a double horizontal stretcher at the top of the legs to create structure with no lower leg stretchers. Here, too, he follows this formula of simple, uncluttered elegance where everything depends on the joinery at the legs’ top for the piece’s stability. Like the dining table, the sideboard's legs are set in at 45-degrees. The front is composed of two central doors, flanked by two sets of four shallow drawers. The drawers graduate in size and become narrow in depth as they approach the top. Beyond this, the visual pleasure of the front of the cabinet is left entirely to the use of figured re-sawn maple which, like the earlier ash cabinet, flows horizontally across the drawer fronts, but vertically on the doors. This stark pattern is striking, and is enhanced further by its utter simplicity. Also, the use of re-sawn figured maple reflects Krenov’s attention to material as a major source of inspiration.

There is more ample space for serving pieces beyond the doors. Narrow drawers are also included in the bottom of this space; not surprisingly, their width is asymmetrical, a sure Krenov touch.

Over the years, there will be two more of these cabinet/sideboards to come from Walker’s shop to the gallery. It is interesting to study the different design solutions he employs in each cabinet to visually integrate the line of the leg into the bottom of the cabinet.

Judy Kensley McKie

NOTES: This is the third one-person exhibit for Judy McKie that the gallery hosted, and it concluded a benchmark season. The announcement piece, the Jaguar Side Table, was the polychromed wood prototype for one of the two bronze edition pieces in this show. This is one of the few times that McKie includes a wood prototype in an exhibit. The other bronze, the Beast Bench, was introduced earlier and described as part of P&E's 10th anniversary exhibit in May, 1991. As said earlier, the Beast Bench remains one of McKie's strongest bronzes, one that exudes a primal, emergent force.

The Jaguar Table illustrates McKie’s great talent for combining a useful piece of furniture seamlessly with her sculptured animal forms. Rather than terminating abruptly, the long flat back of the jaguar creates a line of tension that extends to the neck of its taut form. In the detail of the head, notice the simplified abstraction that suggests the nose and eyes. As said before, the abstraction of McKie's detailing has kinship with Alaskan or African carving and little to do with the romantic realism of a Frederic Remington mountain lion.

McKie will occasionally make wood pieces in small editions such as the Baby Elephant Table, which was an edition of five. Past small wood editions have included the Bird Table (1982) and the Snake Table (1987). There is a freedom that seems to come with this scale of piece for McKie, and the Baby Elephant Table was a piece cherished by gallery visitors. The utter simplicity of its form captures the contentment of simply being where it is -- truly a benign quality. The elephant stands with its legs pouring downward into the ground. What is fascinating is McKie’s ability to express and create dramatic differences through simple form. We also see this in the Jaguar Table, a similarly rooted vertical form, but one that expresses an intense energy and strength of movement.

Case pieces in the show include the Pattern Chest, the Family Tree Chest, and the Flying Birds cabinets. There were also two carved mirrors, and two carved headboards.

The two largest pieces in the show were a tall chest of drawers and a tall freestanding cabinet. The chest of drawers suggests a pyramid construction in that the four large bottom drawers each step in successively from the base. This stack of four drawers itself provides a base for the top tower of ten drawers and door. This piece is distinguished by the colored monotypes under glass that compose the drawer fronts. The diamond pattern of the monotypes, intentionally irregular, is reminiscent of the expressive dynamic of flag graphics. The reds, orange, and pale blues all with a light field grinning through make the colors seem weathered. The pediment and top molding are without gesture and simply frame this stack of drawers.

The Family Tree Cabinet also uses monotypes under glass. Both the footed base and the crown have an exaggerated curviness that suggests the mobility of the mouth: this cabinet wants to talk. Its two full-length doors are each composed of a vertical series of four framed cartoon-like heads that mostly face each other as if in conversation. The third tier of heads contrarily face away. The sides of the cabinet also sport these framed heads, this time they're stacked vertically. Dark frames and oxblood red framing members contrast with the pale colors of the faces of these dark brunettes. In the artist’s words, "this is a goofy piece." This piece is not only a rare use of human form in McKie’s body of work, it stands as exceptional in its attitude, like a mis-struck coin.

The Flying Bird Cabinet is a shallow cabinet whose carved and painted limewood doors were also the basis for a linocut series of these birds in flight. On the cabinet, the door panels occupy almost the entire front and through shallow carving of the limewood, McKie has created the lightly dimensioned detail of the birds in flight. The bird forms are in black and white with the carved lines retaining the light tones of the limewood. McKie uses deep tones of blue and green in the background field of flora to lift these birds away and give depth. Each of the four panels is unique, whereas it would have been simpler to reverse the diagonally opposite forms.

The two mirrors in this show were the same scale and format, but with entirely different personalities. Formally, the mirrors are unusual in that they are squares. But much more unusual is the proportion of the square of mirrored glass to the frame itself, hardly more than 10%, suggesting more a forbidden view than a place to review and arrange oneself. It is almost like the small window in the door of a private club. Beyond this, the personalities of the two mirrors could not be more different due to McKie’s bas-relief carved patterns. In the first, four snakes coil around the mirror. Their bodies are dramatically covered in gold leaf, which is augmented by red and black pigment. The second mirror, as self-effacing as the first is dramatic, uses a delicately carved vine motif with no color differentiation in the wood surface except for the shadow cast by the carving.

Included in McKie’s show were two queen-sized headboards, each aptly called the Watching Dog headboard. The thought was to mount these on the wall with the wide bottom part of the frame at pillow height. Though individually carved, these headboards do, in fact, have the same graphic. Like the mirrors, one is polychromed and the second monochromatic but, unlike the mirrors, the bas-relief graphic in the headboards is the same. Beyond this, they are strongly different in their impact. The first headboard is carved and bleached maple, a monochrome except for the shadows thrown by the carved lines. The watching dogs stand in a strict left to right formation. The drama of the headboard is created entirely by the five faces turned 90- degrees from the body, yielding five pairs of eyes looking intently at the viewer.

The second headboard has exactly the same form but the bodies of the dogs are done in gold leaf. They stand proud of a deep red painted field that is bordered by a black frame. A part of the dog’s faces, including the eyes, are painted black. In the maple version, we are mainly aware of the intent gaze of the five pairs of eyes. In the second headboard, the gold leafing of the dogs emphasizes their forms, the black of the faces de-emphasizing the gaze. They appear more as magical creatures in a dramatic landscape.

The Grinning Bear monotype was one of McKie’s larger two- dimensional images from this period. It is a charming cartoon in its devilish duplicity. The bear’s grin is negated by everything else we see -- its porcupine hair, its extended claws -- as if its grinning will hide its own great sense of fright. The monotype creates a white bear on a black field.

New Work
Mark DelGuidice, David Ebner, Owen Edwards, Hank Gilpin, Don Green, Robert Hannan, Paul Harrell, Robert Ingham, Don Krawczyk, Ron Puckett, Zivko Radenkov, Stephen Turino, Pat Warwick, Rick Wrigley, Stewart Wurtz

The last show in a banner season came in November and bridged into 1992. The announcement piece was a pearwood settee by Don Krawczyk. Trained at RISD, Krawczyk also worked for his teachers, Rosanne Somerson and Alphonse Mattia, as an assistant, while producing his own furniture as well. The “lightning” motif cutouts in the bent laminated back panels first became part of his design language in a pair of end tables that he introduced at P&E in 1990. The thickened legs on the settee also reflect an aesthetic of the late 1980s, perhaps itself a reaction to the elegant Deco-inspired furniture that had come just before. Small settees like this one are a pleasing project for a studio furniture maker because of their scale and the opportunity to extend one’s thinking about seating beyond a chair. From the client’s view, however, it seems that the appeal of a settee is limited, perhaps settees are more associated with parlor furniture and not in keeping with contemporary comforts.

Included in this show was the work of three makers trained by James Krenov: Owen Edwards, Paul Harrell, and Zivko Radenkov. The fir cabinet by Edwards has elements of Krenov’s walk-about designs as well as his classic cabinet-on-stand prototype. The three-sided facade front also reflects Krenov’s designs as well as the shaping of the legs. Its delicate glass and slender fir stiles give this piece the right aspect for a collector’s favorite small piece. The idiosyncratic combination of fir, mahogany, and yew is yet but another indication of his teacher’s approach to design through materials.

Paul Harrell, an experienced maker in his own right by this time, has in this case offered a stationery box that also closely reflects the thinking of Krenov. Zivko Radenkov’s elm and satinwood cabinet is his first attempt at the oval form since his perfectly rendered 1986 cabinet. The personality of this cabinet, however, is bolder and thus champions of the first oval cabinet might not be as taken with the second. It is slightly larger, and the marquetry is less restrained. Also, the satinwood field has a luminescence that makes one think of Louis XIV, rather than the almost Zen-like restraint of the earlier cabinet.

The jewelry box from Robert Ingham represents the first of a series of complex small cases to come from this English maker. Ingham had already spent many years in charge of studio production at Parnham House under the direction of John Makepeace. The Modrian-style linear graphics of the aesthetic of this box give it a different look from anything happening in the American furniture scene at this time. The delicate use of handmade hinges and distinct materials makes one think of Krenovian touches, although the strict geometry of the box would be at odds with this comparison. His use of color, in this case red dyed sycamore, expresses more of the freedom of American thinking. This strict geometry is nicely balanced by the very active, organic figure of the olive wood. Ingham explained that his own personal workplace at the school was not large, and he had learned to develop intricate highly controlled techniques that were aimed at constructing these case pieces.

During this decade, it is not surprising that strong work from Hank Gilpin suddenly appears at the gallery. This was characteristic of the partners' relationship with him. The timing of the arrival of his work had less to do with the opening of a particular show or strength of the sales season, than when he could do it. In these three pieces we find both a repeated chair classic and a fresh, once-done bench: the chair a classic like a good oil painting; and the bench, fresh like a just-done watercolor. The yewwood chairs are one of a number of variants to come out of Gilpin’s Chinese-influenced, Arts and Crafts styled chairs. Here, note the back splat extends to a lower stretcher connecting the two rear legs. The arms of the chair say, “ Sit back in me,” and indeed this is a side chair rather than a dining chair. The height of the arms where the hands rest would conflict with many dining table aprons. But it is this delicious uplifting curve that gives this version of his chair its special personality.

Gilpin will mostly avoid the use of an S-curve. The bench has a design simplicity that would make it at home in modernism but for the proud appearance of the pedestal tenons through the top. He uses this simple piece to show off the special textural beauty of elm. Gilpin is saying, “Just look at this. We don’t need anything more.” You could say that Gilpin has had more fresh takes and made more once-done pieces than most people working in the field.

Early Spring Show
John Eric Byers, Dale Broholm, David Ebner, Lisa Houck, Robert Ingham, (James Krenov), Peter Spadone, Peter Thibeault, Lee Trench, William Walker, Geoff Warner, Rick Wrigley

The Early Spring Show (ESS) had become a standard feature at the gallery, and during the 1990s, it would be used as a more flexible format in its inclusion of makers. It also provided the gallery more leeway to continue to learn from its public’s reaction. The piece on the announcement is a three-paneled screen by Lisa Houck and is an example of stretching the group show envelope. Houck is a painter from the Boston area and not trained as a furniture maker.

Another painterly inclusion in the ESS was the House Mirror by Lee Trench. Trench was trained as a furniture maker at the Program in Artisanry at Boston University, but chose the mirror to serve as her canvas for this show. She hoped that customers might like the idea of commissioning her to paint their homes as part of her mirror series. Trench’s furniture had been seen at the gallery from the mid-1980s.

Side by side with this work were new arrivals from Krenov-trained makers, as well as two pieces by Krenov himself. The 1990s would prove to yield a strong flow of new cabinets from him. As was often the case with Krenov, he would call the gallery to say he had just finished a new piece or two and ask, "Are you interested?" The work would arrive soon afterwards making it virtually impossible to announce the pieces in printed material. This spring he sent two cabinets: his most recent example of a walk-about cabinet -- this one transparent from all sides, and another cabinet in which he experimented with freed and flared front door panels.

The first cabinet reflected the novelty of being able to use a cabinet as a small exhibition space from the front, sides, and rear. But it was just as much about the interior space in this piece because, according to Krenov, it is the sense of space he remembers from the Stockholm Opera House. In this cabinet, the interior space was created by using a curved interior wall of spalted hickory, which provided a wonderful opportunity for the use of unusual material.

In both cabinets, Krenov is experimenting with the tension of curves within frames and, in both, the use of spalted material for his shaped and coopered curves. In the “opera house” cabinet, the stand and cabinet are kwila; while in the second cabinet, he challenges us with the combination of English walnut, spalted alder, and black oak, the former material providing the framing and legs of the table/stand.

The stand can be seen itself as a beautiful console with two drawers. But it is the cabinet doors that we focus on with their panels flying free of the frame on the outer sides. Note how the door pulls are used to reflect in reverse the outside curve of the flared sides. When Darrell Sewell, then curator of 20th-century decorative arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, visited the gallery and saw this Krenov piece, he went up and hugged it. The cabinet is in the permanent collection of that museum.  

