The archives is intended as a record of work that Pritam & Eames received in its 30-plus year history. The prompt for the creation of the archives came from an unlikely source: a New York State auditor, when examining the gallery’s sales tax procedures, ended up so impressed with the quality of work being shown that, before she left, she made an emphatic suggestion that the partners had a serious responsibility to produce a record of this work. And so began the registration system -- photographs attached to index cards containing the specifications of each piece, which led to the creation of these Archives.

Throughout its third decade, Pritam & Eames continued its tradition of showcasing work in group and featured shows that was made by the artisans associated with the gallery. Occasionally, a new name would appear on the roster, but the partners' early decision to focus on the evolution of work by a finite group of furniture makers did not allow for a large turn-over in the gallery's representation.

As the third decade of the archives will show there were some remarkably strong pieces to write about. Of special note in this regard were the spectacular pieces made by Kristina Madsen and Brian Newell. It’s clear that when studying individual pieces, some of the strongest work of the gallery’s three decades was produced in this period. You could also say, in general, that most of the work produced in this period was a maturation of individual pathways and less a matter of pushing new frontiers.

At this point, any student of the decorative arts can’t help but appreciate the longevity of the studio furniture movement from its post-World War II beginnings. In fact, this decorative arts period has, by this point, outlasted the length of the Art Deco and Art Nouveau periods combined. However, there were cyclical outside events underway that would intensify the challenges for those operating a small shop/studio for furniture production. The recession of 2009 was but one of the influences that would affect the viability of the studio furniture maker.

His side tables are vintage Hurwitz with their arching stretcher and corner brace design.

The Flower Table is a glass top table that seats four; the center of the glass has a sandblasted floral based pattern. The top is supported by four intersecting ox bow curves, yielding eight arms. This resulting shallow cup form is jointed into the intersection of two domed pairs of legs. The table is so agreeable, it's as if Hurwitz was amused by this structural challenge.

Also included in this exhibit were two collaborative pieces with Yuji Kubo, the Japanese lacquer artist: the polychromed floor-standing lamp, and the amber and black Inkstone Desk with its wondrous rubbed-out pine needle pattern.

Pair of Side Tables by THOMAS HUCKER: Yew, mahogany.

NOTES: Andy Buck's work carries the expectation of unconventional form and use of color. If it makes sense to speak of a "timeless modern" idiom, there were pieces in this show that would strike the observer as timeless. The Pod Buffet table and the Moonwalker bench have qualities that make them at home in any interior with walls of modern art.

BRIAN NEWELL &
WILLIAM WALKER - 2002

NOTES: This is the first two-person show at Pritam & Eames to feature the work of graduates of the College of the Redwoods: William Walker and Brian Newell. The excellence of their work made the choice for this show easy.

When a maker completes a dining room extension table and ten chairs, all made from the same tree, one says they have done their work. When the table comes with such features as a resawn veneer top with cocobolo inlay and edging, a maple torsion box extending mechanism, and corner oriented, curved, pillowed, and faceted legs that pour from the apron, you know you have a piece that was not only time-consuming but fueled by a vision. The resulting table is simply one of the most appealing and sophisticated dining room tables the gallery has hosted.

This dining suite is accompanied by a pair of flawless side tables in fiddleback maple, with tops of Kerilian/Masur birch. Square in form, the scale is sufficiently ample to support a reading lamp.

Walker's style is consistent with what was described earlier as a Northwest coast contemporary style, with roots perhaps in Scandinavian Moderne but by now comfortably American with its own sophisticated corner leg and apron solutions. It should be mentioned that the chair retailed for under $2,500. With a compound curved wooden back, an upholstered seat that fits neatly inside the wooden frame of the aprons, and five-faceted curving front legs, this was an unparalleled design feat that never lost sight of the production demands.

The basic nature of Brian Newell's approach to furniture is so distinct that his work commingled with Walker's without confusion. After his 2001 Spider Cabinet, one could only ask, whatever will this maker do next? This was Brian Newell's decade, one that firmly established him as a principal player in the American studio furniture movement. Living in Japan with his wife and young daughter, he worked uninterrupted for nearly a decade, producing a brilliant body of work unmatched by anyone for its vision and bravura workmanship.

His ebony cabinet and nine-legged ebony desk do not disappoint and prove how a work as eccentrically distinct as the 2001 cabinet could extend its aesthetic reach to include other works as strong. Having described these pieces as of a body of work, if you could call the desk Cinemascope, then the cabinet would be Silent Cinema of the darkly experimental variety. Like the Spider Cabinet, a pierced-carved grill sits in the center of the Ebony cabinet and dares the viewer to venture inside. The two doors are the full length of the cabinet and open by reaching through the grill. The inner space is a central, vertical tapered column of seven drawers which is flanked on either side by two shelves.

There is a pierced carved grillwork in the center of the Thorn Cabinet that holds the first look. It is carved through in a pattern of thorns. The cabinet sits on a proportionately tall stand, its eight legs descending without curve to their small eggplant-shaped feet. The effect is to have the cabinet itself sitting high as if in an aerie world all of its own, while projecting by means of the bottom leg stretchers a floor plan of the building above. And the sense of that cabinet is cathedral, with a central nave and left and right transepts.

