Composition and Layout: Contemporary Design and Objects
Mindy Solomon is pleased to present an exhibition highlighting a selection of furniture, lighting, textile and objects culled from an array of artisans and designers from across the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. With a focus on the handmade, viewers will be able to experience a tactile exploration of form and function from a gallerist perspective.
From within the gallery roster, Ernesto Garcia Sánchez has continued to push his practice into furniture making. Drawing from his exploration of repetition of line, Sánchez hones elegant wood surfaces and dynamic linear patterning to create handsome, timeless works.
John Gill will present a unique teapot from the 1980’s. Francie Bishop Good will showcase a series of conceptual pitcher forms. Kate MacDowell will be experimenting with functionality in porcelain. Andrew Casto will continue his exploration of the vessel with elaborate surface embellishments. Linda Lopez will showcase one of her handmade lamps. David Hicks will exhibit a decorative sculptural object. Glenn Barkley will introduce a new series of terra cotta vases. Virginia Leonard will have an open vessel form. Designer hettler.tüllman will introduce a new furniture series. Jay Kvapil will include a form from his Floe series. Minkyu Lee will introduce two new colors from his iconic butterfly chair series. Donté Hayes will exhibit a new sculptural form.
From outside the gallery program, Stackabl will create bespoke sustainable lighting. Quinaz Studio will create a room utilizing found object materials fabricated into new furniture iterations. Julia Kunin will share a beautifully crafted luster ware form. Cody Hoyt will include one of his incredible vessels. Marie Herwald Hermann will introduce an amazing sculptural wall form. John Souter will present an inventive sculptural form. Dabin Ahn will craft a miniature 3-
dimensional rendering of an interior space. Adam Miller will display some of his Ultraman series floral vessel forms. Frances Trombly will present an elegantly woven tapestry. Noe Kuremoto will present mid-century inspired vases. Paul Briggs will share his delicately pinched forms. Stan Edmondson will delight with a riff on a dinnerware set complete with utensils. Sunkoo Yuh will unveil a new moon jar form illustrated with his unmistakable cast of characters. Nabila Valera will create message driven tapestry pillows that marry contemporary art and design. Philip Michael Wolfson will bring his fascination with and examination of the construct of space and forms with the inclusion of a modernist inspired table.
With the approach of the fall season, Mindy Solomon is excited to bring the gallery to the forefront of contemporary design.
About the Artists
Adam D. Miller was born in Bellevue, WA (1982) and lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Art Center College of Design in 2008 and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Sacramento in 2005. Recent and forthcoming solo exhibitions include Gattopardo Los Angeles, Lefebvre & Fils Paris, Kantor Gallery Los Angeles, and a 2 person exhibition at the Newsstand Project Los Angeles with Ryan Schneider, among various other exhibitions. In 2012 he was selected as one of Art Review’s “future greats”. Miller is also the co- founder of the artist-run gallery The Pit in Los Angeles, as well as the lead designer and owner of Reaperware, a functional ceramics line launching in 2022. He has curated dozens of exhibitions in California and New York including at The Torrance Art Museum, Verge Center of the Arts in Sacramento CA, the Luckman Fine Arts Complex in Los Angeles among others. He has also designed, edited, and published dozens of artist publications through The Pit’s former Risograph imprint.
Andrew Casto (b. Ohio, USA, 1977) lives and works in Iowa City, USA. He was the 2011 MJD fellow at The Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Art in Helena, Montana, and has exhibited work internationally in Spain, Croatia, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Belgium, New Zealand, China, Switzerland, France, and Japan. Casto was a recipient of a 2015 Emerging Artist award by the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), and was a finalist for the 2017 Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize with Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London. Casto has exhibited in over eighty group exhibitions, with recent solo exhibitions at Galleria Salvatore Lanteri in Milan, Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, and Eutectic Gallery in Portland. Casto is currently Associate Professor of Art and Program Head of Ceramics at The University of Iowa, as well as Adjunct Curator of Ceramics for The Stanley Museum of Art.
