Monday, 29 October 2007 | Levent OZLER

New Work by New York Sculptor Forrest Myers at Friedman Benda

Friedman Benda, the new venue designed to showcase innovative established and emerging designers and artists, will feature sculptural works by groundbreaking New York-based artist Forrest Myers. The exhibition will focus on recent sculptural wire works that merge form and function. It will be on view from November 8 - December 20, 2007 and will open with a reception on November 7 at Friedman Benda, located at 515 West 26th Street.

Known for his pioneering work with industrial materials such as woven wire and bent pipe, "Myers has been at the forefront of contemporary art practice for over 40 years," says gallery director Marc Benda. The exhibition will focus on his experimentation with the sculptural possibilities of furniture, a topic that has been the focus of his work for the past two decades. While some of his art-furniture sculptures are usable, the functionality is abstracted and deconstructed to emphasize the interplay of material, form, and color.

Inspired by the forms created by the wire armatures used to provide internal support for glass or ceramic sculptural works, Myers began to create metal pipe sculptures in the 1970s. These volumetric "drawings" were initially abstract, however he soon began experiment with the sculptural possibilities of furniture. Myers' twists stainless steel pipes into halogen lamps, and shapes stools from masses of densely woven aluminum wire, anodized in colors such as fuchsia, gold, and cerulean. In Myers hands, wingback chairs become lush with texture created by loops of heavy-gauge aluminum wire woven together and powder-coated glossy pink or red. While whimsical, they are serious pieces, lush with complex internal rhythms that express both undomesticated abandon and exacting technique.

Forrest Myers is a maker of idea driven sculptures, recognized for his innovative use of technology and new materials and acknowledged as a key figure in the New York contemporary art scene. After studying at the San Francisco Art Institute, Myers moved east in 1961 and quickly became part of New York's vibrant artistic community. He was a founding member of Park Place Gallery and a frequent visitor Max's Kansas City.

He became a member of the collective Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), along with fellow artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman and scientists Bill Kluver and Fred Waldnauer. Among E.A.T.'s most celebrated projects was the Pepsi Pavilion at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan and the Moon Museum (1969), a miniscule ceramic tile featuring works by Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Claus Oldenburg, John Chamberlain, David Novros, and Myers that was attached to the Apollo 12 lunar module.

In 1972, the public art organization City Walls commissioned Myers to create an artwork to disguise vestigial steel joists on a brick building at the southwest corner of Broadway and Houston Street. Myers disguised the joists with 42 protruding painted aluminum beams. In recent years, this "Gateway to Soho" has been the subject of a protracted court battle. After removing the work for repairs, the building owners choose not to reinstall it, making room for advertising. Their decision prompted a public outcry. Myers filed suit and a compromise was reached in April 2007. At this writing, the relief is being reinstalled, but at a height 18 feet above its previous location, to make room for street-level advertising.

Myers began a relationship with Art et Industrie, the first American gallery to exhibit the work of such expressionistic European designers as Ettore Sottsass, Philip Starck, Michele Oka Doner, Terence Main, and Ron Arad, in 1979. This relationship was maintained until the gallery's closure in 1997.

For the past decade, Myers has drawn inspiration from the landscape of his Pennsylvania farm, producing new work rooted in his signature motifs, but with fresh forms and materials, and a look that is denser, wider, and freer.