Blurring the Timeline

Superhouse is excited to kick off its 2023 programming with Blurring the Timeline, a group show celebrating craft and design from the past 40 years. The exhibition runs January 27 - March 5, 2023 at Superhouse Vitrine, 75 East Broadway, Second Floor, New York, New York.

Artists and designers on view:

Aaron Blendowski
Ellen Pong
Elizabeth Browning Jackson
Howard Meister
James Hong
Luke Malaney
Noël Morical
Oliver-Selim Boualam
Richard Snyder
Ryan Decker
Sean Gerstley
Serban Ionescu
Sue Ravitz
Tadeas Podracky
Teun Zwets
Tom Loeser
Wendy Maruyama

For the first time, Superhouse presents both contemporary and historical works in dialogue. The resulting installation breaks down traditional delineations of style and period with a fresh mix of furnishings and textiles. The show examines the through line of craft and design from 1980 to today with the work of 17 artists and designers working in diverse, but complementary, materials, methods, and perspectives. The works on view include some of the earliest and the newest examples of American art furniture, wood craft from the American and European traditions, and fiber art spanning the last four decades.

The exhibition comprises two vignettes, each with works completed years apart. In the first, a contemporary powder-coated steel chair by Serban Ionescu sits alongside James Hong’s lacquered steel and glass dining table done in a characteristic Postmodern style. In the second, Luke Malaney’s 2023 ash and hammered copper floor lamp stands alongside new ceramic coffee tables by Sean Gerstley and a pair of 1989, worked steel dining chairs by Howard Meister.

The installation expands to fill Superhouse Vitrine with other exceptional examples of contemporary and historical furniture and decorative art. On the contemporary side, there are a series of four chain stitch panels, demonstrating artist Sue Ravitz’s expertise in establishing unconventional color relationships. Additionally, there are thoughtfully conceived and cleverly painted carved wooden boxes by renowned craftsperson and educator Tom Loeser and technicolor macrame hanging-sculptures by Noël Morical.

Blurring the Timeline presents historical works, not seen publicly for over 40 years. Richard Snyder’s six-foot tall bottle-shaped case piece, with its chalky, Yves Klein-blue surface, pops against the yellow-painted vitrine walls. Covering the floor, Elizabeth Browning Jackson’s Postmodern, splatter-shaped tufted wool rug, looks like it was torn from the pages of a comic book. A rare, early wood lamp by the legendary Wendy Maruyama tops off the selection.

“Too often we categorize design in terms of when it was created,” says Stephen Markos founder and director of Superhouse. “I want visitors to come away from this exhibition not only understanding the temporal context of each work, but also how the historical work informs the contemporary and how the contemporary work reinvigorates the historical.”

The paint for this exhibition was provided by Farrow & Ball.