Kings of avant-garde design, Fredrikson Stallard return to their home-from-home at David Gill Gallery this month, just in time for the London Design Festival. From today, visitors will find the studio’s latest works pulled together under the title ‘Intuitive Gestures’ – a name that references the studio’s instinctive design approach. Since founding their studio in 1995, the Patrik Fredrikson and Ian Stallard have become renowned for their unique ability to transform materials into otherworldly forms through a combination of digital and craft processes.
‘Fredrikson Stallard’s take is to allow the material’s natural qualities to come through but in a strictly controlled way,’ explains Fredrikson. ‘We exert our dominance on nature while allowing its true qualities to exist.’ The spellbinding results, which see the London-based designers testing the limits of what it is possible to achieve with acrylic, steel and bronze and alabaster, appear deceptively effortless.
‘We often work with translucent materials such as glass and acrylic because of our intense relationship with refraction and reflection,’ explains Stallard. He is referencing a new dining table and coffee table made entirely of glacial blocks of clear acrylic that appear to have peacefully floated into the gallery from Antarctica. ‘We create not only an inner life within the works themselves but also in the way we use reflection within an environment as a way of painting with light.’
‘Antarctica I’ guéridon, 2017, by Fredrikson Stallard
Also on show, a set of new blackened steel and bronze shelves – entitled ‘Scriptus’ – forms an imposing modular unit that measures 5m high. Intuitively applied rather than deliberately precise, the wavering shelves that stretch across its width are like gentle strokes of hand-drawn calligraphy. ‘Our work with metals have their soul in the intense masculine depths of the raw material such as mass, surface and patinations,’ Stallard explains of their darkly mysterious surface. ‘The combination of these two families sit in contrast to each other and act as light and dark, heaven and hell, and give each other strength.’
With the ‘Torch’ lamp, the studio explores the incredible translucency of alabaster, stretching it so finely that its rock-like properties are forgotten and instead it becomes translucent enough to let light shine through. Other pieces in the exhibition include evolutions of previous bodies of work, such as the ‘Crushtable’, which was produced with David Gill Gallery in 2012 but has now been reimagined as a desk.
The exhibition marks 11 years of collaboration between David Gill and Fredrikson Stallard, over which time a deep bond has formed between gallery and artist. ‘David Gill is visionary,’ says Fredrikson emphatically, who considers the gallery akin to family. ‘They have supported our dreams and ambition from the first day we started to work together – not by tying our hands as slaves to commercialism, but by opening our eyes to the immense possibilities and other dimensions achievable in the progression of our work.’
‘Silver Crush’ desk, 2016, crushed aluminium, glass, patinated mild steel base with three drawers and matte lacquer
A group of 'Antarctica' guéridon, 2017, all in bronze
‘Antarctica’ dining table, 2017, acrylic
Left, ‘Antarctica II’ guéridon, 2017 in acrylic. Right, ‘Homage’ table lamp, 2017, alabaster with a metal base
‘Scriptus I-IV’ shelves, 2017, blackened steel and bronze
’Untitled’ chair, 2017 in steel and upholstered in suede
INFORMATION
‘Intuitive Gestures’ is on view until 28 September. For more information, visit the David Gill Gallery website and Fredrikson Stallard website
ADDRESS
David Gill Gallery
2-4 King Street
London SW1Y 6QL
-
A new exhibition retraces 50 years of Pierre Paulin’s history around the table‘Les Tables de Pierre Paulin’ shows a lesser-known side of the designer’s creative world, accompanied by a new book tracing his wife’s hospitality around his iconic table designs. ‘A creator is never alone in his creation…’
-
Tour this Estonian tiny home with big ambitionsÖÖD Golden House, a new Estonian cabin concept, promises to offer a compact design for small and perfectly formed escapes
-
Towards New Worlds in Middlesbrough redefines how we experience art'Towards New Worlds', currently on view at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, considers how art can bring us together
-
‘R for Repair’ at London Design Festival displays broken objects, re-formedIn the second half of a two-part exhibition and as part of London Design Festival 2022, ‘R for Repair’ at the V&A displays broken objects, re-formed
-
‘Finding quality through the act of making’: Pearson Lloyd celebrates 25 years of designPearson Lloyd’s show ‘Change Making’ reflects on past designs from its archives, showcasing the influences on and evolution of the studio, from furniture design to the NHS
-
Tom Dixon marks his studio's 20 years with a show of design experimentsMushroom, cork, steel coral and more: Tom Dixon showcases an overview of his design experiments as he celebrates his practice's 20 years
-
Porro unveils new London showroom at Coal OfficeLondon Design Festival 2022: industrial architecture meets pure geometries in the new Porro showroom, taking over a space within Tom Dixon’s Coal Office to showcase the brand’s systems and furniture
-
Vitra unveils new London home in the Tramshed, ShoreditchLondon Design Festival 2022: after a year-long renovation, Vitra opens the door to its new showroom in the heart of Shoreditch
-
Mudlarking beside the River Thames inspires The New Craftsmen’s makersLondon Design Festival 2022: The New Craftsmen’s new collection, ‘Claylarks’, features work from a group of creatives inspired by a River Thames mudlarking expedition
-
One tree, ten designers: SCP presents The One Tree Project at London Design FestivalLondon Design Festival 2022: SCP enlisted ten British designers to create furniture and objects from a felled ash tree from founder Sheridan Coakley's Hampshire garden
-
London Design Medals 2022London Design Medals 2022 are awarded to costume designer Sandy Powell, architect Indy Johar, researcher Joycelyn Longdon and photographer Sir Don McCullin