Two other pieces come from Krenov trained makers: an exquisite jewelry box from Ken Frye continues his work with round and oval containers. In the lid’s delicate marquetry, he reflects more the influence of his friend, Zivko Radenkov, the interior uses asymmetry as well as curves in the design of its partitions. This time a Radenkov cabinet comes without marquetry. Atypically as well, it is wall hung. Its simplicity is also its elegance, allowing the curly ash door panels to be featured.

The table lamp from Peter Thiebeault uses Depression-era glass for its upward casting shade, while the form of the wenge base reflects the then strong influence of the post- modern wave in architecture. Tweaking one of the balls on the base operates as a convenient on-off switch. John Eric Byers milk painted ash cabinet continues to show the diverse experimentations with form and color within the studio craft field.

Three other makers submitted pieces representing well-honed forms from their designs. Any gentleman would prize David Ebner’s elegant mahogany valet. Its bent laminated wishbone legs demonstrate his allegiance to both Wharton Esherick and his teacher, Wendell Castle.

Rick Wrigley's demilune with its aluminum-faced apron follows his previous demilune whose apron was pieced from broken dishes. The accompanying chair is unusual because of its differently styled front and rear legs. While being designed to yield an elegant chair form with decorative panache, its intention was also not to be overly complex in construction so as to be affordable. In Wrigley’s playful style, he combines the chair's fluted legs with decorative detailing in the chair back using industrial screws. The demilune uses a similar decorative feature.

Lastly, included in the show was a table of scale by Jonathan Wright. Known for his fascinating rounded triangle extension tables in the 1980s, this time he opts for a post and beam structural composition over modernism and comes up with a dining table whose demeanor is more Arts and Crafts. The solid top extends well out from the legs and stretchers making for flexible seating.

A Sterling Exhibition
(Co-hosted with The Society of American Silversmiths.)
Allan Adler, Sue Amendolara, Michael Banner, Bernard Bernstein, Joseph L. Brandom, Michael Brophy, Robert Butler, Jack Da Silva, Robert Davis, Fredric B. Devantier, Cynthia Eid, Peter Erickson, Susan Ewing, Fred Fenster, William Frederick, Jeffrey Herman, Roger H. Horner, Curtis LaFollette, Thomas Markusen, John Marshall, Roberta Masur-Maxfield, Kurt Matzdorf, Tom Muir, Robyn Nichols, Elizabeth H. Nutt, Robert Oppecker, Ronald Hayes Pearson, Henry Petzal, Ori Resheff, Michel Royston, Harold A. Schremmer, Paul Patnoi Schulman, Randy Stromsoe, Leonard Urso, Pauline Warg, Wendy Yothers

In 1992, the Society of American Silversmiths (SAS) approached Pritam & Eames to host an exhibit of holloware and flatware, which they had curated. They were aware of the gallery's interest in the field of contemporary decorative metalwork. After the P&E exhibition, the silver show traveled to the National Ornamental Museum in Nashville, TN. Although the sheer number of pieces represented in this exhibit would not to be repeated at the gallery, P&E continued to host the work of a number of metal smiths in following years in an effort to develop a durable audience for American work in metal.

The husband and wife team of Michael and Maureen Banner fashioned lyrical tea sets with cat-like tails as handles. Highly functional and beautifully executed, their work was appreciated by gallery clientele. Also of note was the work of Robert Butler, whose candlesticks of vermeil established a standard for metalwork. The giraffes that gracefully entwine at the base are somehow reminiscent of Renaissance metalwork. Butler's work reflects mastery over a number of technical skills that includes sculpting, casting, fabrication, soldering, cold joining of forms, and vermeil--the plating of gold over silver. The giraffes are anatomically correct, a feat itself given the scale of the work. The candlesticks conveyed several layers of messages: simple, yet technically complex and varied, functional, yet richly decorative, and lighthearted, but traditional.

Kurt Matzdorf is a major figure in the field of ceremonial metal pieces, as is John Marshall, Curtis LaFollete, Robin Nichols and Leonard Urso, among others. They all had serious careers in the field of metal, and operated businesses from their studios, while supplementing their businesses with teaching.

Although there was immense respect on the part of the gallery staff for astoundingly complicated pieces like Robert Oppecker's magnificent raised silver bowl, and Randy Stromsoe's' pedestal bowl, it appeared that P&E would not be able to generate sufficient public support for metalwork. However, the gallery did continue to sponsor shows of metalwork, particularly holloware, for several more years. Even today, P&E represents the holloware, flatware, and jewelry of Leonard Urso and Tom Odell, as well as the work of ten other studio jewelers.

American Work in Metal
(Holloware & Flatware)
Jennifer Banks, Michael & Maureen Banner, Jonathan Bonner, Ken Carlson, Mardi-Jo Cohen, Jay Coogan, Charles Crowley, Robert Davis, Susan Ewing, Robert J. Farrell, Pat Flynn, Skip Gaynard, Robly Glover, Carrie Harper & Tim McClelland, Curtis LaFollette, Thomas Markusen, John Marshall, Kurt Matzdorf, Mark Williams Morgan, Tom Muir, Robyn Nichols, Tom Odell, Janet Prip, Michel Royston, Jafar Shoja, Nancy Slagle, Mark Stanitz, Leonard Urso.

American Work in Metal opened in 1992 with a lively show of work from metalsmiths working in traditional materials. Since this was an exhibition organized by P&E, the gallery partners felt they could learn a lot from their public's reaction to it. The show encompassed a spirited group who were offering a pointedly practical dimension to the work: it worked. From Jonathan Bonners' stone and copper weathervanes and Rabbit Spoons, to Mardi-Jo Cohens' Formica and silver utensils, to Robert Davis' salt and pepper shakers, it seemed like these artists were also having fun!

Contrast that work with the decorative work of Mark Williams Morgan and Marvin Jensen. They were producing vessels in the technically complex Japanese tradition of mokume gane (wood grain metal), composed of many sheets of different alloys welded together and then carved and worked to produce various wood grain-like patterns. These pieces are then treated with the Japanese chemical rokusho to color the various metals used and to emphasize the pattern. It's subtle and sophisticated work.

Janet Prip's bold vessels in the shape of a fish or a face brought a smile to all. Fabricated out of heavy sheets of pewter, she spent a great deal of time on her surface texture, swirling emery-paper in varying grades to create the final brushed result.

Jewelry 1992
Colette, Mardi-Jo Cohen, Robert Davis, Vicki Eisenfeld, Peggy Eng, Pat Flynn, Bessie Jamieson/Robert Kulicke, Jim Kelso, Micki Lippe, Tim McClelland, Jacqueline Myers, Robyn Nichols, Tom Odell, Joan Parcher, Vernon Reed, Michel Royston, Eleni Prieston, Leonard Urso

The audience was enthusiastic and supportive as the gallery continued to exhibit the work of master enamel artist Colette, as well as the wearable work of Pat Flynn, Bessie Jamieson, Tom Odell, Eleni Prieston and Joan Parcher.

Pat Flynn continued to defy his public by creating "precious" wearable jewelry out of rusty steel nails, set with diamonds. He balances these raw and beautiful pieces with his ceremonial cups of pewter, silver, and gold. There was a feel of spontaneity in his work that translated across functional, decorative, and wearable lines and made his pieces extremely appealing. The gallery also hosted Vicki Eisenfeld fabricated and woven pieces of gold and silver, which she turned into alluring and utterly wearable necklaces.

A Tradition of New American Furniture - 1992
John Dunnigan, Hank Gilpin, James Schriber

NOTES: The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston organized two seminal exhibits that featured work from the studio furniture field: in 1989, the MFA Boston offered the New American Furniture exhibit and, in 2004, The Maker's Hand, an historical survey of 20th-century American studio furniture. Both exhibits included work by Hank Gilpin. Gilpin's curly maple chest of drawers, featured on the 1992 P&E announcement, was included in the 2004 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston exhibit, The Maker's Hand: American Studio Furniture, 1940-1990. This exhibit was organized in collaboration with The Furniture Society, an international membership organization in which Bebe Johnson was very active. In 1989, Gilpin made a wardrobe for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1989 New American Furniture exhibit, which inspired a number of similar case pieces of scale in the following years.

The spalted elm chest that Gilpin made for this P&E show was the latest in the series of his large wardrobe-like pieces. Here, the elm dictated the final proportions of the cabinet. The two six-panel doors were one of the two aspects that defined the sense of the piece. The other aspect was the design of the legs, which extended from the floor to butt flush with the underside of the top. They achieved a "friendly" corner by being set in a 45-degree angle. But they defined the feel of the piece by being tapered upwards throughout the length of the leg. This tapered leg set in at an angle had become a signature of Gilpin's case pieces, and had evolved from pieces appearing at the gallery as early as 1987. A bench, blanket chest, and small seven-drawer chest would complete Gilpin's work for the show. In addition, there was a firewood holder made from recycled church pews, which was indicative of Gilpin's spontaneous creations as well as his open-mindedness about the use of materials.

By this time, John Dunnigan's work had become more detail oriented and less focused on form as in his earlier upholstered work. However, the Corner Chair, one of seven pieces submitted for this show, was a strong fusion of original Dunnigan form as well as detail. The broad shield-style back may owe something to Hucker, but the lush upholstered detailing and reeded tapered posts was vintage Dunnigan. His Cabinet with Sticks is an example of the more decorated direction in which Dunnigan's work was headed.

James Schriber's featured piece, a pearwood and maple glass paneled tall cabinet, struck a formal note when compared to his folk-inspired work. There have always been a number of stylistic dimensions in Schriber's body of work, and elegant Deco-inspired pieces have held their place since the 1980s.This case piece could sit well in a room with one of his pedestal dining tables and his upholstered dining chairs.

As with the Deco cabinet above, Schriber produces what he refers to as his historically referenced work. This would include his folk inspired pieces. In this show, however, it is a not folk but an architectural reference he draws upon in the leather upholstered chair and ottoman -- William Morris, in this case. Two contemporary styled consoles in cherry and ash completed his work for this show.

Glass '92
Sonja Blomdahl; David Levi, Dimitri Michaelides, Sam Stang (IBEX GLASS); Robin Mix; Pinkwater Glass (Lisa Schwartz & Kurt Swanson)

Art glass was a hot medium in the 1990s. The gallery's focus on functional glass forms --vases, glasses, bowls, and platters -- limited its attraction to collectors who sought mostly one-of-a-kind, non-functional art glass. Nevertheless, the color, verve, and fun of IBEX and Pinkwater Glass work found an appreciative audience at P&E.

David Ebner and Ivan Barnett

NOTES: David Ebner and Ivan Barnett met as draftees during the Vietnam War period. They both ended up in an Army unit dedicated to display booth fabrication. Although Barnett went on to specialize in metal fabrication and jewelry, and Ebner went on the study furniture making at RIT, they stayed in touch. In the early 1990s, they decided to collaborate and produce a body of work designed with available parts made in production for other purposes. This included the bentwood parts that Mennonites used for wheels, steel harrow disks, and tool parts, particularly handles.

The oak and steel low table provided a particularly calligraphic announcement, but the favorite piece in the show was the stool. The dark tonalities of the painted finishes were a integral part of the theme, as was keeping most metal parts true to their industrial look.

Wendy Stayman: Furniture

NOTES: This was Wendy Stayman's second one-person show at P&E. Throughout the 1980s, a number of studio furniture makers had developed skills that could emulate the finest detailing of the neo-classical and Art Deco periods. These modern furniture makers had the capability to work with an extraordinary degree of accuracy in all phases of furniture construction. The quality achieved within the field, particularly by Richard Scott Newman working in Rochester, NY set high standards.

The Rochester area was not the only area in the country focusing on advanced craft. The College of the Redwoods in Mendocino, CA also cultivated furniture built with the highest refinement, although the skills taught there were less technically driven.

In addition to Newman in Rochester, the work coming out of the nearby Wendell Castle Studio in Scottsville, NY reached an ultra-refined level of production as well. Wendy Stayman was one of Castle's protégées and a product of his studio school. She set about to achieve her signature in work that derived from a wide knowledge of materials and techniques as a result of her background in restoration work. In this, her second featured show at the gallery, she produced a body of work stunningly detailed. From mother-of-pearl seed beads and semi-precious stones to silver, the materials matched the creative poetry of the detailing. She was not alone, however, in the number of contemporary makers to turn away from ivory and use a synthetic substitute.

In her writing desk, the facade panels were covered with pattern stamped leather rather than veneer. With the ebonized cherry framing and legs detailed with imitation bone, the decorative richness was topped off by a leopard jasper doughnut shaped pull on the fall-front. Although Stayman was accomplished with elegantly evolved curves, this piece stood nicely at attention, an appropriate attitude for the light/dark motif.

The Liquor Box on Table also stood squarely with perfect symmetry of form. The unbroken Cuban mahogany planes of the box itself were star-dusted with tiny seed beads, which together with the cirrus figure of the mahogany, created the subtlest of illusions. The box was hinged so that not only the top, but the front and sides opened as well.