Cody Hoyt received his B.F.A. from the Massachusetts College of Art in 2007. He has exhibited in the US and abroad, including galleries such as Patrick Parrish, R and Company, David Gill, UNTITLED Art fair and Design Miami. He has created public artwork for the city of Columbus, Indiana and is a recipient of the Peter S Reed Foundation grant. Featured publications include Juxtapoz, Elle Decor, Architectural Digest, the Wall Street Journal and American Craft Magazine. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Dabin Ahn (b. 1988) is a visual artist based in Chicago, IL. Ahn received his BFA and MFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has exhibited in various national and international galleries and institutions. Recent solo exhibitions include ONE-OFF, Shatto Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Liminal Fictions, Selenas Mountain, Ridgewood, NY; Apocrypha, curated by Stephanie Cristello, Chicago Manual Style, Chicago IL; 2 + 3, Andrew Bae Gallery, Chicago, IL; Records of Light, Gallery Imazoo, Seoul, Korea; Me, Myself, and I, Topohaus, Seoul, Korea. Select group exhibitions include: The Other Art Fair, Chicago, IL; Barely Fair, Chicago, IL; Best Practices, curated by Evan Gruzis, Edgewood College Gallery, Madison, WI; Ground Floor Biennial, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL; The Green Gallery Works, The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; Long Hello, curated by Carter Foster and Evan Gruzis, The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; Four Flags, curated by Stephanie Cristello and Ruslana Lichtzier, Chicago Manual Style, Chicago IL; The 12th Korea International Art Fair, Seoul, Korea; Silence, I discover, is something you can hear, Gallery LVS, Seoul Korea; Asia Contemporary Art Show, Hong Kong. Select press includes: Chicago Magazine, Chicago Gallery News, Tique. Ahn currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
David Hicks was born in 1977 and raised in the central valley of California. Hicks’ work has been heavily influenced by the natural and agricultural surroundings of his home in Visalia. From the organic forms and more recent portraiture Hicks’ observations of nature, both organic and human are present in his work.
Donté K. Hayes graduated summa cum laude from Kennesaw State University at Kennesaw, Georgia with a BFA in Ceramics and Printmaking with an art history minor. Hayes received his MA and MFA with honors from the University of Iowa and is the 2017 recipient of the University of Iowa Arts Fellowship. Recent art exhibitions include groups shows at the Trout Museum of Art, Appleton, Wisconsin, the Newark Museum of Art, Newark, New Jersey, and the 2021 Atlanta Biennial at the Atlanta Contemporary in Georgia. Donté’s artwork has been presented at the 1-54 art fair, London, England, Design Miami, Florida, and a solo presentation at the 2021 Armory Art fair in New York City. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas, the Newark Museum of Art, Newark, New Jersey, the Stanley Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, and The Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina, among others. Hayes is a 2019 Ceramics Monthly Magazine Emerging Artists and Artaxis Fellow. Hayes has been in residence at the Bemis Center, Omaha, Nebraska, Township 10, Marshall, North Carolina, Penland School of Craft, Penland, North Carolina, the Hambidge Center, Rabun Gap, Georgia, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, Newcastle, Maine. Donté is the Grand Prize winner of the “Coined in the South: 2022” exhibition at the Mint Museum. He is also the 2019 winner of the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern art from the Gibbes Museum of Art. Donté K. Hayes is represented by Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, Florida.
Ernesto Garcia Sanchez was born December 27th 1989 in Havana, Cuba. He lived in a small neighborhood called Luyanó, until the age of five. Then, in 1995, his family moved to Santos Suarez neighborhood. Both neighborhoods are in the same district. I attended Roberto Casals Elementary school from 1996 to 2002. After that, I went to Simón Bolívar Junior High School where I graduated in 2004. After graduation, I spent a whole year preparing myself, studying some art disciplines like: drawing, painting, sculpture and others…and the next year I entered the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts. I started to participate in some group exhibitions since my first year there. Four years later I obtained my degree and became a professional artist. I did one year of social service work at the Academy of Fine Arts as an Assistant Professor. Also, I had my first experiences working as a professional, organizing some exhibitions for the students, while in San Alejandro. I’m currently finalizing the fifth year of the Painting Specialty at The Visual Arts Faculty of ISA (University of the Arts). From 2009, until this date, I have made five Solo Shows.