Looking again at the central pierced carving, it becomes an arched porthole to the interior.  The thorn pattern of the carving is expanded into a “cracked ice” pattern on the façade, but it is also used to create “clerestory windows” at the top of the central compartments sides.

KRISTINA MADSEN: New Work

WENDY MARUYAMA:
Turning Japanese

August 9 -- September 17, 2002

WENDY MARUYAMA:
Turning Japanese

NOTES: Though she would exhibit an occasional piece at Pritam & Eames over the years, Wendy Maruyama's work was not a major presence at the gallery since her two person exhibit with Ed Zucca in 1983. Both artist and gallery thought it was time to remedy this. Maruyama was ready with an idea that had been germinating since the 1990s for a new body of work. The Turning Japanese cabinet series juxtaposes icons of Japanese pop culture like Hello Kitty paraphernalia, a Harley Davidson motorcycle mirror, female warriors and Godzilla figurines, Devilman comic book series, and "hentai" (Japanese slang for perverted) comic books with antique prints of samurai, women in kimonos, temple gardens, and images of the great Kamakura Buddha. The new cabinets are about the myths and contradictions she discovered when she visited Japan in the 1990s. Maruyama says these cabinets represent a complete contrast to the doll cases of her childhood and are a more accurate depiction of what she sensed in contemporary Japan.

The floor standing cabinets are glass display cases on simple, painted cabinetry. According to Maruyama, this design relates to the traditional Geisha doll cases she remembers from childhood where the porcelain doll was encased in glass. The King of the Monsters cabinet, with its elegantly proportioned case, supports a glass top with a diorama featuring a Godzilla figurine stomping through a Japanese city with a laser print image of Mount Fuji in the background.

In contrast to the quiet green of the Monsters cabinet, Angry Asian Women is a brilliant vermillion red. Its diorama presents two Devilman comic book female warriors standing in front of a photo montage of an ancient Japanese temple, its overgrown steps appearing to descend towards the figures who stand with glowering consternation. The sky is threatening. The doors of the cabinet have two lazer-burned tonsui-like plates of a geisha with a hand inside her kimono, an image from a 17th-century Ukioye wood block print. “I saw this woman as sure of herself, assertive, and a dangerous character. I love the depiction of women through these modern idioms. It’s a complete contrast to the geisha dolls in their glass cases from my childhood.”

In addition to these floor standing cabinets, there were nine wall hung cabinets and prints cases. These cabinets winkingly reference the Tokonoma alcove in traditional Japanese homes that house scrolls, flower arrangements, and other art. Chick-Chicky Boom-Boom, with its Harley Davidson mirror functioning as the cabinet pull, stands in stark contrast to the classical intent of the Tokonoma.

Although their work is a study in contrast as far as style, material, and focus, Maruyama and Madsen share a background of rigorous training in furniture making as well as status as among the most prominent figures in the American studio furniture movement. Also, Maruyama and Madsen have been friends since the early 1980s when they both exhibited at ArtPark in Lewiston, NY.

EARLY SPRING SHOW 2003

Michael Cullen, David Ebner, Duncan W. Gowdy, Janene Hilliard, Kim Kelzer, Tony Kenway, Gary S. Magakis, Greg Smith, Craig Vandall Stevens, Fran Taubman, Joe Tracy, Rick Wrigley

NOTES: Duncan Gowdy's three wall-hung cabinets evoke a homesteading motif that seems to run through his work. His careful choice of material, imagery, and color, all lend themselves to charming effect.

STUDIO FURNITURE 2003

Dale Broholm, Andy Buck, John Eric Byers, John Dunnigan, David Ebner, Noel Hilliard, Thomas Hucker, James Krenov, Kristina Madsen, Judy Kensley McKie, Brian Newell, Richard Scott Newman, James Schriber, Greg Smith, Fran Taubman, William Walker

NOTES: Kristina Madsen's bench is simple in structure and spare in sculptural detail, but it continues her use of this genre as a canvas for pattern exploration. Here the use of triangular form yields an aggressive design while the use of black and white tones within the context of the natural wood color, accentuates their pattern. Note how the canted sides control side-to-side stresses.

DEAN McILWAIN - 2003
Wall Bowls

NOTES: Dean McIlwain's carved and milk-painted Wall Bowl series combined form and function: the bowls, carved from various woods, could be used as a table top accessories or hung on the wall as decorative objects.

HOWARD WERNER - 2003
Heroic Furniture, Vessels & Sculpture

NOTES: Pritam & Eames began exhibiting Howard Werner’s work in a 1985 show titled Subtractive Work. In that show, the Star Dining Room Table particularly illustrated Werner’s skill in chain saw carving. The carving combined fine external texture work with parallel internal planes that are very difficult to achieve. The earlier show presaged the flow of strong work that would come from Werner's upstate New York and Arizona studios.