The decorative design of the bed, called Les Tres Riche Heures, on the announcement was equal in metaphorical strength to the illusion of a starry sky. There was a pair of the twin beds in the show.

Altogether, there were thirteen pieces in this exhibit, a significant output by a furniture maker for a featured show. Although some of the major pieces did sell, the response was not commensurate with the quality and inspirational power of the work. The handwriting was on the wall. After supporting a growing body of finely detailed European referenced work through the 1980s, the field's small collecting public was beginning to look for something else. The following year, the shallow relief pattern work of Kristina Madsen would present just such a direction.

Bruce Volz

NOTES: Volz's second featured show was notable for the return of his American Flyer Cabinet, a cabinet on legs whose facade was reminiscent of a legendary locomotive, and the Te Fatou cabinet, whose inspiration came from the South Seas. Although the cabinet's exact reference to Paul Gauguin is unclear, the style of the cabinet is clear.

The grill of what appears to be hand fashioned dark tropical wood bars separates the user from bursts of gold dust. This, in turn, plays off a background of blackened red paint, which lends a feeling of the tropic's decay. Inside, there are upper and lower shelves with a mid-section of saw toothed, black trimmed, gold leafed drawers.

A Gathering
Tim Coleman, John Dodd, Hank Gilpin, Don Green, Richard Scott Newman, Tim Philbrick, Jeremy Singley, Greg Smith, Rick Wrigley

This small autumn show re-captures some of the surprising quality of 1980s group shows. The reason for this off-season show was simply that the work was ready. Through a series of informal telephone conversations, this group show came together.

In a two-man show with Ben Mack in 1988, John Dodd introduced the idea of a movable screen/partition that can be hybridized into a cabinet, hall tree, and table as in the case of the announcement piece. Here the lightness of the ash dramatizes the ripple of the pau ferro that is suspended as a narrow central panel. The small table surface suggests a function beyond accent.

The oval hall table by Hank Gilpin is distinguished by a trestle-like base, a through drawer, and a brushed and bleached finish. Like most trestles, the posts are connected by a single stretcher, which is held tight by friction fit wedge tenons. In this case, the posts are two board thickness curved solid sections. Through drawers are normally fussy since they have to work well through a double depth. The through drawer is in keeping with the oval top which itself suggests use from either side. The brushed finish was inspired by a bar in a steak house underneath the Brooklyn Bridge where the tables were wire brushed down every evening after the bar closed.

Tim Philbrick was represented by a pair of his Vide Poche tables, a table form he introduced in the 1989 Ebony show. Here the material is Honduras rosewood with a vellum table surface. The single drawer is dramatized by a single ivory pull and a swag curved drawer bottom. Philbrick used what he calls "mammoth ivory" which tells the public that the material is not harvested from living species. Beautifully tapered legs give the table its tall appearance and, once again, rhythm. The table's surface is bounded on three sides by a coved border, which rises on the rear of the table to complement the swag curve of the drawer bottom.

This kwila cabinet is the first work by Greg Smith to arrive at the gallery. As will be true of his future work, the quality that first strikes the viewer is its warmth and gentle understatement. In this waist high piece, two drawers are situated above two doors, which enclose interior shelves. Another distinctive feature of Smith's work is the hand fabricated metal pulls. The thick kwila veneer of the front of the cabinet uses the sapwood of the plank to the outside to give the piece a visual taper upwards. This piece is a treasure from the quiet side of woodworking. Smith worked in a commercial cabinet shop until he decided to study with James Krenov at the College of the Redwoods.

Richard Newman's child's stool allowed him to break away, at least momentarily, from the discipline of his more formal pieces. The milk stool stance gives it a charming familiarity, but the spiral fluting of the legs is unmistakably Newman's panache. In keeping with the milk stool reference, the rounded tenon ends of the solid legs pierce the top surface of the stool's scalloped solid top. And yes, there is some ebony carefully veneered to the circumference of the leg tenons. A thin line of ebony, another Newman trademark, delineates its top as well as declaring the fastening wedge.

The maple and ebony side table is a classic Newman design that was first seen at the gallery in his 1989 show. It appeared in that show with straight fluting of the leg. However, he was already working on the jig that would produce the reverse spiral flute that appears here.

Rick Wrigley was represented in the show by a writing table and a chair in a by now recognizable style of simple classic lines and accented veneer work. His reserved neo-classical style is given a contemporary twist by the use of small black industrial screws as a repeating detail. The careful choice of veneer surrounded by ebony periling is also typical of Wrigley work at that time. His chair, a light and comfortable edition piece, extends the simple elegance of the desk.

Tim Coleman also made a writing table and chair, this set in pearwood and Australian silky oak. Coleman's table structure is substantially different from the Wrigley piece in that there are three drawers. The two outside drawers are nested in the corner while the central drawer is shallower to allow for legroom. This demanded a much more complicated table frame than Wrigley's. This is an unusual and rewarding pairing of materials where the minimal figure of the pearwood is used to frame the much more active silky oak. The chair as well has its unusual aspect in that the outside stiles supporting the crest rail evolved in a ribbon like fashion to join into the sides of the seat rather than the back. This embrasure of the sitter is complemented by the gentle inward curve of the tabletop. Coleman's work is not dissimilar in feeling from early Bill Walker pieces. Coleman worked as an apprentice to Bill Walker before going to study with James Krenov at the College of the Redwoods.

Early Spring Show
Dale Broholm, John Eric Byers, John Dodd, Don Green, Jane Greenberg, Reginald Herndon, Jamie Robertson, David Secrest, Jonathan Wright, Stewart Wurtz

NOTES: Work by talented makers continued to be sufficiently abundant in a softening market to create a spring group show with such unrepeated gems as the announcement's Strongbox by Reg Herndon. Herndon, trained by James Krenov, was at the College of the Redwoods in the 1980s, along with Zivko Radenkov.

A certain design freedom accompanies occasional seating. The delight of Jamie Robertson’s Water Bench reflects this energy and brings to mind other visual confections such as the upholstered benches of Wendy Stayman and Kristina Madsen done earlier. Robertson was self-taught in furniture making, and distinguished himself with his work in veneer, which involved both marquetry images as well as sinuously curving edge banding. He will have a show with Dale Broholm at P&E in 1994.

Also appearing in the 1993 show was Jane Greenberg's Tre-foil Coffee Table, which was inspired by the mobius strip. Greenberg, trained as a mathematician, often used mathematical puzzles in her furniture forms.

David Secrest is the first maker associated with the gallery to use steel patterned with corroded iron, such as in his elemental Garden Bench.

Jonathan Wright was known to the gallery's clientele for the originality of the design of his three-legged, triangular dining table (see 1982). One of the distinctions of that table design was its massive solidness. Here the delight of this small six- sided table is its transparency and lightness, in fact, the impression is that of fret-work. Even the bottom stretchers are composed of thin members of wood. In this piece, Wright focuses on a hexagonal design, a medium height table with six legs. The owners of this table will ultimately protect this fret-work top with a hexagonally shaped piece of glass.

New American Furniture
Hank Gilpin, Michael Hurwitz, James Krenov, Judy Kensley McKie, Richard Scott Newman, Timothy Philbrick, Zivko Radenkov, Rosanne Somerson, Bill Walker

NOTES: The season's second exhibit was comprised of work by a group of established makers: new bronze work from Judy McKie, a James Krenov cabinet in English beech and doussie, and an ample chest of drawers in maple and rosewood by Hank Gilpin. Zivko Radenkov produces another oval cabinet with cherry tree branches depicted in the marquetry. (There is an interval of seven years between these cabinets.) And William Walker's maple breakfast room scaled table with its crisscrossed, bowed stretchers, shows him at the top of his table form.

Judy McKie’s Alligator Bench represents her second bench using bronze as a medium; the first was the Beast Bench in 1991. This piece shows McKie in a more whimsical mood. It certainly delighted her public, and ended up as a guardian to at least one swimming pool.

Her Butterfly Cabinet is the second in a series of case pieces in which the work is in the facade of the piece, framed within its drawer fronts. The shape of the piece has an ancient architectural feel to it as in the stepped pyramid construction of the flat-topped Mayan temples. Starting with the base, each of the succeeding four drawers steps in from the one underlying it, while the top third of the chest becomes a tower.

Michael Hurwitz exhibited two richly structured pieces for this show. The first was his curly hickory Silver Chest. Its hinged, lidded top mirrors the function of an old fashioned chest in which one might find valuables. The felt rusticity of the case was enhanced by the smoky quality of hickory used as a latticed exterior. The grid, defined by the lattice, continues down the legs that support the chest at waist height. This grid is transformed into a complex arched form of strut supports. Hurwitz describes a monastery outside Kyoto, Japan, built onto the side of a cliff and supported by an arched, bridge-like structure, as a source of inspiration for this piece.

His second piece, a plant stand with a mosaic top, is equally unusual in its structure. In this piece, the round top is supported by a number of thin vertical elements, which progress almost to the floor before they turn inward, as if cinched in by the tightening belt of the pediment or base. The slenderness of these elements is given rigidity through this bottom curve as well as what appears to be a series of purely decorative, almost free form, short, diagonally crisscrossing pieces. Their function, however, is that they are jointed stretchers keeping each vertical element rigid to its neighbor. The whole of this structure is pickled off-white, and its delicate almost basket woven appearance is a perfect foil for the circle of the subtle rose floral mosaic. This piece has the effect of effortlessness with the lightness of a basket-like structure, perfectly chosen for its role. This could be one of Hurwitz’s most sublime pieces.

James Krenov’s small cabinet is another example in which a rustic manner is used to present an evocative enclosure to hold something of value to its owner. His small beech cabinet is quite distinct as it sits atop its Brazilian stand with doussie drawers. Its two doors and single shelf interior leave its use to the owner’s imagination.

Beginning with the 1989 P&E ebony show, On Board the Edna: Ebony, Hank Gilpin made a number of small seven-drawer chests in different combinations of wood. This one, in curly maple with ebony pulls, is emblematic of this classic in Gilpin's repertoire.

Gilpin’s five-drawer chest is constructed as an ample, but not large, chest of drawers. Its sense of generosity comes largely from the proportion of the width to its height –- the height of the chest emphasizes the width of the drawers. The five drawers diminish slightly in their own height from bottom to top. The rosewood handles provide a decorative detail without distracting. This belongs within Gilpin’s evolving family of case pieces where the legs are jointed into the carcass frame at 45 degrees. As usual, for Gilpin, the given board or matched boards will dictate the dimensions of the piece he will make. In this case, he used some of his legendary curly maple.

This show also included tables in a variety of forms through the work of Richard Newman, Timothy Philbrick and William Walker. The Newman table is a hall table in cherry, ebony and gold done in his by now identifiable neo-neo classical style. As usual, the cherry in the table top would come from a board that Newman treasured for its figure. The ebony background enhances the use of gold. This hall table, unusually for Newman, includes a shelf, which performs the function of a stretcher between the legs partway from the floor. The legs, which ascend to support a table height of 34 inches, capture the eye for their slender elegance. The simple curving sweep of the octagonal shaped legs belies the complexity of their construction.

There are, in fact, many parts to this leg. At their core, there is a steel rod insert that gives the leg rigidity that wooden components wouldn't be able to produce. The leg itself comes apart at the anklet to allow the bracelet to enclose a fully supporting bracket for the shelf. The bracket extensions themselves are fashioned from ebony. The eight-sided ebony cladding to the legs curves slightly outwards to a point just below the table’s apron where the cherry of the leg is exposed in a turned transition to the leg’s final extension into the squared apron corners. The two faces of the apron corners, veneered again in ebony, provide a perfect canvas for the beautiful starburst ormolu in vermeil.

Tim Philbrick’s bedside table uses the smooth tones of pearwood combined with curly maple in its two slender drawer fronts and side and back aprons. The aesthetic of this table is the billowing feeling of cushioned or hung fabric. The drawer and apron bottoms follow the line of the swag, whilst the turned and shaped legs seem cinched by rings only to pillow again to set off the gentle curve of the swag. Philbrick has often used a solid top in his work. Here, he carefully shapes the sides and corners to reflect the casework and the top of the turned legs underneath.

Bill Walker’s breakfast table shows him at the top of his table forms. Its relatively small size for an eating table allows him to come up with a stretcher system that is both functional as well as elegantly original. From just above the floor on the back of each leg the two members of the stretchers curve outward and upward, crossing their diagonally opposite partners at a central overlapping crisscross joint. The apron is curved under, but also curves gently outward along its length; it is jointed into the legs at each end. This produces an inviting facade for the human users to engage. Its top is surfaced with a simple grid of Walker’s identifiably heavy cut veneer.

Lastly, we turn to the cabinet form and Zivko Radenkov’s return to the oval form. This time his oval cabinet is slightly larger than its predecessor of seven years ago. This cabinet’s facade also uses a slender grid-like structure to break the marquetry field and create the illusion of looking through a shoji lattice. Again, through this lattice we look at blossoms, this time cherry on a field of quilted maple. Though not prolific, Radenkov continues to affect the onlooker with the inspired beauty of his cabinets.