Frances Trombly is an artist based in Miami. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including a solo project “Frances Trombly: Over and Under” at Locust Projects, Miami; “Americana: Formalizing Craft” at the Perez Art Museum Miami; and “united states” at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT. Recent exhibitions include participation in “Illusions are Real”, Manif d’art, Québec City Biennale, Quebec City, CA; “Wabi Sabi”, Sun Valley Museum of Art, ID and “#fail”, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA.
Her work has been featured in various publications including The New York Times, Art Papers, Sculpture Magazine, Surface Design Journal, and The Los Angeles Times. Trombly’s work is in the permanent collection of the Perez Art Museum, Miami and NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, among others.
She co-directs Dimensions Variable, an exhibition space in Miami. The artist is represented by Emerson Dorsch, Miami and Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
Francie Bishop Good was raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She currently lives and works in South Florida and New York City. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Bishop Good is twice recipient of the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship, and the State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship.
Her museum solo shows include the Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA, Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL, Art and Culture Center / Hollywood, FL, and the Hilliard Museum, Lafayette, LA.
Recent museum acquisitions include Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA The Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, The Patricia & Philip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL and the NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Glenn Barkley is an artist, writer, curator and gardener based in Sydney and Berry NSW, Australia. His work operates in the space between these interests drawing upon ceramics deep history, to popular song, the garden and conversations about art and the internet. He was previously senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2008–14) and curator of the University of Wollongong Art Collection (1996–2007).
He is co-founder of Kilnit Experimental Ceramics Studio Glebe and Co-Director of The Curators Department an independent curatorial agency based in Sydney. He has work in the Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Australia and Artbank Sydney.
hettler.tüllmann is the collaboration of designer Katja Hettler and architect Jula Tüllmann with a focus on furniture and interior design. Their designs are often created in collaboration with cooperatives in Ethiopia and Malawi respecting traditional manufacturing techniques and sustainability. hettler.tüllmann is also part of the Makers Circle of the Shaker Museum in Upstate New York. Their newly launched PET lounger has been nominated for the 10th Recycling Designprize – Outstanding Ideas 2022 and is currently being exhibited at the Marta Herford Museum (marta-herford.de) and their Nebule Lamps have been selected for the Bundespreis Ecodesign Germany of the IDZ | Internationales Design Zentrum Berlin A selection of their unique one-of-a-kind objects are represented by Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami.
Jay Kvapil is a California artist whose work has been shown at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; the Oakland Museum; Scripps College; the San Jose Museum of Art; San Francisco State University; the Taipei Fine Arts Museum; and numerous other national and international exhibitions. Jay is currently represented by Mindy Solomon Gallery, Galerie LeFebvre et Fils, Paris, and Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles. Recently, his work has been purchased for the permanent collection of the Sevres National Ceramics Museum, France, and the Crocker Museum of Art in Sacramento, California.
Upon finishing undergraduate studies, Jay studied tea ceremony ceramics in Japan at the Takatori Seizan Pottery on the island of Kyushu in Southern Japan in 1974-75. After returning to the United States, he received both his MA and MFA from San Jose State University where he also served as Conference Director for the National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts Conference in San Jose, 1982.
John Gill is a ceramic artist and educator. Gill is a professor of Ceramic Art at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. A member of the Council of the International Academy of Ceramics, he has travelled and lectured throughout the US, Canada and China. His work has been shown at the L.A.County Museum of Art; Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York City; Harvey Meadows Gallery, Aspen; Kraushaar Gallery, New York City; Revolution Gallery, Detroit, Michigan; Yossi Milo Gallery, New York City and Hadler Rodriquez Gallery in New York.
Gill’s work is held in the permanent collections of numerous art museums including the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Newark Museum, New Jersey, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gill’s work will be included in the upcoming exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, Shapes From Out of Nowhere. His work is featured on the cover of the catalog.
