Jessica Silverman is pleased to announce “Enthroned,” an exhibition of ten women designers whose sensual, witty works take delight in overthrowing the restraint and angularity of masculinist Modernism. Installed in the upstairs exhibition space of the San Francisco gallery, “Enthroned” comprises chairs, ottomans, side tables, and standing lamps. Opening on January 11 and running through March 2, 2024, the exhibition is co-curated with Marc Benda of Friedman Benda and timed to coincide with the 2024 edition of FOG Design+Art.
The works of Anna Aagaard Jensen and Barbora Žilinskaitė are mannerist interpretations of women’s bodies. Jensen’s Nicola (2022) is a parody of a “chest” of drawers. It rises more than six feet high and invites viewers to let it all hang out. Sculpted from a composite of wood dust, resin, and pigment, Žilinskaitė’s stools, mirrors, and shelves embrace a more androgynous body with womanly clasped hands.
While not strictly figurative, Carmen D’Apollonio, Lara Bohinc, Faye Toogood, Najla El Zein, and ibiyanε engage with irregular shapes and feminine curves. Bohinc’s Peaches collection is a celebration of upholstered cushiness in bright red and pale pink. The creative duo Ibiyanε create amorphous wooden shapes that manifest the spirit of the African diaspora. D’Apollonio’s ceramic lamps, El Zein’s travertine seating, and Toogood’s cast bronze furniture lean, flop, and relax. Despite their hard materials, they appear to be soft and to muse comically about their functionality.
Trained as architects, Frida Escobedo and Johanna Grawunder present rectilinear forms. The steel frame of Escobedo’s chair overflows with nickel ball chains, creating an extravagant ecstasy of seating fit for a queen. Grawunder’s Meteorite Chair (2023) de-materializes the geometry of her throne with red and violet hues, which broaden onto pink acrylic panels of luminous transparency. Meanwhile, Jay Sae Jung Oh appropriates ready-made household objects, intricately hand-wrapping them in leather, to create a majestic domestic jungle in her Savage series.
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