Tom Sachs: Furniture is an extension of Sachs’ sculpture practice, he has been designing and building furniture for 30 years. This is the artist’s first gallery exhibition of his furniture in the United States in over twenty years.

Tom Sachs: Furniture

Tom Sachs: Furniture is an extension of Sachs’ sculpture practice, he has been designing and building furniture for 30 years. This is the artist’s first gallery exhibition of his furniture in the United States in over twenty years. Sachs’ furniture is conspicuously handmade and shows evidence of each piece’s construction, removing it from the realm of miraculous conception that pervades industry. This transparency—the idea of showing marks—tells the story of the making. The more we can tell the story, the more we can invest in our things and build greater connections with the items and rituals in our daily lives. Sachs challenges us to reflect on the objects we buy; the furniture we have, our sound systems and the music they play, and reminds us everything is art – it’s about the rituals that activate it.

Tom Sachs (b.1966, New York) Artist. Sachs’ genre defying mixed media sculptures, often recreations of modern icons using everyday materials, show all of the work that goes into producing an object – a reversal of modernization trend towards products with cleaner, simpler, and more perfect edges. Sachs’s sculptures are conspicuously handmade; lovingly cobbled together from plywood, resin, steel, and ceramic. The scars and imperfections in the sculptures tell the story of how it came into being and remove it from the realm of miraculous conception. His studio team of ten functions like a teaching hospital or cult, that worships plywood and an ethos of transparency.

July 7, 2022 - September 4, 2022
6760 S Stony Is Ave, Chicago, IL 60649, USA
About the Artist

Tom Sachs

Arelentlessly innovative and subversive sculptor, Tom Sachs (b. 1966, New York) is best known for his elaborate, bricolage recreations of masterpieces of engineering and design. Humble foam core and plywood replace the gleaming aluminum and polycarbonate of mass-produced items, fabricated with the combination of industrial vigor and handmade artistry that have become his trademark.

Beyond the studio, Sachs has further solidified his focus on the artist’s hand as proof that anything he makes is sculpture— from the blockchain to sneakers. Sachs is especially recognized and celebrated as a designer and collaborator with Nike. The iconic Mars Yard sneakers and Nikecraft projects have allowed Sachs to seamlessly blend art, design, and functionality, creating products that push boundaries and challenge traditional notions of both art and fashion.

His work has been exhibited in many countries and is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Whitney Museum in New York, Pompidou Center in Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern in London, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and many more. He has had major solo exhibitions at Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2021), Tokyo City Opera (2019), Nasher Sculpture Center, Houston (2017), Noguchi Museum, New York (2016), Yerba Buena Arts Center, San Francisco (2016), Brooklyn Museum, New York (2016), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2016), Lyon Biennale, France (2013), “Space Program: MARS ” Park Avenue Armory, New York (2012), Venetian Architecture Biennale (2010), Prada Foundation, Milan (2006), Guggenheim Museum, Berlin (2003).

Sachs lives and works in New York.

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