John Souter (b. 1989) grew up in Scranton, PA. In 2012 he received his BFA in Crafts from the University of the Arts and was a recipient of the Windgate Fellowship that same year. From 2014-2016 Souter was a long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation as both the Taunt and Windgate Fellow. Other residencies include: Anderson Ranch, (Snowmass Village, CO), and Guldagergaard, (Denmark). His work is placed in public collections such as the Knight Foundation (Miami, FL), The Nerman Museum, (Overland Park, KS) and the Fuller Craft Museum (Brockton, MA). The artist currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.
Julia Kunin
Kate MacDowell’s hand-built porcelain sculptures respond to environmental threats and their consequences, revealing the rifts and frictions between man and nature. Based out of Portland, Oregon, her work has been shown throughout the US and Europe at Scope Miami and New York, Seattle Art Fair, ArtAmsterdam, Art London, London Art Fair, Showoff Paris, Art Paris, Solo Project Basel, NEXT and Art Chicago fairs. She was an artist in residence at the Kohler Arts and Industry Program and has had work in group exhibits in the Museum of Arts and Design (NY), Banksy’s Dismaland Bemusement Park, MOCA North Miami and Virginia, Urban Nation Museum Berlin, and the Muskegon, Akron, Crocker, Biggs, Everson and Asheville Art Museums.
Her work has been published in books and periodicals including The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Hi-Fructose, American Craft, Ceramics Monthly, Beautiful Bizarre, O.K. Periodicals (NL), Creative Review and Rooms (UK), and Hey! (Paris) among others. Her work was featured on the CD and single cover art for Erasure’s album, “Tomorrow’s World” and she can be seen sculpting in stop motion in the official audio video for a song on Miike Snow’s ‘III’ album. Recently she created individual ‘daemons’ for an HBO campaign associated with His Dark Materials.
Linda Nguyen Lopez (b. 1981, Visalia, California) is a first generation American artist of Vietnamese and Mexican descent. Her abstract works explore the poetic potential of the everyday by imagining and articulating a vast emotional range embedded in the mundane objects that surround us. Lopez received a BFA from California State University of Chico and an MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her works have been exhibited in Italy, New Zealand, England and throughout United States including the Renwick Gallery at Smithsonian American Art Museum, Craft Contemporary Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Long Beach Museum of Art, Crocker Art Museum, Springfield Art Museum, Museum of Art and Design, The Hole, David B. Smith Gallery, and Red Arrow Gallery.
Marie Herwald Hermann (born 1979, Copenhagen, Denmark) lives and works in Chicago. Hermann received her MFA from Royal College of Art in London in 2009 and a BFA from University of Westminster in 2003. Solo exhibitions include, And a Haze, lifted, Gallerie NeC, Paris, Fr, 2022, And the walls became the world all around, Reyes Finn Gallery, Detroit, USA Bit by bit above the edge of things, Paris London Hong Kong, 2019, Chicago. Shields and the Parergon, Reyes project 2017 and A Gentle Blow to the Rock, Gallerie NeC, Hong Kong 2014. Hermann has participated in numerous group exhibitions in USA, Denmark, Italy, China, Sweden and Germany, including: 99 cents, Museum of contemporary art Detroit, Another Look at Detroit, Marianne Boesky Gallery in collaboration with Marlborough Chelsea, New York (2014). Her work is represented in the collections of The Danish art foundation, The Denver Are Museum, Servre Museum, France, Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Norway, Cranbrook art museum, MI. The Jingdezhen Ceramic Art Museum, China and The Rothschild Collection, Waddesdon Manor, UK. Hermann was awarded the 2013 Kresge Artist Fellowships, the Danish Art Foundation 3-year grant in 2014, the Annie and Otto Johs. Detlefs’ grant in 2010. She is currently an Assistant Professor, at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Michael Wolfson studied architecture at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and at the Architectural Association, London, England, where he was mentored by Zaha Hadid. After completing his studies he spent the next ten years as head of design in her studio. In 1991 Wolfson established his own studio in London, and in 1999 in Miami, and has worked throughout Europe and the USA on interiors, focusing on functional and sculptural, and art works shown at leading international art and design exhibitions, galleries, and public venues.
