Outer space: Rogan Gregory thinks big in his new LA studio
The artist’s new Santa Monica studio, a former garbage truck depot, is a blank canvas for big dreams
The exodus of New Yorkers from the Big Apple for admittedly practical reasons, like having more space or striking a better work-life balance, has perennially ebbed and flowed; it seems on the upswing now with large corporate offices closed until 2021 and working from home becoming the norm. For the sculptor and longtime New Yorker Rogan Gregory however, his recent move to Los Angeles and taking up a new studio space in Santa Monica was independent of the pandemic.
‘I do a lot of work out in Los Angeles already, I have my foundries out there,’ shares Gregory, who lived in New York City for over 20 years before moving to Montauk and then to Amagansett in Long Island, where he’s lived full-time for the last five. ‘I’m very sensitive to the natural world and while I find and see inspiration in the change of seasons, I‘m more inspired by life; things growing and life-forms. In LA, anything goes; whatever you want to grow can grow, as long as you’ve got some water. There’s a lot of [other] reasons, like weather, but really in the end, I literally needed a change of scenery.’
In his new studio, which was originally a depot for garbage trucks with a dirt floor that was then later paved over, Gregory is able to fully realise the large-scale sculptures that he has been most recently focusing on. The minimal, warehouse-style space perfectly serves as a blank canvas for Gregory to sketch, mould and build his wide array of works, which range from statuesque, yet amorphous chairs, and sea creature-like pendant lights, to sculptural bronze floor-standing lights that resemble fauna. ‘It’s a very simple white box. I put a skylight in and a roll-down door, and that’s exactly what I need,’ he states.
‘In LA, I have a lot more space, there’s less of a grind, I can think clearer. From an environmental standpoint, everything is more open and bigger in California. In Amagansett, there are a lot of trees, so your point of view is blocked. I love trees, don’t get me wrong, and I will miss them, but generally speaking, when everything is bigger, you tend to go bigger,’ he says, sharing that he’s currently working on a few outdoor commissions. ‘Obviously when you’re outdoors, the sky’s the limit.’
‘Much of Rogan's work is commission-based,’ says Evan Snyderman, principal of R & Company, the gallery that represents Gregory. ‘What is unique about his approach is how much he cares about the way the work connects to the environment it’s created for and how it complements the architecture or the interior it exists within. Every single piece is made in his studio by his own hands, so there is a direct connection to the work, which in turn creates an energy. Clients are drawn to the gesture of a line or a form that alludes to the works’ sensuality.’
Whether it’s the congregation of arching bronze lights that look ‘almost like aliens gathering before they get released’ or a striking black-and-white sculpture that Gregory refers to as ‘the horse’, which you can sit on and will eventually be realised in bronze, all of the work starts off as either a drawing or maquette.
‘I get up in the morning and draw, or I make maquettes. If I do that for two to three hours, I feel fine. It’s almost like therapy. If I don’t do it, then I’m grouchy,’ Gregory says. ‘Anything you can think of, you can realise the general idea of [in a sketch]. Making a maquette is a much more accurate depiction of what the eventual piece will be. It depends on the piece really.’
With much of his inspiration drawn from the natural world, albeit loosely, like ‘thinking about what life could exist on an exoplanet or some liveable planet elsewhere’, or through a lens of weightlessness ‘like you’d find in the ocean’, there is a simultaneously organic and futuristic energy to Gregory’s pieces. The artist, who likes to surf and dive, says, ‘I imagine that a lot of animals that exist in the deep, deep ocean might be similar to what could exist in a place with a different atmosphere, different gravitational pull and the absence of light.’
Despite producing more sculptural pieces of late, Gregory asserts that he does not have a preference for making non-functional over functional pieces. ‘I vacillate between the two. I don’t feel like I want to restrain myself. It wasn’t okay 10 to 15 years ago for people to do both the functional and the fine art, but nowadays [you can],’ he says. ‘I was a clothing designer for a long time, and you had to be functional. So I do come from the belief that things have to be well made. I just like things to be well made.’
INFORMATION
rogangregory.com
r-and-company.com
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Pei-Ru Keh is a former US Editor at Wallpaper*. Born and raised in Singapore, she has been a New Yorker since 2013. Pei-Ru held various titles at Wallpaper* between 2007 and 2023. She reports on design, tech, art, architecture, fashion, beauty and lifestyle happenings in the United States, both in print and digitally. Pei-Ru took a key role in championing diversity and representation within Wallpaper's content pillars, actively seeking out stories that reflect a wide range of perspectives. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children, and is currently learning how to drive.
-
Lexus installation explores time at Milan Design Week 2024
Lexus brought designer Hideki Yoshimoto’s ‘Beyond the Horizon’ to Milan’s Art Point, part of its ongoing series of collaborations with Fuorisalone
By Nargess Shahmanesh Banks Published
-
Cult 1960s boutique Granny Takes A Trip gets a sustainable reboot
Founded on King’s Road in 1966, ‘radically creative’ fashion store Granny Takes A Trip is being reimagined for a new generation. Dal Chodha takes a closer look
By Dal Chodha Published
-
Find yourself at Six Senses Kyoto, the brand's breathtaking Japan debut
Six Senses Kyoto opens its doors boasting tranquil, luxurious interiors by Blink Design Group
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
The cosmos meets art history in Vivian Greven’s New York exhibition
Vivian Greven’s ‘When the Sun Hits the Moon’, at Perrotin in New York City, is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the USA
By Emily McDermott Published
-
The Met’s ‘The Real Thing: Unpacking Product Photography’ dissects the avant-garde in early advertising
A new exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York explores the role of product photography and advertising in shaping the visual language of modernism
By Zoe Whitfield Published
-
Detroit Institute of Arts celebrates Black cinema
‘Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971’ at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) brings lost or forgotten films, filmmakers and performers to a contemporary audience
By Anne Soward Published
-
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s LA-made work goes on show at Gagosian
‘Made on Market Street’ at Gagosian in Beverly Hills is the first show to present works made by the young artist between 1982 and 1984
By Hunter Drohojowska-Philp Published
-
BLUM marks 30 years of Japanese contemporary art in America
BLUM will take ‘Thirty Years: Written with a Splash of Blood’ to its New York space in September 2024, continuing its celebration of Japanese contemporary art in America
By Timothy Anscombe-Bell Published
-
Todd Gray’s sculptural photography collages defy dimension, linearity and narrative
In Todd Gray’s New York exhibition, he revisits his 40-year archive, fragmented into elaborated frames that open doors for new readings
By Osman Can Yerebakan Published
-
Frieze LA 2024 guide: the art, gossip and buzz
Our Frieze LA 2024 guide includes everything you need to know and see in and around the fair
By Renée Reizman Published
-
Peter Blake’s sculptures spark joy at Waddington Custot in London
‘Peter Blake: Sculpture and Other Matters’, at London's Waddington Custot, spans six decades of the artist's career
By Hannah Silver Published