“By Design | A Place Where Art and Design Collide”
By Brooke Hodge
June 24, 2013
T Magazine article here
Fused, a new exhibition space devoted to exploring the increasingly frequent intersections between art and design, opens this week in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood. The gallery is a collaboration between Jessica Silverman (of the namesake San Francisco gallery) and the designer Yves Behar. As Behar was building a new office space for fuseproject, his multidisciplinary design studio, he decided to include a gallery space as well. “Traditionally, design agencies have an exhibition space to show their own work,” Behar said. “I found that to be a little static and boring. There are a lot of creative businesses in Potrero Hill and I wanted to provide a space where a conversation between designers and the art world could happen.” Silverman will curate a program of exhibitions for Fused’s first year, while continuing to run her own gallery…[DDET read more]
The inaugural exhibition, “Formal Alchemy,” Silverman explained, “brings together a cross-generational group of three artists who are all creating elevated objects from common ingredients through conceptually interesting processes.” Nicole Wermers uses the forms and vocabulary of design objects — industrial shelving units and acrylic boxes — but subverts them in ways that alter one’s sense of the everyday. In her “Water Shelf” pieces, she transforms tubular steel shelving into shallow, wall-mounted water troughs. Amikam Toren’s “Stacks” sculptures pair cardboard boxes and painted canvases, creating a hybrid between painting and sculpture. N. Dash explores the sculptural potential of a two-dimensional medium by combining adobe with the classic ingredients of painting. All three artists transform utilitarian materials into something more elevated.
While Behar hopes that Fused’s exhibitions will engage the wider creative community, he also believes his own studio staff will be inspired by the lively dialogue between art and design taking place — literally — next door.
Fused, 1401 16th Street, San Francisco. “Formal Alchemy” opens June 25 and is on view until October.[/DDET]