American Work in Metal
(Holloware & Flatware)
Michael & Maureen Banner, Jennifer Banks, Jonathan Bonner, Robert Butler, Ken Carlson, Mardi-Jo Cohen, Jay Coogan, Charles Crowley, Robert Davis, Susan Ewing, Robert J. Farrell, Pat Flynn, Skip Gaynard, Robly Glover, Carrie Harper & Tim McClelland, Curtis LaFollette, Thomas Markusen, John Marshall, Mark Williams Morgan, Tom Muir, Robyn Nichols, Tom Odell, Robert Oppecker, Janet Prip, Michel Royston, David Secrest, Jafar Shoja, Nancy Slagle, Mark Stanitz, Randy Stromsoe, Leonard Urso

A blurring of the traditional boundaries seemed to be the theme of this year's American Work in Metal show. The artists were deconstructing teapots, inventing apparatus for display, and using non-precious metals -- all in an effort to engage themselves and their public in a dialogue. One sensed humor and lightheartedness in this show, although the work was technically just as demanding on the metalsmiths as traditional work.

Consider Curtis LaFollette's Tea Infuser Set, or any of his brass stands that he crafts so successfully to hold silver spoons. Humor dominates his So You're Only Having Half a Cup? copper teapot, but does not diminish the difficulty to raise and fabricate such a piece.

Mark Morgan, who did the sensitive mokume pieces in the last show, sets off in a new direction in this show with his bronze castings presenting what appears to be the crystalline structure of the metal itself.

Jonathan Bonner, ever a pragmatist in his choice of materials, designed and constructed the Bird Lamp of copper sheet and mica.

Jewelry 1993
Jennifer Banks, Mardi-Jo Cohen, Colette, Jaclyn Davidson, Robert Davis, Vicki Eisenfeld, Peggy Eng, Susan Ewing, Pat Flynn, Bessie Jamieson/Robert Kulicke, Jim Kelso, Micki Lippe, Tim McClelland, Tom Muir, Jacqueline Myers, Robyn Nichols, Tom Odell, Robert Oppecker, Joan Parcher, Vernon Reed, Michel Royston, Eleni Prieston, Leonard Urso

The gold and silversmiths whose work adorns the body have a different challenge than metalsmiths doing holloware. Often limited by size and the seriousness of the materials, it is a different thing to "lighten-up" and imbue an object on an earlobe with a sense of humor. Eleni Prieston, known for her use of natural pearls, says that she often makes mismatched earrings in an effort to remind both the wearer and herself to maintain some spontaneity in the work, and not take things too seriously. The appeal of materials like 22K gold, fine silver, pearls, and black Australian opals stemmed from the preciousness of the materials and the success of her small- scale engineering feats.

Jim Kelso's skills as a knifemaker (see Archives, First Decade, 1990) are evident in his depiction of the delicate flora and fauna pieces like his Frog Brooch and Orchid Brooch, in gold and silver.

Tom Odell says that for a jeweler, brooches offer the broadest possibilities for sculptural compositions and can reflect a wide range of metalworking techniques, materials, and finishes. His work often introduces Japanese patination and alloying techniques such as Kuromido, Shibuichi, and Shakudo; these processes are defined by their varying proportions and combinations of gold, copper, and silver that have been enhanced with rokusho patina.

Glass 1993
David Levi, Dimitri Michaelides, Robin Mix, Pinkwater Glass (Lisa Schwartz & Kurt Swanson), Sam Stang, Joan Vogel

NOTES:The functional glass work of Robin Mix, IBEX Studio [David Levi, Dimitri Michaelides, and Sam Stang], and Pinkwater Glass continued to find their place at Pritam & Eames during the 1990s. Although the IBEX partners had gone different ways by this time, the gallery showed their work on an individual basis for a while. It would be the glasswork of Sam Stang, however, that would continue on at P&E.

For a short time (1991 -'93), Robin Mix and Sam Stang worked together and explored the technically challenging traditional European glassblowing method of murrini, a process whereby, in Sam's words, "I begin by making glass rods that are patterned in cross section. The rods are cooled and cut into thin pieces and arranged on an iron plate, which is then heated to fuse the murrini. This is then rolled into a tube on the end of a blowpipe and shaped into the final form."

Markings
Kristina Madsen & Makiti Koto

NOTES: This is Kristina Madsen's first show of work after her return from a year-long sojourn in Fiji as a Fulbright grantee where she mastered intaglio, shallow relief carving. At her request, her mentor, Makiti Koto, also exhibited traditional Fijian artifacts like headrests, bowls, and clubs.

Madsen's pattern work rendered through intaglio technique created a new decorative vocabulary for her furniture forms. But these forms departed from familiar Western chords as well with the low scale of the two benches and the unusual cabinets. Together these qualities gave the show an exotic look. There were no Fijian furniture forms that Madsen could use as a canvas for her astonishingly carved patterns.

Of her work, Madsen says, "As the carved surface has become more and more important to my furniture design, I have begun to view my work as a study of pattern, with furniture as its medium. I am investigating and experimenting with many types of pattern -- repetitive, non- repetitive, figurative, abstract, geometric, monochromatic, polychromatic -- always keeping in mind the reflected light. It is this light, the reflected light, and the bouncing light, that I love. Drawings do little to inform one of the effect of the carving, so each new pattern is developed on sample boards. A seemingly inconsequential mark on one sample might later spark an idea or find its way into a new pattern.
Some of my primary sources of inspiration are textiles. They offer endless richness and diversity. The patterns themselves, their layout, their combinations, their color all intrigue me. Stenciled bark cloth, tattoo, ceramics, other woodcarvings, any object with texture or pattern is of interest to me. Of late, the calligraphic form has caught my attention and has inspired a couple of recent designs.
Since my return from Fiji in early 1992, I have used this carving technique on all of my furniture. As I design, consideration of the surface is as important as that of form and I must develop the two simultaneously and harmoniously. Each new carved pattern reveals new information, light playing off the surfaces in unexpected and subtle ways. As my vocabulary grows, I am better able to anticipate the effect of the illusion of depth and dimension. I am challenged by the potential of this carving and inspired by the visual and tactile interest it lends to my furniture."

Jere Osgood

NOTES: The piece featured in this Osgood show was the Elliptical Shell Desk. Jere returned with a fresh take on this desk after more than twenty years had elapsed. The stretched hemispherical shape of the carcass was perched on a pedestal formed by gently S-curving legs. The simplicity of the carcass form seemed a perfect use of shell construction. The organic rootedness of the base, the elegant lines, and the nascent quality of the shell made this piece the favorite Osgood desk for many.

The tonality of the wenge gives a dramatic separation for the shell carcass. The wenge also worked well in the bending process, and the bonding of the laminated layers. This is always a consideration when Osgood chooses material for his tapered laminate pedestals. When the “samovar” style lid is lifted, revolving over the rear section of the shell form, a second contrasting wood is revealed, this time in the maple interior shelf and drawer construction. This choice self-illuminates the interior, and its gently curving partitions are synchronized with the shell itself.

One other desk, called the Nantucket Desk, is notable for the use of lapstraking in the construction of the side and back panels. Lapstraking, or overlapping horizontal siding members, has been used for hundreds of years in boat construction as a means of forming aqua dynamic curves in hulls. The desk itself has a more traditional four-legged support and ample working surface.

The maple and bubinga side chairs are a chair design for desk or dining usage. Two curved stretchers that are unusually independent of the seat create back support. This produces an airy, branch-like look to the back, and emphasizes the flow of line from floor to crown. The rear apron of the seat is situated forward of the back plane of the chair allowing for a very strong construction. Novelty in chair design is usually calligraphic only and reliant on non-wood materials for strength. Osgood’s novelty springs as much from design aesthetics as structural sophistication.

The sturdy walnut chair is Danish in attitude with its broad crest rail and it is a close relative to the chair that represented Osgood in the early years of the gallery. The earlier chair used stretched belt leather, as opposed to an upholstered seat.

The beautiful claro walnut table was suitable for a small telephone desk or writing table. The four-foot sweep of its width does not preclude the appearance of a familiar Osgood sculptural design.

James Krenov presented the gallery with a surprise cabinet in the early fall of 1993. He knew he had taken a major departure in his work with this piece. The first thing that strikes the eye is the uncharacteristically solid, rectilinear appearance of the piece. The strong secondary form that appears is projected by the use of the English walnut veneer resawn from one of Krenov’s prized boards. Now we have the illusion of a strongly organic form shaped by a potter’s hands, tightly framed by the austerity of the cabinet’s exterior. This piece has a raw, primitive power that has no antecedents.

Furniture 1994
Andy Buck, Hank Gilpin, Robert Hannan, Paul Harrell, Robert Ingham, James Krenov, Kristina Madsen, Tim Morrow, Christoph Neander, Richard Scott Newman, Zivko Radenkov, David Secrest, Wendy Stayman, Joe Tracy, Geoff Warner, Greg Zall

This group exhibition stretches the boundaries that are still present in studio furniture. The most unusual ventures came from makers not associated with the core of the field: Robert Hannan’s exuberant sweater chest and David Secrest’s geo-physical iron and steel bench.

Andy Buck was already exhibiting in Boston in the 1980s, after having studied with Alphonse Mattia at RISD. The small green and maple table, while delightful, would not, however, signify his work to come. It is interesting to see the simple sweeping legs and organic detailing of Buck’s table envisioned independently through Osgood’s eyes years later (see Osgood-Wurtz 1995) in his Owassa table.

Look at David Secrest’s bench and you can see how his sculpture is rooted in the geo-physical forces that shape the mountain country of his adopted Montana home. Even some of the bench’s complex patterning suggests the endless intricacy of stone pattern. The dangers of working his iron and steel medium with its particular vaporous by-products would prove to be a serious obstacle in his work.

The gallery partners had first seen Secrest’s work at a 1980s craft fair where he exhibited his layered iron and steel forged handles (see 1987). Based on the handsome functional work he was doing at the time, the partners invited him to show his work at P&E. Years later he told them that he couldn't make a living doing functional work like that, so he would be moving on to more sculptural forms. He did, however, return to functional work in a 1996 show with metalsmith Tom Joyce at P&E.

The exhibition also included the latest Krenov cabinet, as well as cabinets from three makers who studied with him: Ken Frye, Tim Morrow, and Greg Zall. Krenov’s cabinet is one of his simplest and strongest forms. The signature of the piece comes at once from its felt sense of proportioning, its sparseness, and the quietly involving veneer pattern of its upper cabinet. In this piece he comes as close as ever to a true Eastern “less is more” aesthetic. The veneer itself could be a subtle kimono pattern. Krenov’s metaphor for this cabinet is revealed by the name he chose: Fossil Cabinet.

The delicate oval form of Ken Frye’s pearwood cabinet seems perched on its impossibly long and slender legs. The oval form itself is given attention by the use of a diamond pattern in its parquetry surface. What leads a maker to make something of such an ephemeral nature when the making of it requires such a dedicated effort? It’s a rare gift that's never fully explained by the piece’s utility.

Tim Morrow’s jewelry box on stand has a similar attitude at its core. Its service seems more metaphorical than utilitarian.

Greg Zall’s standing jewelry cabinet is designed to be placed on top of a chest or dresser.  The asymmetry of the  marquetry design lends a playful attitude to the piece. His larger floor standing cabinet nuances an earlier Arts and Crafts era.

Hank Gilpin’s elm table with frieze came about as part of his investigation of furniture forms for the upcoming venture – P&E Editions. This frieze is like a jazz riff, but its fresh, puzzle-like composition would not be reproduced in the future edition work because of the time involved in laying out the pieces.

PRITAM & EAMES introduces P&E Editions, a new venture created to bring the design talent of highly recognized furniture makers to that most special place -- the home.
Pritam & Eames wrote this press release in spring 1994:

As the oldest established gallery in the country for the studio furniture movement, PRITAM & EAMES has hosted the work of American artist-craftsmen over the last 15 years and placed many pieces in private and museum collections across the country. While the rarity of the one-of-a-kind work is in itself a value, the gallery has long wished that its charm and integrity could be accessible to a wider audience.
A new venture was needed to bring together the vitality and originality of the American studio furniture movement and its tradition of superb craftsmanship, with the manufacturing capability of limited production. With this in mind, PRITAM & EAMES devised a collection with the potential to fill a hypothetical "empty house" and commissioned designs from those whose one-of-a-kind work the owners have admired.
These makers [Hank Gilpin, Jere Osgood, Wendy Stayman, Bill Walker] are selected in part because of their ability to create livable pieces that fit comfortably with existing furnishings, as well as the way their designs will work together to create an exciting, cohesive, and multi-faceted collection.
The goal in this limited production is to assure the ideals of traditional furniture construction and to make use of non-threatened domestic hardwoods. The American Forest Series, P&E Editions' first collection of furniture and accessories, grew from this commitment.

