KELLY WEARSTLER INTRODUCES AUTUMN 2022 GALLERY LINE UP
Featuring exclusive collaborations in addition to works previously unavailable in international markets
25 October 2022
Kelly Wearstler unveils eight new collections for her online Gallery, signifying a major expansion. Building upon the introductory artist collaborations begun in 2021, Wearstler’s Autumn 2022 announcement underscores her commitment to the Gallery and cements its place as a meeting point for international talent and a hub for collectible design.
Each Gallery collection takes a unique approach to the exploration of materiality, craft, and technology. Wearstler has long collaborated with emerging and established talent to create custom pieces for her private clients and hospitality projects, enlivening her interiors with talent from across the globe; the online Gallery develops these creative relationships to form exclusive collections, bringing focus to new talent and sharing them with the public.
With the latest introductions, Wearstler’s Gallery now spans unique and limited-edition artwork, sculptural objects, furniture, and lighting across a spectrum of price points - featuring exclusive collaborations in addition to works previously unavailable in international markets.
Ebitenyefa Baralaye is a ceramicist, sculptor, designer and educator based in Detroit, Michigan. His work explores the cultural, spiritual and material translations of objects, text, and symbols interpreted through a diaspora lens and abstracted around the aesthetics of craft and design.
Discovered by Wearstler on Instagram, Baralaye was commissioned to create new works exclusively for the Gallery: terracotta, press-moulded clay vessels. Inspired by the artists’ large-scale sculptures, Wearstler coordinated with him in the development of vessels at a significant scale that would also incorporate patterns. The Baobab Vessel I & II forms fan out in a way that is reminiscent of the trunk and limbs of an African Baobab Tree. The press-moulding technique Baralaye uses enables each vessel in the series to have the same general form, finessed by a pattern painted on the surface, making each one unique to the next.
Amelia Briggs is a multidisciplinary artist based in Nashville, Tennessee, using reclaimed materials to construct playfully inflated forms that generate an abstract sense of familiarity. Having met Wearstler on Instagram, they first collaborated on a mirror in 2019, which was commissioned for a project.
For the Gallery, Briggs and Wearstler collaborated on a collection of three hand-made mirrors that will be debuting with the launch. Each piece is made of reclaimed materials such as latex, oil, panel and glass, in which the mirror surface would be larger than typically found in Briggs’ larger body of work. Wearstler also influenced the artist’s colour choice for the three pieces, moving towards more muted metallic hues.
Dirk van der Kooij is a Dutch designer best known for his playful extrusions of recycled plastic. Holding the attitude of a craftsman-inventor, his works marry hand and machine. Kooij has become known for an unusual use of materiality, transforming waste items like discarded CDs into furniture and lighting.
With a deep admiration for Kooij’s pioneering design practice, Wearstler personally owns his Satellite lamp, designed in 2012, which has also been placed in a number of her hotel projects.
YehRim Lee is a ceramic artist who grew up in Cheong-ju, South Korea. She was recently a long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana and now lives in Yucca Valley, CA. Lee’s work is influenced by traditional Korean ceramics; both of her parents are ceramic artists, passing the craft down to her. In recent years, she has been experimenting with ceramic furniture, which brought her to Wearstler.
Wearstler purchased a terracotta side table for an interiors project, which led to a collaboration on a series of terracotta side and drinks tables, the latter of which is a first for the artist. Each work is made using the traditional Korean 'onggi' hand-building technique; each piece is crafted individually by Lee, shaping dramatic curves and angles.
Lior Modan is a visual artist who was born in Tel-Aviv and now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Modan’s practice plays between painting and object, abstraction and figuration, gestural and surreal. His current body of work employs compression using various vacuum casting methods of hand-dyed velvets to create a pillowy aura around graphic silhouettes of everyday objects.
Wearstler discovered Modan’s work at Make Room Gallery in Los Angeles, where she purchased a piece for a project and began a dialogue with the artist, leading to this collaboration. Modan and Wearstler will present ‘Technicolor,’ a new collection of wall reliefs that capture the magic of the Los Angeles landscape and architecture. Each finished painting is paired with a custom-cast woven belt as its frame.
Felix Muhrhofer is a furniture designer living and working in a farmhouse near Vienna, Austria. Constructing his works with a vast 'laboratory' of machinery, Muhrhofer continuously explores how to push his works into new territories. Largely recognised for his handmade Terrazzo pieces and installations, his work marries functionality with craftsmanship and aesthetic beauty.
Muhrhofer and Wearstler have been collaborating on commissioned works for her personal collection as well as interiors projects for several years and recently created a table using stones she collected from a family trip to Greece. For the Gallery, Muhrhofer will present five new designs (two coffee tables, a dining table, a console table and a side table) that feature a departure for him: wrapping steel to create monolithic bases. Each piece will marry stones that Wearstler collected on the beach near home and Malibu with stones Muhrhofer collected on the shores of Italy, representing the creative duo's years-long partnership.
Hagit Pincovici is an Israeli artist and designer based in Milan and New York. She has collaborated with Wearstler on various projects for private clients and was the third designer introduced into the Gallery this past May with ‘Third Nature’, a collection of sculptural furniture.
The second Gallery collaboration between Wearstler and Pincovici, ‘White Hour’, consists of two sculptures made of raw stone and neon light. For White Hour, the light slithers through the rock suggesting an ongoing narrative, both playful and surprising, capturing the space right between day and night where light no longer has a direction or source.
Sticky Glass by Grace Whiteside is based in Brooklyn, New York. Having blown glass since 2014, Grace founded Sticky Glass in 2020 and specialises in multi-functional, performative glassware. Their forms pull from the natural behaviour of glass in its fluid state, reflecting the queerness of the material. Each piece aims to cultivate an elevated experience, taking the mundane out of eating and drinking.
Wearstler met Whiteside on Instagram and had them create a Bubble Collection pitcher and cup set for her Malibu home and since then have collaborated on projects for Wearstler’s clients. For the Gallery, Sticky Glass will present a special assortment of the Bubble Collection, consisting of tumble cups, goblets, and pitches in three exclusive colour ways developed by Wearstler.
The Gallery will continue to introduce new works in a regular cadence, all available online at kellywearstler.com.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Kelly Wearstler
Kelly Wearstler, founder and principal of Kelly Wearstler design studio, is an American designer creating multi-faceted, experiential residential, hospitality, commercial and retail environments as well as expansive collections of lifestyle product designs and brand collaborations. With the demonstration of provocative concepts and expressive narratives signature to her extensive body of work, Wearstler is internationally recognised with distinctive design awards and numerous publications. A multi-layered, stimulating sensory experience is at the centre of Wearstler’s design approach. Through an exploration of materiality, colour, forms and an intuitive juxtaposition of contemporary and vintage, architectural and organic, graphic and instinctual, she curates a wealth of experience into every space. Wearstler believes that honouring history, location and architecture is imperative to pushing the boundaries and challenging the rules. One of the key forces behind the rise of the designer hotel in the early 2000s, Wearstler is currently designing for a new age of elevated residential hotel living with a distinctive vision of authentic cultural immersion and site-specific design. Wearstler received her academic training in interior, architectural and graphic design and is the author of five design books.
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