JOD LOURIE - 2003
Appetites:Tables & Garden Objects

(Bronze editions of 12)

NOTES: Trained as a sculptor and ceramist, Jod Lourie chose bronze and glass as her mediums for this show. Her fine arts background notwithstanding, Lourie made a decided effort to include utility as an added attraction to these delightful sculpted vege-tables and stands for the garden and home.

JERE OSGOOD - 2003

NOTES: The title of Osgood’s chest of drawers in this show was Semaine et Deux. A semainiere is a French term for a chest that has a drawer for each day of the week; typically, the semainiere holds lingerie. In this piece there were nine drawers; often it was referred to as the Tall Chest. The claro walnut used in its case and drawers was handsomely embellished with faux ivory pulls.  This piece joins Osgood’s historical family of chests of drawers including his high chests, low chests, and now this tall elegant form.

Table for Two by JERE OSGOOD:
European hornbeam, claro walnut.

THOMAS HUCKER - 2003

NOTES: Tom Hucker introduced a new rocker in pickled maple in this show. There are a number of striking features about this chair starting with the seat that curves all the way to the floor where it joins into the rocker base. At first this appears to be a familiar shield-like form that Hucker has used before, but here the seat begins in a concave form which gradually flattens as it curves towards the floor. The concavity for the comfort of the human form, the flattening allowing for the downward bend.  Equally audacious was the continuous ribbon form of the arms which extended from the back’s crown through the vertical rise of the front leg in a seemingly continuous form. The delicacy of this first rocking chair attracted a number of women who happily tried it. Later versions were re-dimensioned to accomplish more universal comfort. 

The vertical members of this side table by Hucker represent another example of a complicated puzzle that he likes to take on, which has its roots in his novel structural designs. This bent shield begins in a gentle chevron shape as it joins with the top but, as it sweeps down to its foot, ends as a straight line. The gentle chevron gives him necessary triangulation for his joint with the top, while the foot creates a simple modernist terminus. The shield, or forms using bent planes, occur throughout Hucker's work.

In the 1990s, Hucker came across salvaged 200-year old pine boards that had come from the king post of the renovated Philadelphia Academy of Music. He turned this material into a series of furniture pieces.

Hucker has always liked to play with opposite tensions -- buoyancy and mass, light and dark, elegance and poverty. He likes translucency in his cabinets but avoids plain glass as a solution. In the Kueihsing cabinet [introduced in 1999] he uses Japanese silk glass, which imparts a misty quality as opposed to the opacity of frosted glass.

NOTES: Judy McKie's bronze Cat Bench originated as a commission for exterior seating for a children's library in Cambridge, MA. Its form suggests that it can support any burden easily, which its playful, inquisitive attitude seems to invite. There is a continuous arch of strength from the tip of the tail through to the top of the ears.

The show also included McKie's Trapezia Chest. The chest made use of her eye for carved, abstract pattern. The pulls stand proud of the drawer fronts, but set off geometric ripples sympathetic to their shapes. The sides have similar patterns, though their centers rest in the same plane as the side itself.

Tom Hucker uses more of the 200-year old pine from the Philadelphia Academy of Music to great effect in his two mirrors and tilt-top table. The tilt-top is one of his favorite historical pieces, Hucker says, because it goes from function to function. He also takes into account that this kind of table would have been in vogue at the time the Philadelphia Academy of Music was built.

The tilt-top table here had carved slipper feet. Also, note the shaped edge of the top is not applied, but carved in relief from the solid top.

In this turn-of the-century show, Rich Tannen's blanket chest in ash is a fine example of his experimentation with CNC router carving. The suggestion of a checker-board pattern, though made with gentle hills and valleys, allows a wonderful exposure of growth ring patterns in its smoothly mottled shaping. The CNC relief carving is also textured.

Blanket Chest with Till by RICH TANNEN: Ash.

Furniture 2004
BRIAN NEWELL

NOTES: The long, arched-legged waiting stance of the drop-front desk is Newell’s metamorphic signature of this period. The companion upholstered bench reflects its kinship. Creating a snug, private workspace, the fall-front itself doubles the writing area. A single interior shelf stretches between two twin pairs of small drawers, the silver pulls on the drawers and the fall-front complete an elegant closed front.  Standing back, they create a watching creature’s presence.

The blanket chest, also caught in a stance of frozen mobility, has an ancient feel without any obvious nod to a past period, and is wonderfully focused in the sand-cast latch that was designed by Brian and cast for the chest by a kettle-maker in Japan. Seated on a stand of Macassar ebony, the chest is covered by a material which is, in fact, ancient: jindai cedar that has been harvested from cedar logs which have lain in bog for centuries.

The eight-legged (four discrete pairs) small dining or breakfast table has a parquetry pattern top of large squares, which along with the scalloped edge of the top, give the piece a fresh and informal air. A central intersection of the four pairs of legs obviates the need for a central post. The table’s companion four chairs have an aerie simplicity which obscures a firm grasp of structure. Given the continuous form of the chair, the seats themselves offer only the firm comfort of cushioning on a flat plane; they are, however, comfortably wide.

