[ Forrest Myers ] at Hedge Gallery

Hedge Gallery in San Francisco presents Not Furniture, an exhibition of work by American sculptor/designer Forrest Myers.

“I’m a sculptor, and I use use furniture as a venue, as an idea, a jumping off place to make sculpture.” says Myers. Top image: Parker. Above: 125 Mph

The exhibition, which runs until November 8, is presented in collaboration with New York gallery Friedman Benda. Above: Love Bench.

The following is from Hedge Gallery:

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Hedge in collaboration with Friedman Benda
Presents Not Furniture : Forrest Myers

8 October through 8 November 2008

Hedge, in collaboration with Friedman Benda in New York, presents an installation of dynamic new wire works by Forrest Myers, featuring his latest designs alongside significant career highlights that will occupy the entire gallery, on view at Hedge from October 8th to November 8th. Above: King and Queen.

Above: Red Cube. Below: Champaign Cube.

Forrest Myers was born in 1941 and raised in California where he studied at the San Francisco Art Institute before moving to New York in 1961. Myers quickly integrated into the city’s vibrant artist community, becoming a founding member of the Park Place Gallery along with artists such as Mark di Suvero and Robert Grosvenor. The prominent cooperative gallery, shared by five sculptors and five painters, became a fundamental hub for the New York art scene.

During the 1960s Myers became a member of the Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) collective and collaborated with artists and scientists on many notable projects. In 1973 Myers’ constructed one of his most famous sculptures, “The Wall,” often referred to as the “Gateway to Soho.” Above: Manifold. Below: Black Tuffet

In 1979, Myers began showing with the historic Art et Industrie, the first American gallery to exhibit the work of such expressionistic European designers such as Ettore Sottsass and Ron Arad. In addition, his works are part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Chateau dus Fresne, Decorative Arts Museum in Montreal, Canada.

For more than 40 years, Myers’ work has expanded the functional vocabulary of sculpture through his explorations with the inherent properties of metal and materiality. In his most recent body of work, Myers has drawn inspiration from the landscape of his Pennsylvania farm, producing new work rooted in his signature motif, but incorporating fresh forms and materials, a look that is more dense, wide, and free of limits. Above: 250 Mph. Below: Small Red Cube

“For decades, Forrest Myers has been exploring the territory that compromises the no-man’s land between design and sculpture, consistently forsaking a purist dedication to either in favor of a stubborn hybridity that ensured his excommunication from both” - Jenifer P. Borum, ARTFORUM

Bringing the Design = Art Movement to San Francisco, Hedge’s Not Furniture exhibition series concentrates on Artists and Designers whose vision is pushing the definition of furniture design beyond its conventional perception, blurring the boundaries between art and design.

Hedge was founded in 2003 by Steven Volpe and Roth Martin. The gallery specializes in a highly edited personal vision of 20th and 21st century design, encompassing furniture, objects and art. The common thread of this vision is the search to find new relationships, amongst ever evolving acquisitions, from the past, present and future. Above: No Evil Bench. Below: Medium Black Cube

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