January 25 – March 3, 2007

 

Gagosian Gallery is pleased to announce a major exhibition of new limited edition works by acclaimed international designer Marc Newson. In his first exhibition with the gallery – also his first solo exhibition in the United States – Newson has reached new heights of complexity and sophistication with several bodies of related work. Each work is fashioned in a single, seamless piece from various materials, including marble and nickel.

 

Sometimes I start with the material, sometimes the idea. In this case the materials were the inspiration.I began by identifying materials that I had always been interested in but had never used.Often the context of materials strikes me more than the materials themselves. Context is new, not materials. –Marc Newson

Newson approaches design as an experimental exercise in extreme structures and advanced
technologies, combined with a highly tactile and exacting exploration of materials, processes, and
skills. From the very beginning of his career, he has produced a steady trickle of superbly crafted,
limited-edition furniture. By now, the sensuous, gleaming curves of his aluminum Lockheed Lounge
are legend. Handcrafted by Newson as a struggling young designer in the mid-eighties and shown at
the time in a local Sydney art gallery, Lockheed Lounge made history last year as the highest price
ever paid at auction for the work of a living designer. As an industrial designer, Newson has also
produced a broad range of highly imaginative products over the last twenty years, from concept jets
and cars to watches, footwear, luggage, and aircraft interiors.

At a time when the distinctions between art and design are becoming increasingly blurred and hotly
debated, Newson is a trail-blazer who has pursued parallel activities in exclusive and mass
production for more than twenty years. In this exhibition, he explores many new frontiers,
transposing materials and techniques from one context to another to create complex, sometimes
baffling forms. The ribbon-like Extruded Tables, Extruded Chairs, and the web-like Voronoi Shelf are
each cut from single block of Carrara marble; Micarta, an early and now obscure sheet laminate
made from linen and resin, is worked in unprecedented ways to reveal a surprising range of subtle,
honeyed patterns; in the Random Pak series, large meshed metal forms have been “grown” using a
series of algorithms based on the irregular Voronoi cell; a series of standard light sculptures have
been produced in vacuum-pressed, colored glass. On a more playful note is a mirror-like nickel
surfboard that Newson designed specifically for perilous tow-in surfing, and an exquisite folding knife
in sintered bronze and Damascus or “watered” steel.
Marc Newson was born in Sydney, Australia in 1963 and studied sculpture and jewellery at Sydney
College of the Arts. Parallel to his career as an industrial designer, he has exhibited limited edition
works and projects in galleries and public institutions since 1986, including Fondation Cartier pour
l’art contemporain, Paris (1995, 2004); Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (2001); the Groninger Museum,
Netherlands (2004); and London Design Museum (2004-5). Currently he is Creative Director of
Qantas Airways. He lives in London, with studios in London and Paris.

 

a r t i s t biography

 

MARC NEWSON
Lockheed Lounge, 1985
Aluminum and fiberglass
35 x 25 x 60 inches (89 x 63.5 x 152.5 cm)
Ed. of 10

 

 

Born in Sydney in 1964, Marc Newson is acclaimed as both an artist and a designer. In 1984, he graduated from the Sydney College of the Arts, with a focus on jewelry and sculpture. While still a student, Newson began exploring new forms of furniture design and was awarded a grant from the Australia Crafts Council immediately after graduating.

In 1991, after living and working in Japan for four years, Newson created a studio in Paris and quickly began receiving significant commissions from prestigious furniture companies, such as Cappellini and Moroso. Soon thereafter, Newson opened a larger studio in London and began designing a hugely broad range of products: restaurants in both Europe and the US, concept cars, bicycles as well as the interiors of the Qantas fleet and other private jets.

Because of the range and influence of his designs, Time Magazine named Newson one of the “100 Most Influential People” of 2005. Also indicative of his success as a designer are his design awards, including five Good Design Awards from the Chicago Atheneum.

This notoriety has allowed Newson to explore the designers’ role as artist. To this effect he created Bucky for the Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain in Paris; while distinctly a sculptural installation, Bucky can aesthetically be traced directly to Newson’s iconic furniture.

Marc Newson’s works can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Design Museum, London and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. His exhibition at Gagosian Gallery, New York in 2007 will be his first with the gallery. A Phaidon monograph is currently in production.

 

 

 

 

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