NOTES: Although the prices for studio furniture had appreciated during the 1980s, these gains were modest. There was considerable feeling among some of the makers that the upward trend of pricing had to improve. And the 1990s did see a more rapid increase in the overall price structure, which was influenced to a considerable extent by the entry into the furniture field by New York galleries. Also, to an important extent, Pritam & Eames owed its early survival to clients, some of whom were now being squeezed out by higher prices.

The concept of P&E Editions came about as a way of bringing much of the quality of studio furniture to pieces that could be marketed at a small edition cost level. The idea was to combine the production facilities of individual makers’ studios for prototype work and then develop a system of small production into a single, larger facility. The concept was based on producing designs generated by a small group of selected makers. These could be rendered in a single prototype or, as in the case of Bill Walker, a small edition run. In addition to Walker, Hank Gilpin, Jere Osgood and Wendy Stayman completed the group represented in the early meetings.

Although there was a planned timetable to bring pieces from all four makers to the floor at the same time for the opening of P&E Editions, Hank Gilpin was first out of the gate with such surplus energy that the editions opened almost entirely based on his work. At that time, it was called the American Forest Series, which sought to promote the use of lesser known domestic hardwoods, a Gilpin specialty. Gilpin was familiar with Steve Herrick of Herrick & White, a Cumberland, RI fabricator with nearly 100 mill workers, that made specialized fixtures for high-end retail stores.

The undertaking was ambitious but, ultimately, not successful; P&E Editions was mostly phased out after five years. In hindsight, the endeavor would have been much better served if edition numbers could have grown with the gallery’s capacity to market the work. Unlike the Maine furniture manufacturer, Thomas Moser, Pritam & Eames did not own its production facilities, and it was not able to begin with small enough numbers, which could gradually expand as demand increased.

From the beginning, the edition numbers required by Herrick & White to meet the price point were too high and this created classic inventory problems. From the marketing end, there were efforts to outsource to others, for instance Dean & Deluca and the retail store at the American Craft Museum in New York. However, the percent of sales return to the gallery was not sufficient to pay the artists’ royalties and to justify the gallery’s considerable input. The distribution, therefore, remained mostly on the gallery premises, itself not a highly trafficked, visible location.

Also, no sooner had the opening collection of designs been unveiled, but the year had rolled around and clients expected new designs to appear. In truth, there hadn't been sufficient time for the partners to learn how to most effectively deal with the initial editions. Although promising, it's possible that the timing of the venture was premature. The gallery ceased P&E Editions production in 1998.

Despite its short run, P&E Editions spurred some original thinking in furniture terms, such as Bill Walker's steel and hardwood tables, and Hank Gilpin's fresh takes on wood tables.

Summer 1994
David Ebner, Hank Gilpin, James Krenov, Kristina Madsen, Jere Osgood, James Schriber, Rick Wrigley

The announcement for the summer of 1994 showed a new low table by James Schriber. As the term “coffee table” became dated, low table replaced the commonly used term for a table situated in front of seating. The piece shows Schriber’s recurrent experimentalism in combining materials in a piece: wood; painted and textured foiled copper; stone, this time Vermont slate, and perforated metal. The enlarging leg, as if engorged by gravity as it descends to the foot, turns elegance on its head and was used recurrently by different makers in the late 1980s. The table was playful in its materials, but the heaviness of its stone top and the legs gave a sense of gravitas.

David Ebner’s work also used dark milk painted tonalities, which he had developed with Ivan Barnett the preceding year. He continued his furniture experimentation using existing industrial parts.

Hank Gilpin’s white oak desk is more of a visual investigation than a serious furniture solution for writing surface and drawer space. As usual in his work, the white oak material was used to stunning effect.

This James Krenov cabinet seemed a return to his earlier themes of the box on stand.

The Claro walnut Easy Chair was Jere Osgood’s first lounge chair design since the 1970s. Its powerful solid wood members projected an even more generous furniture personality than the actual scale of the chair. It was originally shown at Pritam & Eames without its seat and back cushions making it possible to see the design beauty of the back slats from the front. Osgood was convinced that this chair, with some simplification of its construction details, could be produced for the upcoming P&E Editions series. For this Claro walnut chair, there were over 50 jigs involved in shaping its members.

Christoph Neander’s Column of Drawers can be viewed in conjunction with his hall table shown in the Fall 1995 show: both pieces exhibit an exterior use of a skeletal-like structure. As an interesting aside, it was Christoph's musician ancestors who owned the Neander valley in Germany where the first remains of a form of early man were discovered -- and subsequently named "Neanderthal". (A far cry from the sophisticated work of the contemporary Neander!)

Dale Broholm & Jamie Robertson: New Work

NOTES: Dale Broholm was considered one of the young Turks of PIA's program in the 1980s. He was known for his use of wood veneers dyed in brilliant colors (see 1984). In the 1990s, Broholm's work took on architectural references. For this show, he collaborated with Chatham Glass, a Cambridge, MA glass group, to fabricate details such as the columns in his mirror, rods in the standing screen, and finials for the four-poster bed.

Jamie Robertson had developed a reputation for outstanding veneer work, as well as figurative and stylized marquetry and inlay. His earliest pieces in the mid-1980s at the gallery were a pair of curved ebony lunettes with outstanding marquetry of dogwood branches in blossom across the front. These were followed by a very well received ebony and harewood mirror with stylized vines in flower ascending the side panels. Tables with an inlaid running hound motif were also admired. Then, in the early 1990s, came the first illusionist pieces, creating a sense of architectural perspective on an essentially two-dimensional plane.

Although visitors to the gallery will probably think of Robertson for his headboards veneered in brilliant sunbursts of lemonwood and banded by curving ribbon-like details of rosewood, the new work for this show was focused in this illusionist direction. In a sense, Robertson's tricks of perspective were parallel to what John Cederquist was doing on the west coast, although Robertson's surfaces are handled quite differently. Stone-paved pathways project toward the viewer and backwards towards an arched or crowned aperture, sometimes represented by mirrored glass, or cabinet doors as in the announcement piece.

The Furniture Art of Judy Kensley McKie

NOTES: The fourth in Judy McKie's series of one-person exhibits at the gallery, and the largest of her shows to date, with fifteen pieces. Of this number, two are significant new bronzes; six are major pieces in wood. By 2000, the bronze pieces would be in the majority. If you had to pick the major piece in the show, it would be the bronze Lion Bench, a piece inspired by Central American stone carving best described as line carving on a volume slab or block. The calm solidity of the volume is dominated by the head with its thick mane flowing back dynamically from the ferocity of the face. The scene-stealer in this show, however, was the Monkey Chair of wood and bronze, a combination that McKie would not repeat until 2004.

When you sit in the Monkey Chair, you feel empowered as if seated on a throne. When approaching the chair, however, it is not clear whether the monkeys are, in fact, friendly or not; in this sense, they are true guardians. As already seen in the Lion Bench, this ambiguity is often evident in McKie’s work.  The Black Bird Mirror, with its intense colors and imagery, also has an unsettling effect.

On the other hand, there are benign visions in McKie’s world, and both the Turtle Low Table and Fox Side Tables offered considerable pleasure to McKie’s public. However, even her ostensibly more benign visions have undertones. The sly grin on the fox of the table by that name might indeed be beckoning Red Riding Hood. 

The Monkey Settee was a large piece and, as such, not as place-able as the chair. However, the originality of the settee was that it extended the chair’s seat into a usable table surface that was common to the second seat. McKie said that the idea for the Monkey Settee actually preceded that of the Monkey Chair, but the solutions for the chair came more easily than the settee; thus, it was made first.

The Turtle Table was another piece that gave McKie’s public considerable pleasure. Its out-stretched head is tentative, but the tension in the strongly bowed legs suggests sudden movement. The concentric design of the top already sets the piece in motion. The other table in the show, the medium sized Circle Table, also uses a strong linear graphic. This time shallow relief carving is used to delineate white lines on a black background. There is a strong sense of geometry in the design, but also because of the way the patterns intersect, just as strong a feeling of random selection. This table’s other feature of note is the unusual totemic shaped legs.

Two large case pieces are included in McKie’s selection: Sideboard with Greenery is just that, and perhaps the calmest piece in the show. Very different is the agitation of the Frog Cabinet with its towering stature and surge of aerated borders. The muscular frogs move up and down, only interrupted by the thin molding, which separates the upper and lower doors.

In addition to the Lion Bench, the other bronze piece of scale was the Female Vessel. A sub-title of sisterhood would not be out of place, suggested strongly by the joined upheld hands of the five figures surrounding the vessel. Also the concentric rings, a feature that appears in a number of McKie pieces, appear around the heads of the figures and suggest habits or cowling, as well as hair. The overall form is unambiguously chested, its five-breasted vessel form lends a magical but impersonal force to the term Female. The narrow base leads to a lowered half of the female figures, which emphasizes nurturing, as opposed to fertility.

A s mentioned, the inspiration for the Lion Bench came from Central America. It was a visit to Tuscany where McKie came across the intense blue color inside chapels that found its way to the Mirror with Black Birds. The use of the snake form in the second mirror gives it a calligraphic quality. Their coiling gold forms against a blood red background could be straight from Caesar’s Rome. The bronze Snake Shelf takes the coiled energy of the snakes and translates it into a three- dimensional structure.

Judy Kensley McKie

Today, as we stand awash - sometimes shoulder deep - in an art world
market-driven, ego-tainted, tongue-tied while near buried in words,
the furniture of Judy McKie appears as a singular "safe harbor".
McKie's stricture that her work remain furniture and functional
may be a clue to its success, for this is not sculpture to sit on, nor art to warehouse.
True, these pieces are also ritual objects going beyond function.
Often bestial with four stout legs or with none, her house-broken menagerie
makes maker and viewer smile, as intended.

A daughter of artists, a painter with a fine understanding of organic form,
especially of the connecting parts, McKie as furniture maker is self-taught.
No one daunted her with the hierarchy of rare woods,
nor a litany of joinery, nor the rituals of hand tools properly pointed.
If her images are often as knowingly naif as those of Rousseau,
or hauntingly stirring as Gauguin's Noa Noa woodblocks,
the results flow from common well-springs
and run as purely to feed our thirst for untainted source water.

Now restored, we sense in the perception of each McKie
her whole story, or perhaps, all but the last, essential aspect of it -
that which goes beyond furniture making, materials and skills.
Hear her account of when one of a couple of graduated painters
being without furniture, and of her building sturdy, four-square pieces
less hackneyed than store-bought stuffs new or old.

First mastering the fast machines in wood shops, she then appropriated hand tools
to rhythmically shape sinued legs or gouge lines in planed boards.
We hear of the fork at which she divided energies between legged supporting surfaces
and containers more often than not embellished with high contrast relief images.
And finally of the wall-hung mirrors mid-pointing the case goods and monoprints.

No one told her that women don't make furniture.
No one said that if they did, they would concentrate on one form or another,
in one material, not trying at one time to work in bronze and painting and prints
for both sculptured forms, often biomorphic, and at the same time containers and reliquaries where the interior and implied treasures are the point.
No one told her that, with success, she would remain humble,
open still to revolutions within her work and lifestyle -
still simple, affable, bi-coastal, personal, highly individual.

If Judy McKie had instead become a performer (it is easy to imagine this)
one senses she would have been a pied piper.
To her own version of Wait Whitman's "Song of the Broad Ax"
| would move the merry forms of Matisse's blue Danseurs - ourselves.

Jack Lenor Larsen, President Emeritus, American Craft Council, Hon. RDI
[Prologue to catalogue for The Furniture Art of Judy Kensley McKie, Pritam & Eames, 1994]

Spring 1995
Andy Buck, Ross Day, Hank Gilpin, Peter Murkett, Christoph Neander, Ron Puckett, David Secrest, Peter Spadone, Jane Swanson, Rick Wrigley

NOTES: A modest card belied the robust strength of this 1995 Early Spring Show group show. A pair of leather and maple chairs marked a rare appearance of work at the gallery by Bruce Beeken and Jeff Parsons. A great deal of the character of these chairs came from the use of stretched belt leather cleverly tensioned over the chair’s structural members. The ties for the leather were festooned with tassel details that were a similar decorative detail except in silk for the Child’s Bed exhibited in the 10th anniversary show in 1991. The maple chosen for the chair was grade B, or was not pure creamy maple but material that included patches of dark brown coloration. This was significant not because it added to the rusticity of the chair’s look so much as that it gave a window into the thinking of Beeken and Parsons with respect to the use of material. The chairs have, as Beeken puts it, "a real material presence." Both Beeken and Parsons had developed a deep commitment to harvesting regional hardwoods from their Vermont environs, with the added integrity of not wasting but using as much of the tree as possible.

Andy Buck’s second piece to come to the gallery was more in line with the work that would come from him in future years. Harold was African in inflection with bold horizontal striping, and round and squat like a kettledrum. The primitive carved feel of this piece, as well as the complex dark colors, would be his signature for work to come.

