Frank Gehry

The fish is a perfect form.
—Frank Gehry

Gagosian is pleased to present Frank Gehry: Fish Lamps, an exhibition of Gehry’s animated and dynamic light sculptures.

One of the most celebrated architects living today, Gehry’s career spans six decades and three continents. Known for his imaginative designs and creative use of materials, he has forever altered the urban landscape with spectacular buildings that are conceived as dynamic structures rather than static vessels.

In addition to his architectural pursuits, Gehry has always experimented with sculpture and furniture, coaxing inventive forms out of unexpected materials, from the Easy Edges (1969–73) and Experimental Edges (1979–82)—chairs and tables carved from blocks of industrial corrugated cardboard—to the Knoll furniture series (1989–92), fashioned from bentwood. The Fish Lamps evolved from a 1983 commission by the Formica Corporation to create objects from the then-new plastic laminate ColorCore. After accidentally shattering a piece of the material while working, Gehry was inspired by the shards, which reminded him of fish scales. The first Fish Lamps, which were shown in Frank Gehry: Unique Lamps in 1984 at Gagosian Beverly Hills, employed wire armatures molded into fish shapes, onto which shards of ColorCore are individually glued, creating clear allusions to the morphic attributes of real fish.