Martino Gamper has been busy: his new exhibition in New York showcases over 700 works he has created in his studio, mostly hooks and vases. ‘Martino Gamper: I am Many Moods’ is on view at Anton Kern Gallery (until 11 August 2023) and offers a panoramic overview of the scope of the designer’s works, while highlighting the breadth of his oeuvre.
'Martino Gamper: I am many Moods' at Anton Kern Gallery
‘Form follows function is a principle of design which suggests that the shape of an object should primarily relate to its intended purpose: this is not as limiting as it sounds,’ reads a note introducing the exhibition. To create this voluminous collection, Gamper has drilled, cast, carved, sawed, sanded, printed, extruded, chainsawed, blown, welded, cut, forged, torched, and torn a variety of materials, to create variations on a particularly functional theme.
The displays show a variety of hooks – a motif Gamper has already experimented with in the past with great results, including a limited edition collection of sculptural hooks laser-cut from anodised aluminium.
On the occasion of his ‘Hooked’ collection launch for Hem, Gamper said of the hook: ‘You can hang a light object, a heavy object, a fragile object, anything that doesn’t want to stand on the floor or on a table, but the hooks also lend presence to the room, they transform a wall.’
At the Anton Kern Gallery, the hooks – made of wood, metal, glass, steel, plastic, crystals, ceramics, bronze, aluminium, brass, stainless glass, cork, marble, stones, and branches – are shown in compositions, both curated and haphazard, in sizes that range from the mini to the extra, and mixed with furniture by Gamper (at times itself hanging from the hooks).
‘This might sound like a fight between materials, technique, and form; but in fact the mood is positive, the feeling exuberant,’ continues the gallery’s introduction. ‘The sheer number and variety of hooks and vases creates a poetic frenzy of excited chaos. Between a whittled stick and large cast bronze, the materials and techniques run the gamut between low and high. Here, there is an object for everyone.’
Anton Kern Gallery, 16 East 55th Street, New York, NY 10022
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