Hank Gilpin’s small cabinet on stand was one of his extemporaneous pieces that came to the gallery when it was done. Like Krenov, Gilpin’s entries were rarely premeditated. This was truly a sweet idiosyncratic piece. Its low stand gave the cabinet just enough height to maintain the user’s comfort. The signature of the piece, however, comes from the complexity of the pieced door panels, a technique that captivated this maker at the time. The frames of the door panels are unusually coved at the top and gently tapered towards the midpoint at the bottom. The cabinet sits on a rolling pin base allowing it to be shifted on its low stand. The only use of a secondary wood is in the minimal doorknobs.

This would be the only showing of Peter Murkett's work at the gallery. His entries, the second of three pairs of chairs in the show, share a certain rusticity with the Beeken-Parsons chairs, although they reflect a more traditional influence of slat back chair design. For instance, the Murkett chairs are certainly not strangers to green chair tradition as practiced currently by Brian Boggs in Kentucky.

The contemporary style of Christoph Neander’s furniture makes another appearance, this time in a revolving bookcase called the Guggenheim. As a small revolving bookcase, it follows a functional tradition. The bookcase was constructed with a square vertical shaft in its center. Neander finalized his witty take-off statement by turning this shaft into a tiny, lit gallery complete with hanging miniature prints of contemporary masters' paintings from the Guggenheim Museum: a modernist’s doll house.

Jane Swanson’s Chippendale-style chair was an unusual entrant in the gallery for two reasons: first because it represented such a faithful adherence to the Chippendale tradition and second, it was the first piece to come to the gallery from a graduate of the North Bennett Street School in Boston. This school, established in 1885, is unusual today in that its curriculum is devoted to furniture making based on hand skills and proven craft technique. It is a curriculum that largely avoids the confrontations dealing with contemporary art/craft/design issues.

Ron Puckett’s side tables continued his participation in gallery exhibitions. The lightness of these pedestal-based tables was in contrast to his earlier solidly architectural pieces. There is a nice balance in this pair of side tables between traditional furniture references rendered in a postmodern look.

This tall cabinet by Peter Spadone presages the work that he will do for his show with Rick Wrigley the following year. Its intriguing character results from a small diorama inspired space atop a stack of drawers. His consummate carved detailing around the window of the diorama gives the illusion that the verdancy of the interior is escaping to the outside.

Also in the show were two of David Secrest's iron and steel benches. The base of Secrest's Curvilinear Bench is a mathematically accelerating curve. This sculptural premise is less in line with his geologically influenced forms. It is nonetheless richly textured and includes the use of his laminated iron/steel “tiles”. The Ark (see his 1996 show with Tom Joyce), on the other hand, looks like it might have come from an ancient Sumerian garden.

The third pair of chairs in this exhibition came from Rick Wrigley. These chairs occupy a very useful territory but one seldom entered -- that is, they are a cross between dining/desk chairs and an easy chair. These chairs are comfortable, relatively portable, and, with their arms, one could imagine they would promote more conversation than the kind of posture needed at a dining table or desk. The recline of the back is not as steep as one finds in an easy chair but the shell back and the ample upholstered leather seat offer an unusual degree of comfort. The rich fumed oak material of the chairs is further embellished with small-refined uses of parquetry detailing.

27 = Useful Work in Wood, Metal, Ceramics, Glass, and Jewelry

NOTES: In addition to furniture, the gallery continued to devote space and attention to smaller functional objects for the home. They allocated nearly 25% of their floor space towards this purpose.

Wood:
Brad Smith, Jonathan Simon, Bob Womack

You could still discover delightful, functional wood pieces at regional craft shows like the American Craft Council's (ACC) Baltimore show in the 1990s. P&E was devoted to the idea of beautiful objects for everyday use and delighted in discovering Brad Smith's series of kitchen area pieces that included counter stools built with axe handles and pitchforks, and cheese slicers in various woods that resembled musical instruments with their custom metal hardware.

Another wonderful addition to any kitchen is a selection of Jonathan Simon's spoons. He is a cook's cook and his inventive arsenal of wild cherry spoons seem to anticipate every chef's need.

A Coloradoan, Bob Womack, used found mountain woods that he carved into effective and sensual letter openers.

American Work in Metal 1995
Jonathan Bonner, Jay Coogan, Curtis LaFollette, Tom Odell, Leonard Urso

NOTES: The gallery continued to feature functional ceramics, with an occasional exception granted to the mostly ceremonial one-of-a-kind porcelain vessels of James Makins. These bottle-like shapes and their warm, sumptuous earth tones evoke the soft play of the clay material itself. You can almost see these forms being squeezed out through the hands of the ceramist. In the mid-1990s, Makins commuted weekly between his New York studio and the Philadelphia College of the Arts, where he taught ceramics. Later, as he was spending more and more time in Japan, Makins was less able to supply the gallery with his functional porcelain "Chromoline" ware that clients coveted.

Joyce Nagata was teaching ceramics at Swarthmore College in PA while she made her appealing, and eminently functional, Majolica earthenware pieces. Since her ceramics department was located within the art department, Nagata admitted that she was being pressured to make non-functional work, although her functional pieces flew out of the gallery.

Hiroshi Nakayama's stoneware ceramics are distinguished by their marble glaze, a formula worked out between he and his former partner, Judith Glasser. Very Japanese in form and function, these Nakayama pieces appealed to a cultivated taste in functional ceramics.

It was the porcelain ceramics of Izuki Teraki and Jeanne Bisson, whose studio is called Romulus Craft, that took good, clean design armed with functional considerations to new, satisfactory heights. Their tableware settings reflected a quiet regard for Japanese aesthetics (Ikuzi was born and trained in Kyoto, Japan), but their practical applications centered on good old Yankee serviceability.

American Jewelry 1995
Ellen Baumritter, Colette, Sylvia Falkove, Daniel Gibbings, Michele Insley & Frederick Marshall, Bessie Jamieson, Tom Odell, Joan Parcher, Eleni Prieston, Helene Safire, Leonard Urso.

Work from 12 studio jewelers continued the gallery's commitment to a second decade with this show of wearable jewelry. High karat work by Ellen Baumritter is bold and colorful. Her hand wrought chains of 22K gold, large precious and semi-precious stones and handmade findings all contribute to her spirited scaled up classical jewelry. Bessie Jamieson and Eleni Prieston, both working in the same high karat gold classical tradition, bring a different twist to their jewelry. Eleni Prieston has a lighter and more organic touch, whereas Bessie Jamieson's work reflects a more historically referenced one.

Tom Odell brought his traditional Japanese mokume techniques to a body of wearable pieces in this show, which incorporated copper, silver, gold and pearls. Loosely shaped geometric forms are soldered together in a marriage of subtle colors.

Helene Safire threaded brilliantly colored dichroic glass beads onto silk cord, resulting in bright lyrical necklaces.

Joan Parcher, whose work appears in the Cooper Hewitt and Renwick Museum collections, often employs vitreous enamel flowers and discs in saturated chalky colors. She has incorporated mica, gold, oxidized silver, steel cable, enamel, pearls, and diamonds into her line of light-hearted, approachable, and appealing work.

The thread of approachability, wearability, comfort, and appeal was securely running through the body of goldsmiths represented by the gallery during this period.

Krenov
John Cameron, Tim Coleman, Ross Day, Seth Janofsky, Bille Koch, James Krenov, Brian Newell, Zivko Radenkov, Craig Stevens

NOTES: Once again, the strength and influence of Krenov's woodworking program at the College of the Redwoods is demonstrated in this exhibit. The James Krenov work in this 1995 show represents a change of direction for him, fueled by his investigation of parquetry. In creating the compositions for the front and side panels of the Fire & Smoke cabinet, Krenov continued the language he had begun in the walnut cabinet the year before. In both cabinets, symmetry left and right of the centerline was observed. Otherwise, he lined up the figure without the normal regard for the integrity of pattern and grain flow. These cabinets are rectangular compositions with flat facades. What is central is the composition, however, it is the abrupt change in grain pattern that gives both cabinets their animation. Rather than producing an effect of a dull two dimensionality, the facades are alive.

In Fire & Smoke and the Elm Cabinet, the effects are dramatic. By avoiding any neat rules of panel banding, Fire and Smoke is almost totemic in its presence. Like his 1993 walnut piece, this is a cabinet on a cabinet, without curves. This time, however, the mid-section is not broken with drawers. While Fire & Smoke is a cabinet on a cabinet base, the Elm Cabinet is a more expected form from Krenov -- a cabinet on a stand. Again, the veneer is given full center stage to create a visage with an almost shroud-like imprint.

The third cabinet is recognizable from its predecessors. In this piece, the upper cabinet appears to be shrinking and perching.

The next two cabinets are by John Cameron and Tim Coleman, both of whom studied with Krenov. This will be a single entrant at the gallery by Cameron: a showcase cabinet in a more traditional vein. There is no use of a secondary wood in the exterior, but a delicate use of glass in the upper showcase. It is more common to find hickory used in traditional chair making. In this case, its use in the cabinet is calming.

Tim Coleman studied with Krenov after apprenticing with Bill Walker in Seattle. His three- story cabinet is a beautifully crafted, idiosyncratic maker’s vision. The piece’s complexity comes not only from its detailing, but also from the convex shaping of the lower cabinet’s front with the transition to concave shaping in the upper stories. Much of the unusual quality of the cabinet comes from the proportion of the two upper stories to the lower cabinet, almost like a monastery perched on a mountain. His oak cabinet, a generally more functional piece, derives its unusual character from the detailing of the doors. Here the viewer is led to think of the dramatic pleating of performance curtains.

Ross Day’s entry in this show is a functionally considered, well- proportioned sheet music cabinet. He makes very sweet use of the cherry material.

Unabashedly influenced by a Japanese aesthetic, Seth Janofsky’s sideboard was designed close to the floor. This is low storage and the viewer is tempted to complete the scene with tatami mats in front.

Bille Koch’s small piece depends on a table or sideboard to operate. Its beautiful work in kwila frames the glass facades of this display cabinet. This is a symmetrical and functional architectural vision.

An early bravura piece arrived from Brian Newell from the midwest during a period in which he was producing prototypes for a Chicago toy maker. While this cabinet does not presage the animation of his end-of-the-century body of work, it certainly demonstrates his originality. The use of fragile leaded glass lights for the flanked central chamber gives the piece a cathedral-like feeling. Like his 2001 “broken ice” cabinet, the form of the cabinet is projected upwards from the plan view of the base.  

This small wall cabinet was unusual for Zivko Radenkov in that it did not use marquetry. Its simple beauty is derived entirely from the ash panels of the two slender doors. His ebony and paper lamp, also Japanese influenced, gives a pleasant ambient light.

Jere Osgood & Stewart Wurtz

NOTES: This is the third show featuring Osgood's work. Stewart Wurtz had previously shown at the gallery as a recent graduate of the PIA program where he had studied with Jere Osgood. Later, he shared shop space for a number of years with Bill Walker in Seattle. This would be the second time the master Osgood would exhibit his work with that of a former student, the last time it was Thomas Hucker.

Osgood would create two major pieces for this show; both were projects that required months to complete. The Tall Desk will be the more challenging of the two pieces since it has no ready references. When you say "tall desk", you might think of a secretary, but what Osgood had in mind had more to do with the privacy of a library carrel. Two tall pocket doors, besides making the work area private, open to reveal the original architecture of an interior that soars upward from the user. A pullout-writing surface expands the workspace.

His second major piece is a low chest of drawers with a broad swelling volume that contains three ample drawers. What form could more ably convey "chest" of drawers? There is not only the compound swelling up through the drawer fronts, the carcass itself swells from the bottom and cinches to the rear. The only flat surface to greet the viewer is the top, which terminates in the rear in a shaped ledge. This horizontal volume is such a convincing and satisfying form, one creating such a pleasing flow of curves, that you have to remind yourself that the piece actually derives from an equally impressive, but vertical, chest of drawers. (see Archives, First Decade, The Boston Influence, 1984).

Osgood’s work also included two side tables that would become signature pieces for him: the Owassa and Layton tables, one representing a four-legged and the other a pedestal designed table. Osgood often names his tables after people or places significant to him. The organic shaping and gently sweeping saber legs of his Owassa table would evolve into a stockier version, with a weight more suitable to accompany his easy chair. This version would be produced in small numbers for P&E Editions. The trick on the apron for Osgood was to create an organic design that has a fresh, once done look and yet could be re-produced. The Layton table is a great example of Osgood’s talent for using asymmetry both in the pedestal support, which is reminiscent of his desks, and the curved sweep of the top.

The work by Stewart Wurtz -- a daybed, a three-legged dining table and chairs to seat six, a desk and chair suite -- does not remind one of Osgood any more than William Walker's work would remind you of Jim Krenov. Both Walker and Wurtz share a contemporary take on modernism where the detailing is sensitive but not relied upon for major impact. This "west coast" look was not as impacted by an Art Deco or neo-Classicism look as happened in the East in the 1980s. Nor is there a particular indebtedness to the 20th-century Scandinavian designers. Theirs was a grass roots style that draws on the energy of their two great teachers, Jere Osgood and James Krenow.

