“Chic Chictorian” Bergere Chair, Acrylic, Repurposed Leather/Hide, Metal Tacks & Wood
Alice in Wonderland meets Brooklyn in a whimsical seating and sculptural furnishings collection by G.I.N. Art & Design’s sculptor, artist, and designer Orlando Dominguez and curated by White Noise Showroom. Unveiled at Design Within Reach’s Montague Street, Brooklyn outpost last week, the exhibit “Brooklyn on the Verge of Spring” includes four seating pieces and two sculptures among playful, colorful designs that will run through March 17. Calling itself a lifestyle brand, G.I.N. offers modern art and design that speaks to the global influences of Dominguez’s African American and Salvadorian ancestry. There’s also a lively, almost electric urban aesthetic in his work that belies his youth in Washington, D.C. and his adult life in New York, where he attended the Fashion Institute of Technology and launched his own menswear collection before turning to metalwork and eventually furnishings.
G.I.N. creative director and CEO Orlando Dominguez has been producing functional artwork and home furnishings since 2009, when his first collection debuted at Brooklyn’s S.O.N.Y.A. studio. Most recognizable are his two popular Tea Tables. The pair comprises Sitting Buddha, with its namesake cutouts sliced into the four corner of each plexiglass and steel cube, and Om, featuring its own Sanskrit title cut into powder-coated sides. These two G.I.N. classics are joined by a pair of wingback armchairs. One, dubbed Bluesy, features repurposed turquoise patent leather with silvery denim arms and textured yellow and multi-colored panels, while Pinky sports contrasting grey and fuchsia hide on its arms and cheerful pops of green and teal. A series of painted-metal Yoga People sculptures includes Bakasana, its steel and acrylic panels forming the Crane Pose, and Urdhva Mukha Paschimottanasan, its glittery angles set in Upward Facing Forward Bend. Another chair, Chic Chictorian, is a bergere-style creation in acrylic, repurposed hide, neon-yellow and hot pink leather accents, crackled black and red patent seat-cushion leather, metal tacks, and silvery painted legs. BK Bus and Papi Duro are a pair of faux-graffiti-splattered Victorian-style chairs in acrylic, repurposed hide, printed fabric, metal tacks, and wood. And Good Greens is a pair of old Seven for All Mankind denim jeans hardened to become a stand-alone sculpture that could be adapted as a table base.
Many pieces at VandM have nearly enough combustible energy to fit right into “Brooklyn on the Verge of Spring.” From dealer Vintage Views Consignment and Consulting, a pair of molded fiberglass side chairs by Danish designer Nanna Ditzel and circa 1970 have a bright sunshine yellow finish and a bold, perky silhouette. A duo of low-slung lounge chairs from dealer Viva Hollywood have a punchy presence thanks to their gorgeous multi-colored fabric and sleek ebony-black-lacquered arms and legs. And Center44 brings us a Louis XV-style ottoman in cast aluminum, upholstered in a dewy citrus green with silvery legs matching those of Dominguez’s Chictorian armchair. The message in all this madness? Spring is coming! For more information, visit http://www.ginartdesign.com.