The show’s third carcass piece was a five and one-half foot wide sideboard. Its richness was created by a successful pairing of a Japanese white oak stand and carcass frame with the lushness of olive panels in its five doors. The visual strength of the piece was amplified and focused in the carved imbuya pulls. Notice the ascending door width from the sides to the center.

A large oval dining table was made intricate by its striking top surface which was composed of almost a 1,000 feather-shaped pieces. The feather shape offered the possibility of both inter-locking and expanding in number as the pattern radially expanded from the table’s center. 

Occasional use of the blackwood’s light sapwood gave the illusion of radiating, shooting stars. The six-legged pedestal arched and junctioned mid-point again allowed the foregoing of a central post. The companion dining chairs for this dining table were simply framed and well-structured with seats of ample width but minimal cushion comfort. The floral design of the chairs’ fabric added to the attitude of a Chinese scholar’s chair.

Brian Newell’s group of forms was rounded out by two additional small benches, and two exquisite boxes, one of ebony and the other of jindai cedar with an eye-catching, pierced carved African Blackwood top pull.  

The Furniture Art of
JUDY KENSLEY McKIE
2004

NOTES: The 2004 show of Judy Kensley McKie’s work at P&E was her seventh one-person exhibit at the gallery. The background of the exhibition catalogue’s cover was a detail of the Drum Table, one of the six bronzes in this show. The pattern was used in the piece as a dense and arresting visual texture for the revolving side of the table. It is an unusual pattern suggestive of the layering and folding of material. The form of the table was like a bobbin or cable spool; this piece captures attention between movement and permanence.  

Of the 13 pieces of furniture in the show, six were bronzes, five were wood, and the last was her first attempt to create a furniture piece of scale in resin. Molded plastic furniture has, of course, been around since the 1950s, but with resin, McKie saw workability similar to bronze. By carving a model, she could create a mold into which resin could be poured for a replica. McKie pushes new material boundaries with her Ivory Couch in resin.

A second bronze piece, the Rabbit Sideboard, used a long standing theme in McKie’s consoles: twin animal figures with interlacing tails. In the gallery opening show in 1981, the glass top console table with two dogs, each dog held a bone in its mouth, the end of which supported a glass top. In the Rabbit Sideboard, it is the wind swept ears that support the top. More important is the difference in sculptural form in this sideboard. Every curve supplies the suggestion of movement in these rabbit creatures, from the swept-back ears, to the forward inclined heads, to the coiled hind quarters. They are delightful as interlocking forms, reminding one of the best gestures of Art Nouveau or the flowing energy of Rococo.

Lady's Writing Desk is a fall-front in function. With its two-fold expansion of the horizontal area when opened, and its off limits private space when closed, it is a powerful classic form. This desk, with its armored, nail-patterned exterior and severely angled form, delivers a character of a different sort from the Rabbit Sideboard. Stature and self-assurance give way only at second glance to more feminine details: the canting of the apron hints at hips and the spare designs of the nail-headed patterns suggest female anatomy. Closed, the pulls are sufficiently minimal to be absorbed by the nail-head pattern. With a user’s familiarity, pulls can be discerned: two for the full-out supports for the fall-front and the two for a wide drawer. On the canted surface of the fall-front, two more pulls can be found to open the writing the surface. The writing surface supports vertical file cubbyholes and two central drawers.  

Lady's Writing Desk:
Maple, nails, leather.

The two mirrors in the exhibition were related in both size and form, and both mirrors were flamboyant in character. The Burning Mirror was not concave and had no means to focus light onto the unsuspecting onlooker, unlike Archimedes’ mirrors. It did have a gloriously baroque frame of gold leaf in flame. Its cousin, the Ribbon Mirror, was also surrounded by a baroque frame only this time the reference was to ribbon and an amusing take on the classical use of ribbon as a decorative element.

Sometimes a supporting actor steps in and steals the show. The Pet Stool comes from a family of McKie’s animal forms that is strongly identified as a McKie creation by her public. Its gouged, carved surface suggests the material wood, but the flowing line and hidden joinery create a strong sculptural form that transcends the “pet’ of its title.  

Also using an animal form to produce a strong sculptural presence was the Anteater Table. In this piece, bronze was the material. McKie certainly had bronze in mind when she designed the piece: a glance at how this creature supports its glass top with slender tail and ears shows the reason for the use of bronze. As a low table, its top dimensions were ideal for apartment or intimate space.

The third wood piece in the exhibition was the pearwood Antelope Bed. A queen-sized bed, designed for the traditional comfort of box spring and mattress, the frame was made from carved pearwood. The mood is benign and nocturnal with sleeping antelopes at the foot and a second pair kissing at the head. McKie returns to her use of interlocking pairs, interlocking in form as well as embrace to create the presence of this piece. The arching crest rails created by the antelopes’ horns in turn define a protected and secure space for repose.

Also in the show were five more bronze pieces: the Timid Dog Bench; the Ibis Demilune; the Swan Table, another low table; and the beautiful Arms Bowl. The Horse Andirons were in cast iron and there were three bird baths in cast stone. To complete the show, McKie introduced her high karat gold jewelry, which was a collaborative effort with jeweler Tim McClelland in which McKie designed the pieces and McClelland fabricated them.  