Wurtz’s desk and chair are good examples of his contemporary aesthetic. The desk’s low ridge of sliding door compartments is sufficient to define a private workplace; otherwise, the piece is a study of flat and curved intersecting planes with a distinct contemporary architectural sense. The low backed chair is in keeping with the profile of the desk. The front and rear legs, arms, and back interlock in an interesting solution to racking forces.

His daybed is very much scaled for the height of present day humans. The slatted sides produce a modern openness. The decorative detailing of the legs may seem unmotivated by the form, but it is reminiscent of the more aggressive detailing of his earlier PIA work.

Wurtz's three-legged table comes from a family of forms that could be labeled pinwheel, a form used by Wendell Castle earlier. Usually legs will project outward to define the pinwheel more aggressively, for example in Castle's game table in the 1981-opening exhibit of Pritam & Eames. Here, in Wurtz's piece, the legs are neatly tucked into a triangular division of a circular table form. This leads to a more interesting shape than a simple 120-degree division of a circle. It also helps to accomplish a rigid joinery for the legs. Sometimes the extension of an extended leg junction leads to a less than satisfactory stability to a large table, but this table was rock solid. The three legs also nicely accomplish space for seating six.

Kristina Madsen

NOTES: This is Kristina Madsen's second solo exhibit that features her work in shallow relief carving. The three major pieces completed for this show were all horizontal carcass pieces: a chest on stand, a chest of drawers, and a blanket chest. And all three pieces are more familiar as furniture forms than the work of her first show. These pieces are truly canvasses for her new pattern explorations. The chevron motif on the blanket chest maintains the angularity of the Fijian influence. The chest-on-stand is on the move with its curved pattern shapes: an irregular sickle motif is super-imposed over a background of fan patterns conceived with the energy of brush strokes.

On the chest of drawers, a similar background serves host to a pattern of grasshopper figures. Although the figure is consistent, it undulates with the movement in the background. Her gesso technique involves the following steps: The wood is first sealed, and then carved. Acrylic gesso is applied (scrubbed into the
carving with a toothbrush) and wiped off the top
surface with a damp rag (two coats). Once dry, the
carving is lightly sanded to remove the residual gesso
that clouds the surface. It is finished with several
coats of thinned varnish. Clearly, the work in the Grasshopper Chest of Drawers reflects an artist enjoying the exploration of new boundaries.

Madsen's intaglio carved dining chair also appears in this show. At first glance, a viewer is struck with the European sensibility of the chair's magnificent fan-shaped crest rail but, on closer inspection, one sees that the pattern work is much closer to its Fijian inspiration.

Madsen's oval table shares the combined aesthetic of the chair. It shares the overall reference to traditional western furniture with its turned legs, ball transitions, delicate stretchers, and plum-line feet as well as the elegant oval top. Like the chair, we then focus on the wealth of carving with its Fijian origin.

Madsen's low bench has a stark quality that is enhanced by her combination of ebony and walnut. The crispness of her intaglio carving is heightened by the piece’s linear geometry and the aggressive nature of the Oceanic markings. This is an occasional seat that instructs, “Sit with respect!”

David Ebner & Ivan Barnett/ Fall 1995

NOTES: In this fall exhibit, a group of table lamps and a floor standing lamp are shown. This work continued Ebner and Barnett's exploration of combining pre-existing industrial parts within the craft process.

Also in this show were tables of different heights by Ron Puckett, Christoph Neander, and Jim Plukas, which were intended to serve various functions.

Early Spring Show
Dale Broholm, Andy Buck, David Ebner, David Finck, Gary S. Magakis, Brian Newell, Zivko Radenkov, Colin Reid, Geoff Warner

NOTES: You can't help but notice Brian Newell's pierced carving detail in the announcement's piece. It's not the unusual shelf-like pedestal base that captures the eye, but the carved detail as the forked top of the leg joins the apron.

Andy Buck’s Figaro bench in the form of a double mandolin continues the heavily carved, solid style of his Harold (see Early Spring Show, 1995). Quadrants of deep color in his hand-worked technique give this piece a strong graphic presence.

In this show, Rick Wrigley’s desk and chair are recognizable furniture forms of his by this time. The ebonized cherry frame sets off the drama of the diagonally sectioned maple and makore parquetry to maximum effect. This suite shows how powerfully surface choices can produce a stylistic effect. The use of aluminum for the feet lends a metallic, but neutral, feature.

Also of note in this show were the beautiful birch and gingko paper sconces by David Finck with their hand planed detailing. These sconces, as much of Finck's work, are Japanese in sensibility.

15th Anniversary Exhibition
Furniture: David Ebner, Hank Gilpin, George Gordon, Kristina Madsen, Judy Kensley McKie, Jere Osgood, Wendy Stayman, William Walker
Jewelry: Ellen Baumritter, Colette, Sylvia Falkove, Hannelore Gabriel, Daniel Gibbings, Guillermo Gonzalez, Michele Insley & Frederick Marshall, Bessie Jamieson, Jim Kelso & Jean Sousa, Tom Odell, Joan Parcher, Jo Pedersen, Eleni Prieston, Helene Safire, Barbara Seidenath, Leonard Urso
Holloware: Pat Flynn, Curtis LaFollette, Tom Odell, Leonard Urso
Ceramics: James Makins, Joyce Nagata, Hiroshi Nakayama
Glass: William Gudenrath, Robin Mix, Sam Stang
Lamps: Noel & Janene Hilliard

NOTES: Two furniture pieces stand out in this show -- Judy McKie's Pattern Table and Kristina Madsen's Darner's Chest of Drawers.

McKie uses a simple Parsons table form to serve as the canvas for her carved pattern work. The top, aprons and legs of this large table, 30"H x 95"W x 35.5"D, are covered with shallow, carved relief pattern work. Chevron, triangle, and trapezoidal forms, communicating diagonally, utilize mahogany colored gouged surfacing that is contrapuntally interspersed with red and green pigment. Where Madsen's chest brings to mind the finest lace work, McKie's table takes the viewer to African art and jazz.

In addition to the Pattern Table, McKie made a tall cabinet called the Frog Cabinet, and a bronze bird fountain. Like Madsen, McKie uses surface carving in the Frog Cabinet; however, stating this common process doesn't get one very far in understanding the work, since the styles render such different effects. Whereas the one suggests the intricacy of fine embroidery, the other refers more to the primitive power of expressionism.

The Bird Fountain is a very beautiful and simple form. This form would evolve further into the sculptural piece she created for the Garden of Peace in Boston, which opened in 2004. Despite its beauty, it was not a popular collector’s choice, very possibly because of the extensive planning it took for placement.

Kristina Madsen's five-drawer Darners chest was the largest work to date to utilize her pattern work. Lacework is strongly suggested with her use of a gesso technique that highlights much of the fine carving in white. As in her earlier three-drawer chest, the white of the gesso technique is framed by the tones of pearwood. Darners, also known as dragonflies, appear as a pattern in the facade of the largest and lowest drawer, as well as in the chest's side panels. The shallow relief pattern carving is impressive in detail but astonishing as it covers, in effect, the entire surface of the chest.

The Madsen piece represents the finest of furniture craft in its drawer and carcass construction. David Powell, founder of the Leeds Design School in Easthampton, MA, trained Madsen. Powell, himself, studied in England with the British Arts and Crafts master, Edward Barnsley.

The gallery had shown the work of Janene and Noel Hilliard since the early 1990s. Their table lamps seem to evoke some of their best experiments with form. The bronze Red Lamp with its zigzagging pattern of small black and red glass tiles that are fashioned into a boat shaped shade brings to mind the feeling of a couture design. The small, but jewel-like, lamp functioned as an accent light.

Also included in this show was a pair of bronze and glass tile "bamboo" sconces by the Hilliards. The log cabin style corners lent rusticity to a sophisticated design. Depending on the internal fixture, this sconce could project upwards, downwards, or both, while greeting the passerby with a soft, golden ambient light.

Hank Gilpin’s ash and yew, large and small, end tables showed how fresh and simply a recognizable form could come off. Here it is the beautiful use of ash with yew detailing that gives these tables a light, contemporary feel. The second stretcher with the small yew cross members gives the table its signature. The half spade, or ballet shoe, foot was common in Gilpin’s table work of this period. The point to underline here is how work can be fresh without straining at originality.

Also in this show was Wendy Stayman’s second Bon Heure de Jour desk. It is the material as well as the decorative touches that subtly differentiate this desk from the first. Her bubinga end tables continue her development of this elegant work. The long curved taper of the narrow legs is complemented by the long tasseled pulls.

Layton Table II, another one of Jere Osgood's tables with personality, was named after the place where Osgood conceived it, in this case, Peter's Valley in Layton, NJ. The principal distinction between Table I and II is the bubinga marquetry top of the second table.

This is the third of Bill Walker’s dining tables to reach the gallery; again, he chose to work in cherry. Once more, we see the subtle infusion of North- western architectural style. It is easy to see the table in front of a large unbroken window framed by a post-and-beam referenced structure, a house with a low angled roof and ample overhangs facing the Pacific Ocean, isn't it? The design of the table is an interesting hybrid of trestle legs and pedestal. A pedestal-like lifting of the table’s top, the arching shell end stretchers puts the legs at the corners of the top but draws the central trestle back from the ends of the table to facilitate comfortable seating.

Peter Spadone & Rick Wrigley

NOTES: Peter Spadone had shown occasionally at the gallery since his PIA days. But this group of pieces represented a distinct personal direction after his collaborative years with Stephen Rieger had concluded. The work combined the refinement of high Deco furniture with the addition of a flora and fauna motif. In Spadone's work, painted or carved snakes or leaves, realistic in detail, will appear -- a snake climbs up and over the rear edge of a table, and a bench, with allusions to an ancient temple, has pockets of leaves thrust onto its formal ebony surface.

In Spadone's wall hung multi-drawered Temple Viper Snake Cabinet, a snake appears comfortably at home against the background of a finely painted jungle habitat. Here the theatrical flair is evident, with the diorama interior set off dramatically by the highly lacquered surface of the cabinet. The redwood burl arches and pearwood columns establish the proscenium for the unfolding drama within.

Rick Wrigley, who had an impressive start landing some major corporate commissions through the Workbench Gallery in NYC, had participated marginally in P&E shows during the late '80s. Increasingly a contributor in the early '90s, he is known for his strong skills in marquetry composition and veneer work. His work for the show included two cabinets utilizing surface carving for texture and pattern. The first, called simply Cabinet with Wasp, was a chest high vertical cabinet whose single door opened to reveal an interior of silver-leaf. The door front is laid out in a herringbone pattern of makore veneer. These warm tones set up a much smaller panel of Macassar ebony that frames a single wasp, an accomplished marquetry composition. The strength of Wrigley's style came from setting up the whole with a sparing use of detail. Here the pull and wasp panel were framed by a tiny checkerboard parquetry pattern. The pull itself is planished and leafed. The carcass surround of the door, as well as the substantial plinth, is black and its surface is carved with a gouged texture directed diagonally to median divisions.

The announcement card for Rick Wrigley shows his piece of scale in the show: a cherry sideboard with makore veneer, marquetry woods and a Negro margina marble top. The sideboard’s focus is two ample doors, which enclose the interior shelves. In their centers are the small marquetry panels of the tortoise on the left door, and the hare on the right, the tortoise proverbially leading the hare. As in his cabinet, the fields of these small panels are ebony surrounded by a small frame of checkerboard parquetry. The scale seems perfect to bring off the central figures’ drama. The remainder of the door panels is divided into quadrants with the lively makore curl radiating outwards towards the corners. This is using understatement as well as compelling wood figure in a sophisticated composition. . The handsome marble top's overhang is supported by a generous cherry cove molding.

The tortoise reappears, inclined vertically, on a pedestal based console table. The table’s quilted maple is set off by an ebonized base with subtly pillowed surfaces. It's easier to see the ebonized pillowed base in the image of the second console table, which has a mayfly panel against a makore background.

Tom Joyce & David Secrest

NOTES: Although David Secrest's work had evolved into almost purely sculptural pieces by this time, his benches for this show represent a return to his functional foundation -- a direction welcomed by the gallery. The arched bench on the announcement can be seen as a bridge, but also as the collision of two plates. There is often a geologic reference in Secrest's work. By constructing from steel plate, Secrest gives the illusion of conjoining huge strata of material, and he sometimes emphasizes the separate levels with large faux dovetail joints. Also, he will add to the tension by suggesting that one large plate or section could shift over another.

Tom Joyce dropped out of high school to apprentice to a blacksmith at the age of 13. He worked at a local forge in New Mexico where he repaired agricultural machines. In 2000, Joyce received the "genius" award from the MacArthur Foundation for excellence in his field. He, too, had moved away from functional work.

For this show, he did have a body of forged, folded, and laminated steel vessels and plates. However, what was of particular interest to this gallery was a pair of folded steel lamps and a steel and granite low table by Joyce. A simple, forged sculptural envelope conveys the idea of a grounded lantern. To create a warm, broken specter of light, mica shades are used in the vertical apertures.