Minkyu Lee was born in Seoul, Korea in 1976. He received a BFA (2002) and an MFA (2006) from Seoul National University, and an MFA (2008) from the School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology. His art practices are centered on vessel and furniture making using ceramics and wood. He was a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Montana (2007), and has been actively showing his work in national and international venues such as Design Miami (2021), Art Wynwood (2016),
ZONA MACO Mexico Arte Contemporaneo (2014), SOFA Chicago (2013), Ceramic Space & Life (Korea, 2009), 28th International Ceramics Competition of L’Alcora (Spain, 2008), 1st Jingzhe International Ceramics Exhibition (China, 2007), and Sidney Myer Fund International Ceramic Art Award (Australia, 2006). He is a lifetime member of International Academy of Ceramics (IAC), and is an associate professor and chairperson of art program at University of Wisconsin – Green Bay.
Nabila Valera was born 1986 in Venezuela and grew up in Caracas, the capital. On long car trips with her mother through the country is when she first saw the art form known as “bordado guajiro”. This art form originated in the indigenous tribes of what today is known Venezuela & Colombia; and is evident as one of the main influences in Nabila’s art. It doesn’t come as a surprise that her ancestors can be traced back to the Andean region, and that indigenous genes run strong in her DNA.
Noe Kuremoto
Paul Briggs
Quinaz Studio
Stackabl is an innovative tech system for designing custom furniture – and lighting – without the waste. Stackabl is the brainchild of Toronto-based multidisciplinary design studio STACKLAB and its New York-based showroom partner, Maison Gerard. Developed closely with regional manufacturers, and aided by algorithms and robotics, Stacklab’s system identifies remnant inventory in local warehouses and factories, puts it back through a manufacturer’s own machines, and into the hands of its own experts. By leveraging existing regional resources, it empowers local economies while curbing the carbon footprint.
Stan Edmondson is a lifelong artist and maker. Edmondson is obsessed with everything DIY: Visit Edmondson’s studio and find handmade tools— such as an 1,800 lb. cement slab roller he made from scratch. Happiest when he is meticulously firing his own kilns (and pulling all-nighters to do so), he grew up with kilns his father installed in their sprawling Pasadena backyard.
A devoted printmaker and ceramicist, Edmondson’s late father, Leonard Edmondson, was the Chairman of the Design Department at Otis Art Institute during the clay revolution in sculpture. He imbued an eye for color, form, and process in his son at an early age. The younger Edmondson threw his first pot with Malcolm “Mac” McClain, and Peter Voulkos was a constant presence in his early life. Throughout the years, Stanley Edmondson honed his skills with the likes of Michael Frimkess, Ynez Johnston, and John Mason.
Sunkoo Yuh was born in 1960 in South Korea, where he received his BFA from Hong Ik University. He immigrated to the U.S. IN 1988 to obtain his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics in Alfred, NY and currently resides in Athens GA, where he is a professor of art at the University of Georgia. Yuh’s ceramic sculptures are composed of tight groupings of various forms including plants, animals, and human figures. While Korean art and Buddhist, Christian, and Confucian beliefs inform some aspects of his imagery, his work is largely driven by implied narratives that often suggest socio-political critiques. Yuh’s current focus is on architectural-scale sculptures and pushing his medium to its limits of size.
Virginia Leonard graduated with a MFA from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design in 2001. Her recent projects include a solo exhibition at TwoRooms, Auckland (2018); new long-term installation, All I Want is a Face Lift, at Objectspace, Auckland (2018); Artgèneve, with Taste Contemporary, Geneva (2018); Melbourne Art Fair (2018) and Auckland Art Fair (2018), both with PAULNACHE gallery; participation in Installation Contemporary, Carriageworks, as part of Sydney Contemporary (2017); and The Effects of Crack, Objectspace (2014).
In 2019, Leonard has numerous engagements, including participating in Tresor Contemporary, Basel, and Artgèneve, Geneva, Switzerland, both with Taste Contemporary Gallery. She will also exhibit and participate in the world’s largest ceramic conference, The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, Minnesotta, United States.
Leonard was invited to the prestigious artist residency at Guldagergaard: The Internal Ceramic Research Centre, Denmark, in 2017. She has also been invited to a residency at Glasshouse/Stonehouse, Chenaud, France in 2019. Leonard is included in a major international survey publication of contemporary sculpture to be released next year.
