Until December 20th the Paris dépendance of Galerie kreo is presenting an exhibition dedicated to the vivacious variety of contemporary wooden furniture design.
Presented under the sparklingly original title "only wood" the exhibition presents a mix of previously displayed objects and new works.
Amongst the older works on show a special mention must go to the Woodwork lamp by BIG-GAME, a work premièred at Galerie kreo's 2008 La Liseuse exhibition, the Cork #3 storage system by Martin Szekely which previously featured in Szekely's Heroic shelves & simple boxes solo show, and the truly monumental Hanger coat rack by Naoto Fukasawa as first shown in the 2008 exhibition, 16 new pieces, and which takes all the innovation, inquiry, contradiction, insecurity and formal reduction of contemporary post industrial product design to new heights. Or depths, depending on your perspective.
The exhibition 16 new pieces also featured the Geta Table, an oak coffee table by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec created using a computer controlled digital chisel. At Only Wood the Bouroullec's are presenting Geta Noir, a limited edition of the Geta Table in black oak.
The Geta Noir table was, technically, premièred in September during London Design Festival 2014 as part of the exhibition Des Formes Utiles, the inaugural exhibition in Galerie kreo's new London base; a further Des Formes Utiles alumni is London Calling by Konstantin Grcic, a project which for us, and based on nothing more reliable than PR photos, is the genuine highlight of Only Wood.
Now in recent years Konstantin Grcic may have given the impression that he had broken with his cabinet making roots. And certainly projects such as Pro chair for Flötotto, Waver for Vitra or the Traffic family for Magis tended to support such a view. His Panorama exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum should have been enough to convince the last doubters.
Observant eyes at Milan 2014 would have spotted a "work in progress" on the Magis stand that suggested otherwise; however, London Calling is the best evidence we have seen that not only is Konstantin Grcic as committed as ever to traditional carpentry, but that he has lost none of his grace and compositional delicacy despite his regular ventures into other genres and processes.
London Calling is a set of spiralling wooden library steps. But a set spiralling wooden library steps that needn't only be used in a library. We can well imagine them working in a kitchen, a conservatory or simply in a large spacious lounge as a feature-cum-occasional chair.
Simply delightful.
Only Wood runs at Galerie kreo, 31, rue Dauphine, 75006 Paris until Saturday December 20th.
Full details can be found at http://galeriekreo.fr/
