For me, design is a great opportunity to improve on what is already out there, to simplify, to beautify, to technologically improve.
—Marc Newson
Gagosian is pleased to present new works by designer Marc Newson. This is Newson’s first exhibition of limited-edition furniture pieces in more than a decade.
From the outset of his singular career, Newson has pursued parallel activities in limited and mass production of functional design objects. From the iconic Lockheed Lounge (1986) to the streamlined Extruded Tables and Voronoi Shelf (both 2006), carved from single blocks of Carrara marble, Newson approaches design as both an exploratory technical exercise and a process of conceptual, aesthetic, and physical refinement. Employing sculptural principles to address issues of efficiency, luxury, and use value, he has produced a broad array of highly crafted commodities—watches, footwear, luggage, furniture, transport—upholding the principle that engineering and aesthetics are inseparable.
Revisiting his roots as a jeweler and silversmith, in this exhibition Newson explores increasingly rare decorative techniques at an unconventionally large, even unprecedented, scale. His cast glass chairs, made in the Czech Republic, are continuous symmetrical forms comprised of two hollow quarter-spheres. The boldly colored upper halves rest on clear bases, which absorb some of the reflected hues in their clouded interiors, an effect that subtly changes depending on the vantage point. For the Murrina works (2017), Newson utilizes an intricate classical glass-making technique to create streamlined desks, tables, and consoles. Their sloping and beveled planes are unified beneath pulsing fields of repeated cell-like spots on vivid colored grounds, made by fusing glass rods together and then slicing them to reveal patterned cross-sections.