EARLY SPRING SHOW 2005

Ted Blachly, Andy Buck, John Eric Byers, Tim Coleman, Michael Cullen, Duncan W. Gowdy, Gary S. Magakis, Don Miller, Jefferson Shallenberger, Greg Smith, David Zatz

NOTES: The announcement piece was made by Ted Blachly, a New Hampshire furniture maker, who often assisted Jere Osgood with his work. This finely proportioned small chest of curly sugar maple is supported by a stand of East Indian rosewood -- a nicely contrasting choice of wood. The slight arching of the top is visually tensioned by the arching of the apron and stretcher in the stand.

Andy Buck contributed a bench and a pair of footstools that highlighted his use of carved patterns in tones of milk paint. The colors are deep in the bench, and Rousseau-like, while still subdued in hue.

A dainty settee in Jatoba by Tim Coleman is made comfortable by an upholstered seat. Coleman worked first in the shop of William Walker in Seattle before traveling south to study with Krenov at the College of the Redwoods in the 1980s. His work has appeared in the gallery since that time.

The clothes hamper in ash was the first piece from Don Miller exhibited at the gallery. Both the sun-bleached tone and the intentionally natural texture of the surface offers another approach to bringing the exterior inside. Both the exterior staving, as well as interior framing, have a minimal mass to them. This kind of thinking reflects Miller's background in musical instrument making as well as high end interior built-in cabinetry. Miller would go on to contribute a series of designs that retained this light, airy quality.

MATERIAL WORTH:
The Celebrated Object
2005

Furniture: David Ebner, Hank Gilpin, Michael Hurwitz, Thomas Hucker, James Krenov, Judy Kensley McKie, Tom Odell,
Jere Osgood
Jewelry: Ellen Baumritter, Jacqueline Myers, Tom Odell, Joan Parcher, Eleni Prieston, Robin Quigley, Michel Royston, Barbara Seidenath, Leonard Urso
Glass: Sam Stang, Tom Stoenner
Ceramics: James Makins, Hiroshi Nakayama, Ikuzi Teraki & Jeanne Bisson (Romulus Craft)
Lacquerware: Yuji Kubo
Metal: Tom Odell, Leonard Urso, David Zatz

NOTES: Michael Hurwitz's tall table combined its unusual proportions (36" x 36" x 36") with several exciting features. Hurwitz, a former student of Osgood’s, makes the connection to his teacher in this Tall Table made of narra, padauk, and wenge. The two-tiered laminated stretcher system gives the piece an elegantly arched form that is capped by an inspired use of color in the surface parquetry or basket-weave pattern. The arching stretcher system is trademark Hurwitz. Note how simply the outer edges of the legs branch off into small arching stretchers that attach to the top at the apron. First, the visually stunning basket-weave illusion of the top created by marquetry using the different tonality of various woods. Its two main arching stretchers intersect their diagonal paths to crate a strong foundation as well as the visual enjoyment of their tapered tension. The tapered lamination is a clue to Hurwitz's background training with Jere Osgood at the program in Artisanry at Boston University in the 1980s.

The teak and Appalachian cherry cabinet from the legendary James Krenov, now 84 years old, demonstrates that the old master can still cut dovetails by hand with more skill than many. This cabinet was the last one the gallery received from Krenov.

Jere Osgood’s fiddleback mahogany and European hornbeam chest of drawers proves once again his consummate mastery of the curved furniture form.

Furniture by DAVID EBNER
2005
Featuring New Work in Bamboo

NOTES: David Ebner was among the first of the studio furniture makers to use bamboo as a material of choice in his furniture.

Some of his trademark pieces also appeared in this show, such as his Lingerie Chest and a bronze version of his Bench and Renwick Stool.

Men in Kimonos
Series by
WENDY MARUYAMA - 2005
Wall-hung Cabinets with Ultrachrome Digital Collages

NOTES: Wendy Maruyama and James Schriber met as students at Boston University’s Program in Artisanry in the mid-1970s, and have remained close friends ever since. Their mature work, however, reflects the divergent paths these two influential makers took since leaving school.

Maruyama has taught throughout her career, and is currently professor of furniture design and woodworking at San Diego State University, where she was recently named the outstanding teacher in the arts. Although Schriber has guest lectured at schools, he considers himself a furniture maker, first and foremost, and has maintained his furniture making shop in western Connecticut since the 1970s.

Maruyama’s Men in Kimonos, is a series of wall-hung cabinets that embrace large format ultrachrome digital prints based on her collection of 1940’s black and white photos of Kabuki actors. She acquired these photos on trips to Tokyo flea markets. At first, she thought they were geisha until she noticed the size of some of the subjects’ feet and, in some photos, an Adam’s apple. It was then that she realized these were stage photos of Kabuki theatre performers, or onnogata -- men in drag. This work allowed her to work in a new digital medium, and still use a furniture form to embrace the prints.

