Gallery FUMI Announces Six-Week LA Outpost

SIZED STUDIO, image courtesy of SIZED STUDIO and Gallery FUMI

To coincide with Frieze L.A., Gallery FUMI announced the upcoming FUMI LA, a six-week ground-breaking exhibition in Los Angeles, California, featuring new works by its roster of artists and designers. Taking over the iconic SIZED STUDIO in Melrose Hill – a burgeoning art and design hub that has recently welcomed leading blue-chip galleries – this major showcase marks FUMI’s debut show in the US.

Building on its past successes in the US, including sell out presentations at Salon Art+Design in New York, Art Basel Design Miami and FOG Design+Art in San Francisco as well as the placement of works in major institutional and private collections, FUMI LA stands as a testament to the gallery’s committed following in the country whilst simultaneously providing an opportunity for new collectors to discover its inspiring family of artists and designers, each renowned for their extraordinary level of artistry and craftsmanship.

Blending the beautiful with the provocative, the refined with the quirky, FUMI’s inaugural presentation spotlights a fresh collection of standout pieces including Space Relics, a large-scale chandelier installation by American ceramic artist Jeremy Anderson, complemented by a pair of table lamps and four Piccolo vases; Copper Roots, a new floor light crafted by British duo JAMESPLUMB; a new bronze console and sculptural gypsum plaster mirror titled Volumetric Mirror 1 by Voukenas Petrides, the creative partnership of Greek designer Andreas Voukenas and American architect Steven Petrides; and Esfinge Absorta, a powerful, monumental screen in the shape of a curled-up woman that exudes both physical presence and fragility by Spanish artist and designer Saelia Aparicio. Central to the gallery's debut showcase in Los Angeles is BOX 2, a captivating series of new works by acclaimed British artist and designer Max Lamb, on display from February 19th. For his West Coast debut, Lamb will unveil a collection of new entirely sustainable cardboard designs, including twelve chairs and one coffee table – an extension to his recent presentation BOX, shown at FUMI in London during Frieze Week in October. By connecting art and anthropology to materiality and improvisation, Lamb creates pieces that embody new histories of craft and give value to cardboard, a material often seen as secondary. Lamb sought to make use of the ever-increasing piles of cardboard accumulating in his studio. Surplus materials included unbleached cardboard tubes used for storage and transportation, surplus quality corrugated cardboard from museum loans and various workshop projects, as well as everyday delivery boxes with varied different shapes, colors and textures.

Working with or against pre-cut shapes by cutting, scoring, folding, crushing and reassembling with bolts, screws, paper gum tape and a home-made wheat-based glue (flour and water), Lamb assembles volumes of cardboard into forms, building up layers to create a structural integrity like that of rock or wood yet retaining evidence of the making. Although achieving durability whilst preserving the personality of the material proved a challenge, Lamb has successfully elevated the works from an exercise in form-building to functional, beautiful design pieces. As Max Lamb explains: ‘With this new collection, ‘BOX 2’, I am continuing to expand upon the works I have been creating and drawing lessons from my previous experience. This ongoing process involves working with consistently varied cardboard as raw material, which naturally leads to greater diversity in my output and marks an evolution in my work. My creative response is influenced by the constraints and possibilities presented by these ‘boxes’, and I respond to the inherent qualities of each box I work with. As a result, I ensure that each box is employed thoughtfully and appropriately. Starting this new cycle of exploration, I have the advantage of my accumulated experience, and I will also draw inspiration from some of my past creations’.

PARTICIPATING DESIGNERS & ARTISTS
6:AM Glassworks (Italy), Saelia Aparicio (Spain), Leora Honeyman (UK), Allan Collins (UK),
Max Lamb (UK), Francesco Perini (Italy), Rowan Mersh (UK), Eelko Moorer (The Netherlands),
Tuomas Markunpoika (Finland), Johannes Nagel (Germany), Shinta Nakajima (Japan),
Glithero (The Netherlands/UK), Kustaa Saksi (Finland), Jochen Holz (Germany), Voukenas
Petrides (Greece/US), JAMESPLUMB (UK), Jie Wu (China), Lukas Wegwerth (Germany),
Jeremy Anderson (US), Casey McCafferty (US), Sam Orlando Miller (UK) and Study O
Portable (The Netherlands/Japan).