Aaron Poritz’s Solo Show ‘Big Woods’ Pushes Wood Furniture into the Future

Brooklyn-based ceramicist and furniture designer Aaron Poritz of Poritz & Studio opens a solo show of sculptural works on January 27. The evocative forms will be on view weekdays through May at New York’s Cristina Grajales Gallery for contemporary design. Poritz is best known for case goods with mesmerizing tambour surfaces, their meticulous craftsmanship a nod to his degree in architecture from California College of the Arts and early work experience at firms such as Morris Adjmi Architects. In a departure from that refined language, the seven pieces comprising his “Big Woods” exhibition employ a primal yet playful voice and take a root-to-branch approach to lumber. The maker’s youthful origins are on display in the floor mirror, console, desk, two stools, sculpture, and coffee table: Echoes of hours spent in his father’s woodshop or building forts in the wilds of northern Massachusetts.

A 2012 stint in Nicaragua resulted in a 20-piece furniture collection using old-growth trees felled by a hurricane and joined by nary a screw. Fast forward to his current multidisciplinary studio based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where design and fabrication unite, and Poritz explores the intersection of handcraft and digital tools (think robotic carving). “The collection aims to balance familiarity with abstraction,” Poritz says. “Proportions are inspired by the human form, but the objects are ambiguous enough for each to assign their own meaning. They’re designed to inspire curiosity.” Consider our interest piqued.