KRISTINA MADSEN
Furniture - 2005-2006

NOTES: Two artisans, also good friends, Kristina Madsen and Rick Wrigley, had concurrent exhibits of new work that celebrated the 50th birthdays of both makers, and the 30 years of furniture making experience each one of them represents.

RICK WRIGLEY
New Wall Cabinets
2005-2006

NOTES: For his Pritam & Eames show, Wrigley made a group of wall-hung cabinets, called the Atomic Series, whose door panels provide a canvas for his marquetry. As in the well-known high-Renaissance marquetry cameras, Wrigley’s compositions create magical, three-dimensional illusions.

EARLY SPRING SHOW 2006

Tim Coleman, Michael Cullen, Christine Enos, Tony Kenway, Gary S. Magakis, Don Miller, Greg Smith

NOTES: This Early Spring Show at PRITAM & EAMES ushered in the gallery’s 25th year and featured a pair of drum stools/tables by Greg Smith; a pair of Flower Chairs by Christine Enos; a rocker of quilted Tasmanian blackwood by Australian furniture maker Tony Kenway; a steel and bronze side table by Gary Magakis; and Tim Coleman’s Fall Front Desk in Japanese ash, walnut, imbuya, and sassafras.

2007 EARLY SPRING SHOW

James Bacigalupi,John Eric Byers, Tim Coleman, Michael Cullen, David Ebner, Ashley Eriksmoen, David Finck, Julie Godfrey, Duncan W. Gowdy, Gary S. Magakis, Rachel & Timothy Miller, Greg Smith, Rich Tannen

NOTES: Pritam & Eames begins its 26th year with the opening of its Early Spring Show on March 23 through May 22. The exhibit introduces the work of nine furniture makers whose furniture styles range from the bravura computer assisted craftsmanship of Rich Tannen’s white oak cupboard to Ashley J. Eriksmoen’s delightful, upholstered furniture creatures, Adeline and Pablo. Rich Tannen is chair of the School for American Crafts at the Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, and Ashley Eriksmoen received her training in furniture at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI and the College of the Redwoods, Ft.Bragg, CA.

Others in the show include Arizona lamp maker James Bacigalupi III; Californians Michael Cullen and Greg Smith; David Finck of North Carolina; Duncan Gowdy of New Hampshire; Massachusetts furniture makers Julie Godfrey and Tim Coleman; and the Philadelphia metalworker, Gary Magakis. From Long Island, there was the work of furniture maker David Ebner, and a sister and brother blacksmithing team from the south shore, Rachel and Timothy Miller.

THE HONOR OF USE

PowerPoint Presentation by Bebe Pritam Johnson
at the Furniture Society conference in Victoria, BC, Canada, June 2007

In June 2007, Bebe Pritam Johnson gave a talk entitled "The Honor of Use" at the Furniture Society conference in Victoria, BC. These thoughts have been the gallery's guiding philosophy about furniture, the home, and the beauty of utility since its opening in 1981.

I’d like to tell you how I came to do what I do. And because I find my views today are clearer, simpler actually, than they used to be, I’ll begin at the end. For if I could reduce what I’ve learned in my life to one idea, to a single image, it would be this : the home, the home is the whole deal.

COMMON GROUND
A North Carolina Tradition:
Functional Wood Fired Pottery

JULY 27 -- SEPTEMBER 18, 2007

New Work by
JOSH COPUS, KIM ELLINGTON, DANIEL JOHNSTON, FRED JOHNSTON, MATT JONES, BEN OWEN III

NOTES: This show celebrates a practice “that traces an unbroken chain of potters from the present time all the way back to the 18th century,” says Matt Jones, one of the exhibitors. “The pottery pride we feel in this state is in no small way connected to our admiration for the excellence of our pottery predecessors.”

"This collection of functional pots is made from clay found no further than the potter’s backyard,” says Bebe Johnson, gallery partner. “The clay in these pots comes from the alluvial deposits found only in the rich soil regions of North Carolina. I came across this work last year when I gave a lecture at the Penland School of Craft in western North Carolina. My host, Andrew Glasgow, executive director of The Furniture Society, himself a connoisseur of pots from this region, introduced me to this work. Ever since, I have been thinking of ways to bring these marvelous pots to our East End audience.” Mr. Glasgow selected the potters for this exhibit.

Because of the public’s continuing esteem for their work, the North Carolina potters have been able to carry on this craft tradition for generation after generation. For example, Ben Owen III learned his craft from his grandfather. Owen III recalls many shared hours with his teacher, hours that provided not only a strong foundation upon which to build his own pottery skills, but a repository for precious memories of working beside his grandfather.

“The concept that captivated me about North Carolina’s Catawba Valley tradition is the use of local materials,” says Kim Ellington, another show participant. “Besides the tenacity of the natural clay there is something else that goes beyond description -- it’s the difference between a handmade Martin guitar and a plywood copy. They both play music but, beyond the obvious tonal differences, there is an indescribable difference in soul.”

