Sunday, May 4, 2025 – Sunday, July 13, 2025
“I started making couches about 1969 or 1970. I needed some place to sit down, which is the best reason for making them, I suppose.” —John Chamberlain.
Artists often come to be associated with specific mediums or bodies of work when in fact their practices are much more expansive. Visual artists are frequently also musicians, designers, performers, filmmakers, writers, furniture makers, and so on. An encounter with one of the couches made by John Chamberlain, an artist best known for his metal sculptures, can be surprising, but the reality is that artists integrate their studio practices into all their life activities.
This presentation focuses on East End artists who have produced functional furniture as an extension of their creative practices—as a means of problem-solving, as an element of designed living, and as a way to foster social spaces. Functional Relationships: Artist-Made Furniture presents work by Scott Bluedorn, John Chamberlain, Liz Collins, Quentin Curry, Peter Dayton, Connie Fox, Kurt Gumaer, Mary Heilmann, Yung Jake, Donald Judd, Julian Schnabel, Karen Simon, Strong-Cuevas, Mark Wilson, Robert Wilson, Evan Yee, Nico Yektai, and Almond Zigmund.
In conjunction with Functional Relationships, Guild Hall commissioned two projects as further explorations of this common practice: Lindsay Morris’s photographs of interior spaces show how artists utilize furniture and shape their domestic environments, while Almond Zigmund’s installation Wading Room in the Marks Family South Gallery provides an artist-designed environment for activation through public use and a series of participatory programs.
This exhibition was organized by Melanie Crader, museum director and curator of visual arts, with Philippa Content, museum manager and registrar and Claire Hunter, museum coordinator and curatorial associate.
Gallery Hours:
Thursday to Sunday, 12-5 PM
Museum admission is always free.
...
Pictured: Installation view, John Chamberlain: THE TIGHTER THEY’RE WOUND, THE HARDER THEY UNRAVEL, Aspen Art Museum, 2023-24. Photo: Daniel Pérez
Sponsors
Lead Sponsors: Jill and Darius Bikoff, Caroline and Robert Taubman – A. Alfred Taubman Foundation
Special thanks to Ben Krupinski Builder LLC.
Media Partner: CULTURED
Visual Arts programs are supported by funding from Barbara and Richard S. Lane, Lucio and Joan Noto, The Michael Lynne Museum Endowment, and The Melville Straus Family Endowment.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Museum: Sara Amani and Timothy Ward, Danielle Anderman, Shari and Jeff Aronson, The Artist Profile Archive, Amalia Dayan and Adam Lindemann, Cara and John Fry, The Hayden Family Foundation, Susan Lacy, Robert Longo and Sophie Chahinian, Onna House, Lisa and Richard Perry, Laurie and Martin Scheinman, Jeff and Audrey Spiegel, Hillary and Jeff Suchman, Barbara Tober, Jane Wesman and Don Savelson, Neda Young, and an anonymous donor.
Free gallery admission is sponsored, in part, by Landscape Details.
