Industrial Designers Barber and Osgerby Debut New Art Show
Take a look at industrial designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby’s website (or find some IRL examples) and it’s not hard to see that the two internationally-renowned Brits have an artistic flair. Their oeuvre of furniture and consumer products demonstrates an embrace of color and a finely-honed sense of poise that comes naturally to artists. And Barber and Osgerby prove they can eschew the rigid, albeit functional rules of “good design” to embrace the freedom of visual arts in their latest gallery show, “One by One.”
“One by One” debuted on May 1 at the Josée Bienvenu Gallery in trendy Chelsea. The show primarily focuses on ceramics Barber and Osgerby were developing for a 2015 line of tableware. At the time, the two designers were struck by the volatility of clay when it comes into contact with glazes, as this quality is the exact opposite of what designers, who require control and perfection to produce their work, expect or need. The ceramic tiles themselves were produced by raining a slip down on to the clay in one fluid motion, imbuing the design process with a sense of erratic excitement.
“Much of our work as industrial designers is concerned with control and perfection in manufacture; there is rarely any space for serendipity,” says Barber and Osgerby. “This way of working is fast and expressive. It’s the antithesis of, and antidote to, our day-to-day exacting design practice.”
A series of graphite drawings
“One by One” will run through June 16th.