BRIAN NEWELL 2007

NOTES: Newell, a native of Flint, MI, had lived and worked in Japan for the last ten years at the time of this show. Writer/critic Jon Binzen says Newell’s work is a “series of compellingly mysterious pieces that take us into unmapped territory.” The body of work he produced for this exhibit at Pritam & Eames represents the last group of pieces he made before he returned to the United States. He would take up residence in Mendocino, CA, near The College of the Redwoods where he studied furniture making from master cabinetmaker, James Krenov.

In the two most time consuming pieces of this show from a maker’s point of view – the Zushi Cabinet and the Unagi Console -- Newell is working at the very outside with a functional destiny and takes, with a leap of faith, their visual poetry and sculptural energy as the very heart of the work. With this work he is saying, “Don’t quibble with me about function: they do work, but that’s only partly what they’re about.”

Confronting the Zushi Cabinet, you might ask, “A cabinet? Reliquary? Zushi?” Meanings for the term “zushi” have to do with both food and puzzle, and both are apt for this piece: an ample, smoothly rounded base with a mounded confection top. How do we access, and what is its use, brings us to the puzzle part. The whole of the upper carcass is a marvel of pierced, carved surface of African blackwood, the thickness being of sufficient weight to provide structure as well, and, also a canvas for the swirling pattern work. The central cavity is revealed by a single large door roughly two-thirds of the cabinet’s two foot height. This door can be opened only by first taking both carved end compartments upward and off the base completely. Inside one can easily imagine a home for a Buddha figure, a jade carving, or reliquary for family ashes. Before this door is a single drawer of equal width.

The Unagi Console: "Unagi" means both eel and a state of total awareness in Japanese culture. If you study the composition of the pierced carving, the eel forms become clear. It’s also easy to imagine that the maker must have been in a state of some total awareness to even conceive of this piece. While nodding at function -- it has lower shelves and compartments above -- the nature of this piece has more to do with the travel of life forces.  The vortexes drawing in the eels’ flowing patterns are powerful centers in this piece. Nominally a console, as an object it stands complete.  

"Unagi" Console
African blackwood, hong mu.

Wall Cabinet in jindai cedar and persimmon. Quite apart from this cabinet’s arresting visage, its design makes experimental use of light and transparency. A view from above reveals an arched structure: the slender body arches away from the wall leaving its mounting to two horizontal facets on either end of the back. Light from above reflected on the wall will illuminate the interior since most of the rear is composed of a pierced carved back. The “squashed scroll” design of the carving admits maximum light. From the front, the only hint of this beautiful carving is seen through the central portal. The entire interior is revealed by opening the four front doors. Here you can imagine a collection of netsuke.

The Black Chest of African Blackwood opens its hinged top lid to reveal a pearwood interior. Closed, it provides an occasional seat, handy if used at a bed’s foot. Though the simplest in functional design of the four case pieces, the Black Chest’s “tiled” surfaces give it a secretive and powerful character. The spacing of the five tiles across is given further definition by six legs to the front and back.

Filling out this show was a group of three benches. The Beaver Bench derived its name from a beaver pelt covered seat. The seat’s platform, with its six legs, was carved from a wood called Himeshara. The bench’s skeletal form heightened the “alive” quality of its beaver pelt seat.   

The China Bench was a less audacious, but an equally beautiful bench form. Carved and shaped from imbuya, this bench indicates its single seater function with a saddle-like seat, which has a slight crest in its center. Two horn-like side stretchers join the legs a little above the seat’s surface. The legs themselves thicken as they descend, reminiscent of temple posts.

JERE OSGOOD
New Furniture 2007

NOTES: Jere Osgood is considered by many to be the dean of the American studio furniture movement. His role as a teacher and author is almost as legendary as his highly distinctive furniture.

For his Pritam & Eames show, Osgood will have a desk, a furniture form with which he is most associated, two small Water tables, a chair, and a jewelry cabinet. “His furniture remains innovative even after 40 years of object making,” says Bebe Johnson, gallery partner. “What Osgood is after in his furniture is a feeling of organic familiarity. He knows that in nature there are no straight lines – not in water currents, not in air currents, not the way a tree grows, nor the way we grow. His genius is that he has created the processes that allow him to chase those shapes he’s after.” Many of Osgood’s published articles center on his technical innovations in furniture making, like tapered laminations and compound bent stave laminations.

THOMAS HUCKER
New Furniture 2007

NOTES: This is the third and final time that Tom Hucker would join his teacher, Jere Osgood, for an exhibition of work. The rocker on the announcement was Hucker's latest evolution of a design which began with a bleached white oak version several years ago. Hucker's range in furniture styles goes from the Deco feel of his side table to his provocative breakfast table. In the side table design, he achieves an almost trompe l'oeil effect; it is as if the beading is an outer skin that is slowly peeling downward to reveal a secondary form.

2008 EARLY SPRING SHOW

ANDY BUCK
JOHN ERIC BYERS
TIM COLEMAN
MICHAEL CULLEN
JOHN DUNNIGAN
GARY S. MAGAKIS
GREG SMITH
FRAN TAUBMAN

NOTES: Work in the Early Spring Show includes Greg Smith’s exquisite Eclipse jewelry case in afzelia, deodar cedar, and brass; Andy Buck’s witty cantilevered Lilypad Table in cherry with inlaid rosewood dots and painted base; and Fran Taubman’s modernist constructed steel low table.