Early Spring Show
Jon Brooks, Andy Buck, David Finck, Yokhai Givon, Paul Harrell, Robert Ingham, Gary S. Magakis, Brian Newell, Craig Nutt, James Plukas, Ron Puckett, Peter Shepard, Geoff Warner, Jeff Wynn & Linda Condy

NOTES: The early spring shows established a gallery tradition to introduce work of those not on its regular roster -- sometimes it featured work with promising new talent, and sometimes with established talent. This spring saw contributions from Jon Brooks and Craig Nutt, both established makers with their own following. Brooks' ladderback chairs are fine examples of his work. The beautifully shaped solid wood seats, arm rests, and back slats are combined with organically shaped branch material for the legs and rungs. The branch material was finished in black lacquer, and overlaid with colored scribble-like figure.

Craig Nutt's well-known, surreal vegetable compositions included a table with spring onions and another table with brilliantly colored red hot chili peppers legs jointed into a natural wood table surface. In a pair of chairs, Nutt abstains from paint and uses the natural color of fruitwood to highlight the faux vegetable forms in his composition: chili pepper front legs, carrot back stretchers, capped by a bold crest rail wonderfully carved as a pea pod. There has been a tradition in the West of the use of vegetable forms in architecture, furnishings and the fine arts. Nutt's pieces are witty, easily understood, and functional.

Andy Buck's now recognizable primitive and folk forms with complexly worked colored surfaces have become his signature. He is often at his best with smaller pieces: here a two-drawer wall hung cabinet as well as a mirror/cabinet combination, named Pandora and Polka Dot respectively.

While the intensity of the craft process made much of the work in the 1980s seem like a serious affair, the wit and irreverence of the first three makers show another, vital side to the studio furniture movement.

James Krenov's influence as a teacher is again felt in this show. Wood, Krenov's muse, is used variously as the sole expression of material and color in the pieces of David Finck, Paul Harrell, and Brian Newell. Newell, although staying in the small cabinet tradition of his mentor, is pushing to find a more expressive vocabulary for himself. Although not presaging the powerful burst of work that is still a couple of years away, this cabinet is nonetheless singular. In a somewhat totemic form, the piece flourishes in its decorative detailing: the carved crest element at the crown. In all, the piece is a very controlled, couture-like statement.

David Finck's Garden Gate wall hung cabinet is a pleasurable pictorial statement, and an expressive use of various woods, and handmade paper.

Paul Harrell's sideboard brings to mind a tradition of heavier pieces but, in his hands, remains a slighter, graceful understatement.

Gary Magakis's medium is metal, and the gallery had included a piece of his furniture each spring since 1996. Forging steel is a considerably demanding process, but you can also make metal furniture through bending, forming, and joining by means of weld and solder. This faster process of fabrication has the benefit of productivity, and is the path that Magakis takes. His metal surfaces are usually textured with calligraphic markings.

Incidental to this show, the gallery received a number of pieces from Michael Hurwitz and James Schriber. In part this was due to the closing of the Peter Joseph Gallery in New York, which created a greater availability of work from the group of makers whose histories intertwined between the two galleries. Amongst the pieces from Hurwitz was his mosaic- writing table inspired by a vanity commissioned of him by his sister. This mosaic writing table will stand as one of the most accomplished pieces of his career. The tapered laminated arch work of the leg support system is both sublimely graceful and structurally meaningful -- a truly gifted design. A smooth mosaic writing surface counterpoints the cashew lacquered curly ash material as successfully as does the antique inspired silver pulls for the desk drawers.

The Handkerchief Table was another piece that came from the Peter Joseph gallery after it closed in 1996. Its carved textured legs offer visual contrast to the strict geometry of the padauk-veneered top. Hurwitz was also experimenting with Escher-like parquetry patterns, which offered illusions of depth and complex visual involvement to the viewer. The top of his elm table displays an example of this. The legs and stretchers demonstrated again the graceful organic result that the lamination process can offer.

The James Schriber work included two pairs of bedside cabinets, a pair of armchairs, and a blanket chest. This last was a nod to a great vernacular form, but also a canvas to explore what he referred to as his "folk-inspired" forms. A blue painted surround enhanced the carved “curtaining” of the facade. The crowning of the top worked to complete the draping effect of the piece. The pair of armchairs brings to mind the high style of the Normandy. The addition of arms to an occasional chair, while adding comfort, is also challenging.

There's a great Deco feel to Robert Ingham's jewelry cabinet without any direct referencing to that period. While the mirror is reminiscent of dresser mirrors of the 1920-1930s, the revolve-to-open drawers are a fresh approach that is enhanced by the laminated curved drawer fronts. The corner post and turquoise finial design of the structure is reflective of Ingham's thinking of this period.

Start of the Summer - New Work
Furniture: David Ebner, Hank Gilpin, Thomas Hucker, James Krenov, Jere Osgood, Tim Philbrick, Ron Puckett, James Schriber, David Secrest, Wendy Stayman
Jewelry: Ellen Baumritter, Cynthia Eid, Sylvia Falkove, Hannelore Gabriel, Guillermo Gonzales, Jim Kelso & Jean Sousa, Julie Anne Mihalisin, Tom Odell, Joan Parcher, Jo Pedersen, Eleni Prieston, Robin Quigley, Helene Safire, Barbara Seidenath, Leonard Urso
Glass: William Gudenrath, Robin Mix, Sam Stang, Tom Stoenner
Ceramics: Jeanne Bisson & Ikuzi Teraki, James Makins, Joyce Nagata, Hiroshi Nakayama
Metal: Jonathan Bonner, Jay Coogan, Curtis LaFollette, Thomas Markusen, Tom Odell, Leonard Urso
Lamps: Peter Bloch, Jonathan Bonner, Janene & Noel Hilliard

NOTES: Noel and Janene Hilliard began showing their lamps made from glass tiles and cast bronze at P&E in 1993. After a number of memorable pieces, such as Janene's Red Lamp, Noel Hilliard created Queen of the Nile that would set the bar even higher. The vase-like base of the lamp involved a double sleeve of rare green glass. Its perimeter is guarded by arching bronze supports that extend outward to grip a broad, swelling shade. The shade is composed of squares, each a soldered grid of nine glass tiles. The largest tile, a central dichroic glass square, contains a subtle hieroglyphic. These grids form lines that sweep back across the form of the shade. But the compound curving of the form causes the dimension of each grid to change, expanding with the swelling. This is a remarkable lamp that would serve as an archetype for Janene Hilliard's Ivory Reed lamp in 2001, shown in the gallery's 20th anniversary exhibition.

Tim Philbrick's Paris Meets Narragansett table is subtle wit for furniture lovers as it refers to a marriage of two furniture styles co-joined in the front apron. Once again, with his characteristic restraint, Philbrick creates an elegant piece.

In Tom Hucker's Chime Table, he continues to explore forms of pillowed shell construction that he began with his scent table series for his shows at the Peter Joseph Gallery in New York. The continuation of veneer pattern around the form is remarkable and gives the impression of a carved volume. Viewers were charmed by the notion of a hidden chime inside, although it is perhaps the table's least important attribute.

The sideboard from Ron Puckett shows his evolution as a maker accommodating contemporary taste and architectural referencing. Though elegant, there is less of an individual signature or DNA in this piece.

A design for a writing table that utilized steel as an essential part of the leg design showed Schriber's determination to keep his mind open to the inclusion of non-wood materials. Here the use of stainless steel accomplishes the transition of the vertical descent of the leg into the flatness of the footing.

Wendy Stayman's media cabinet in ebonzied oak with maple panels was initially conceived as a P&E Editions design. By this time, the difficulties of keeping the editions series fresh and afloat were daunting. Her shop-made prototype was exhibited as a one-of-a-kind cabinet.

Jere Osgood and David Ebner were represented by furniture forms they had originated earlier, but each offered fresh takes with their material choices.

It is not unusual in a group show to have an absentee. In this show, difficulties due to the occupational hazards of noxious fumes and heavy metal particles led to the absence of work from David Secrest. This brings to mind The New York Times Op Ed piece by Sebastian Junger where he spoke to the many occupations where we all expect the risks to be taken by others. In the 1980s, for example, Ron Puckett had a serious hand injury from a shop accident, and was saved from permanent damage to his hand by the good fortune of immediate and expert surgical attention.

InCase - A Show of Containers
Dale Broholm, Andy Buck, John Eric Byers, David Ebner, David Finck, Hank Gilpin, Tom Hucker, Michael Hurwitz, Robert Ingham, Tom Loeser, Kristina Madsen, Brian Newell, Jere Osgood, Tim Philbrick, James Plukas, Zivko Radenkov, Jamie Robertson, Peter Spadone, Wendy Stayman

NOTES: By this time, it was unusual for the gallery to have a theme show rather than a featured show for an individual maker in a summer period. The idea of a show of smaller scale work, however, did not imply that the pieces created were less of a commitment.

The announcement carried the image of a small chest-on-stand by Michael Hurwitz. This is a piece done with modest simplicity in structural design though in form it has its relationships with other 1990s work. You think of Hurwitz's hickory silver chest (see New American Furniture, 1993) with its open stand and arched hinged top, also the stand's use of graphic stretchers compares with his envelope table (see Early Spring Show, 1997) design. Here, too, the stretchers miter into the legs creating a pointed foot. Lifting the hinged lid on this exhibit's small chest revealed a paper surfaced interior, created by a decoupage of road maps colored over in golden orange hues in harmony with the exterior to create a pod and seed pattern. Suzy Holsinger collaborated with Hurwitz for this collage.

Kristina Madsen's box, for example, broke new ground in her pattern work. The shallow pattern carving in the box's ebonized pearwood exterior reveals an underlying substratum of marquetry figure. This marquetry figure actually contains a calligraphic message recognizable only with concerted study. It says, "I see Gaywings nearby."

The number of humidors in this show seemed to herald the comeback of cigars. Wendy Stayman's humidor continued her featured show's "high style" use of decorative materials. The eggshell lacquer technique combined with blackened manta ray skin created an exotic exterior for a box.

Dale Broholm's humidor took a neo-classical approach: architecturally simple, faced with elegant veneer, the piece gained its panache from the use of glass columns by Chatham Glass. John Eric Byers's humidor was a box with carved surface that used a checkered grid on the lid for interest and made use of his ability with milk paint for color. By contrast, David Ebner's humidor was an organic statement set off by an out-sized twisted stick handle for the lid.

On the lighter, more sculptural side, Andy Buck's erotically tinged, though playful, Love Letter Boxes stand as one of his most original and endearing creations.

For the InCase theme, Tom Hucker came across with a fresh, original contribution. Entitled Collector's Box, it was essentially a stack of containers much like a stack of drawers, or one might think of the Japanese bento stack of lunch boxes. In Hucker's construction, the top of the stack was an opaque glass panel with a clear center that allowed you to look down through the series of glass bottoms. Although somewhat fussy in function, this was one of the more challenging designs in the show.

There was a small, brightly colored wall hung cabinet that came from Tom Loeser. His surfacing, like John Eric Byers, used a carved fluted technique although the distinctiion of the Loeser piece comes from his placement and changing scale of the carved pulls. Loeser's cardboard chest used a laminated cardboard that was finger jointed on the corners. The lid's curved surface cut through the laminations obliquely to create a pattern effect.

The satinwood box by Brian Newell exhibited original thinking about form -- not exactly organic but, metaphorically, very much alive. This would presage a series of major pieces by Newell that begin in 2000, which would define his place in studio furniture. Newell was a self-taught carver before learning the craft of furniture making from James Krenov. His collection of carved miniature fish in boxwood, with their African blackwood containers, allowed him a return to this earlier passion.

Jere Osgood's idiosyncratic eye for form gives his small jewelry cabinet its identity. The skateboard half-pipe-like swoop of its hinged lid allows the user easy access. There are an additional two drawers of storage below. Its small scale allows for a judicious use of scarce resource -- Anadaman padauk.

Another contribution to the show was a small jewelry chest by David Finck, which used a hinged top and lower storage drawer design. It was made of pearwood, bloodwood, and bird's-eye maple.

The simple, but elegant, pearwood box by Tim Philbrick treats the user to a pull made from amber, whereas the reward of Zivko Radenkov's container is his rendition of blossom imagery through marquetry.

Tim Coleman's hexagonal boxes offered no specific function, their indented surfaces inspired by Kristina's Madsen's use of shallow relief carving. However, Coleman uses metal stamps to impress his designs.

The gallery had previously exhibited Jamie Robertson's Sunrise/Sunset bed as well as accompanying side tables. This show expands the bedroom suite with a lemonwood blanket chest.

There was a second blanket chest in the show, this one contributed by Hank Gilpin. In the paneling of this Claro walnut chest, he continued his experimentation of creating surfaces by fitting smaller sections of wood together with contrasting figure.

A couple of small boxes were pried out of Phil Weber for the show. He began exhibiting his box specialty at craft shows, and built himself a sufficiently large following so that he was always pressed for inventory. They made excellent gifts, and were never on the shelf long in the gallery.