Moderne Gallery

Ceramic works by Sergei Isupov on view as part of our latest exhibition Subconscious Surfaced.

Sergei Isupov occupies a prominent position in international contemporary ceramics, known for his extraordinary ability to marry three-dimensional sculpture with narrative painting. Born into a family of artists and educated across Ukraine and Estonia during the Soviet era, Isupov immigrated to the United States in 1994. His porcelain works, characterized by hand-built forms and intricate stain-and-glaze paintings, explore the complexities of the human psyche and the body. In light of recent geopolitical conflicts in Ukraine and Estonia, his work has taken on a renewed urgency, serving as a visceral, creative response to the anxieties of war and the fragility of peace.

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Subconscious Surfaced, a group exhibition featuring works from the 1960s through the early 2000s, explores a shared thread of surreal, otherworldly sculptural form across a range of expressions, techniques, and contexts.
 
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A 1965 Bracket-Based Coffee Table/Bench by George Nakashima. The work features a single board top slab with dramatic figuring and expressive voids.

Mira Nakashima, on reflecting on the conceptual basis of the Slab style coffee table/bench, notes the works were “designed to express the character of a particular slab. Crotch figures, knots, rotted-out sections, and interesting profiles are used as expressions and not considered defects” (‘Nature, Form, and Spirit’, Mira Nakashima, 2003, p. 106).

Bracket-Based Coffee Table/Bench, 1965
American Black Walnut
47 1/2 x 23 3/4 x 13 in

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A Conoid Lounge Chair by George Nakashima featuring a single board seat of American Black Walnut along with hand shaved Hickory spindles.

The Conoid Lounge Chair was first designed for Japanese architect Yukata Saito. The lounge iteration of the Conoid Chair features a lower stance and wider seat than its dining-style predecessor.

The Conoid Lounge Chair, like the Conoid Chair, features a formed, cantilevered seat, a sculptural crest rail, sled runners, and continuous leg/stiles.

Conoid Lounge Chair, 1983
American Black Walnut, Hickory
Signed “George Nakashima Aug 1983” on underside of seat | Made for Full Circle Gallery
22 x 24 x 33 in | Seat Height 14 in

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