Greg Smith’s Eclipse jewelry case and Andy Buck’s Lilypad Table reflect two different faces of the American studio furniture movement. Although both pieces exhibit rounded smooth sculptural forms, the makers’ approaches are fundamentally different as a result of their training and their artistic quests. Smith’s finely detailed construction technique reflects his education at the College of the Redwoods program under master cabinetmaker James Krenov. Andy Buck’s carved, shaped and painted form displays techniques gained from his training at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied with Rosanne Somerson and Alphonse Mattia.

SAM STANG: GLASS 2008

NOTES: Sam Stang describes the Murrini glassblowing process he uses as follows:"All of my pieces are made by using traditional European glassblowing techniques. With the murrini pieces, I begin by making glass rods which are patterned in cross section. The rods are cooled and cut into thin pieces and arranged on an iron plate which is then heated to fuse the murrini. This is then rolled into a tube on the end of a blowpipe and shaped into the final form."

T0P FORM
Furniture 2008

May 23 - June 24, 2008

Andy Buck, David Ebner, Janene Hilliard, Brian Newell, Richard Scott Newman, Jere Osgood, Timothy Philbrick, James Schriber

The major piece in the Top Form show was a solid bubinga dining room extension table by James Schriber. The form of the base has a modernist feel but also offers an invitation to the people who will sit around it.

There were three benches from Brian Newell in this show. The Jungle Plant Bench was made from an astonishingly dense plank of Indonesian hardwood. Its jungle plant design exhibits a parallel energy to the twisted eel patterns used in his previous show. Their three dimensional form shows Newell's gift for this kind of vision.

Jungle Plant Bench by BRIAN NEWELL: Unidentified Indonesian wood.

Bog Oak Bench by BRIAN NEWELL:
Bog Oak.

His bench made from bog oak has both a primitive quality to it as well as a sophisticated sculptural sensibility. There is a very strong unity in his vision.

The Keyaki Bench is simpler in form and is a nod to the work of the Japanese furniture maker's with whom Newell became acquainted during his 10-year stay in Japan. All three of these benches were made in Japan.

Blanket Chest by JERE OSGOOD:
Curly maple, cedar of Lebanon, leather.

Richard Newman's maple chair refers, in part, to a country milking stool. Its solid members construct a chair made from six major parts. The look of the chair is deceptively simple. The legs are tenoned directly into the solid seat, and the tapered legs are carved with a reverse spiral flute pattern, while the thin outlines of their tenon ends are veneered in cherry. The shaped seat and back are joined together with a dovetail joint.

Tim Philbrick's side table, which doubles as a tray table, uses some of the last of the Macassar ebony carried on board the Edna (see On Board the Edna, 1989). The top is equally exotic with its use of satinwood.

Furniture by DUNCAN GOWDY

NOTES: The furniture of DUNCAN GOWDY was the subject of a featured show at Pritam & Eames, June 28 – July 29. The show featured a Blanket Chest with Pine Branches, a pair of wall-hung Brook Cabinets, a Dresser with Glacial Shadow, a Mirror with Branches, and a bench. “Duncan Gowdy’s signature in furniture is the quality of reserve,” says Bebe Johnson, gallery partner. His furniture often employs the imagery of a winter landscape from his native New England.

His teacher, Wendy Maruyama, Professor and Chair of the Furniture Design Program at San Diego State University, says, “Duncan Gowdy often speaks of his Yankee heritage, one that comes from his grandfather and father, that has shaped this artist and his work ethic. Gowdy’s furniture evokes a memory of looking out a window to a cold wintry sky with the silhouettes of the pines in movement. There's a feeling of a warm wood paneled cabin wall that's in contrast to the cold glass window pane. His stark, yet warm, white bleached wood surfaces highlight the reeds dancing across the faces of his dresser. His work is simply and honestly poetic.”

Dresser with Glacial Shadow
Ash, quarter-sawn maple, ash plywood.
54"H x 33"W x 18"D

The Marina Line
by MICHAEL HURWITZ

July 25 – September 2, 2008

August 1 -- September 9, 2008

NOTES: The Furniture Art of JUDY KENSLEY McKIE is her eighth solo exhibit at Pritam & Eames and featured 17 wall-hung cabinets with bas-relief carved and painted animal and bird imagery for which she is well known. In addition to the wood cabinets, there are two new stone works and two new bronze pieces by McKie in the exhibit: the Ram Bench in Indiana limestone and the Elephant Bench in marble, as well as a bronze horse console table and a bird settee.

The 17 wall-hung cabinets were based on McKie’s graphite drawings. The expressions of the various creatures, prompted one visitor to say: “It’s marvelous that she has the {maturity} and confidence to express herself so freely, almost like a child.” There is great precedence of artists striving for child-like simplicity in their work, and the allegorical nature of the creatures McKie creates do seem like images you could find in children’s books. However, the deceptively uncomplicated representation of the creatures should not belie the mastery of McKie’s bas-relief carving and painting techniques.