Catch Barbora Žilinskaitė’s ‘Chairs Don’t Cry’ Exhibit in Los Angeles

A mere 28 years old, Barbora Žilinskaitė has already had a noteworthy trajectory. She was born and educated in Lithuania, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in product and spatial design, lives in Brussels, and, lately, has been taking California by storm: recently participating in a group show at San Francisco gallery Jessica Silverman and now the subject of a solo exhibition, “Chairs Don’t Cry,” currently on view at Friedman Benda Los Angeles. All showcase not only her vivid, anthropomorphic work that blurs the line between person and object—the show title attributing emotion to furniture—but also her signature medium, reclaimed sawdust, which she sources from a nearby timber workshop. “Beyond its aesthetic value—texture, malleability, porosity—I also appreciate the narrative behind using the material,” Žilinskaitė says. “Objects made from it already carry a story, and it continues to ‘live,’ shaping new forms instead of ending up in a landfill.” But for Art Basel Switzerland in June, she’s switching things up, crafting her Sunbather bench—which is debuting in L.A. in blue-pigmented wood dust—in pale-yellow concrete, her first of the kind.

“Chairs Don’t Cry,” Barbora Žilinskaitė’s 10-piece solo exhibition at Friedman Benda gallery in Los Angeles through March 30, features the 9-foot-long sideboard While we hide our secrets there, they hide theirs, the 3-foot-tall mirror Mr. Judgy, and the 6 foot-long Sunbather bench, all in pigmented reclaimed sawdust.