GORD PETERAN: FURNITURE MEETS ITS MAKER

until sunday july 26 2009
Museum of Arts and Design
T : +1 212 299 7777
2 Columbus Circle
NY-10019 New York
United States

info@madmuseum.org
www.madmuseum.org

Public Relations Office
Heidi Riegler
heidi.riegler@madmuseum.org

This retrospective follows the career of innovative Canadian artist Gord Peteran, exploring key issues of his work including found objects, the role of narrative and function in furniture and the relationship between serial and one-off production.

Gord Peteran, An Early Table, 2004

Peteran's work does not easily fit into the conventional categories of contemporary art, design, decorative art, or craft. He calls his pieces "furnitural," a made-up term that suggests his unique relationship with sculpture. His furniture incorporates both found objects and examples of his own technical mastery. His pieces are conceptual, frequently non-functional, often witty, and meant to challenge pre-conceived notions of the boundaries between furniture and sculpture. The exhibition includes approximately twenty works in a variety of media.

Peteran’s means as a designer are sometimes disarmingly simple: his work A Table Made of Wood is cobbled together, seemingly at random, from scraps lying on his workshop floor. At other times, he employs craftsmanship of the highest order, as in 100, a precisely machined occasional table that disassembles into a carrying case like that used for a rifle. Other works suggest specimen cabinets, seesaws and game tables, all twisted into new relevance through subtle manipulation.