Cristina Grajales Gallery Announces

SEBASTIAN ERRAZURIZ: BEAUTIFUL PREMONITIONS

April 28th – June 24th, 2011

Cristina Grajales Gallery is pleased to announce the second solo exhibition of internationally renowned artist and designer Sebastian Errazuriz, “Beautiful Premonitions.”

“Beautiful Premonitions” is a collection of twenty-one pieces that highlight Errazuriz’s artistic process. The concepts that drive his work are the underpinning for his designs’ dramatic and emotional power. Throughout his work, Sebastian approaches design with an investigative eye, often re-contextualizing or re-interpreting the function and purpose of traditional design objects. By doing so, he questions the viewer’s understanding of the relationship of art and design to their lives.

In his new work, Sebastian continues the development of past themes and concepts that he began exploring in his first solo exhibition in 2009. The Piano Shelf, 2007, composed of individual wood piano keys, is designed on the premise of a shelf that could be independently sculpted to suit the user’s needs. It can frame an individual object becoming a sculpture in itself, or it can act purely as a shelf.

In 2011, Errazuriz demonstrated the maturity of the piano key concept when he introduced the Porcupine Cabinet. The undulating exterior of the Porcupine Cabinet is composed entirely of piano keys. By doing so, Errazuriz created an object which toys with the tension between the hidden and the obvious, the poetic and the functional. Inspired by references from popular culture—the bat mobile, Japanese culture—Samurai armor and Japanese folding fans, and from nature—the porcupine and its protective quills, the Porcupine Cabinet reinvents what a cabinet can be.

This exhibition highlights Errazuriz’s interest in establishing emotional and psychological connections to his audience through his work. “Beautiful Premonitions” explores how a desk can demand introspection, how a fan can explore the fragility and vulnerability of nature, and how a cabinet can radiate an aura of protection and dominance.

Chilean born and New York based, Sebastian Errazuriz (b. 1977), maintains studios in Brooklyn and Santiago, Chile. Errazuriz was selected as one of the top emerging designers by I.D. Magazine, and in 2010, received the title of Chilean Designer of the Year.

Crisitna Grajales Gallery is pleased to publish a limited edition catalogue to accompany the exhibition.
 

Porcupine Cabinet from Sebastian Errazuriz on Vimeo.