Following Esherick

May 7-Jun 27, 2021

Following Esherick

COHEN GALLERY, GoggleWorks Center for the Arts

In partnership with the historic Wharton Esherick Museum, GoggleWorks celebrates luminary woodworker Wharton Esherick alongside national artists he influenced.

Seminal works from Wharton Esherick and other world renowned woodworkers will transform both sides of the premier Irvin and Lois E. Cohen Gallery at GoggleWorks. In partnership with the historic Wharton Esherick Museum, Following Esherick details the eccentric life and groundbreaking works of the famed mid-century studio woodworker. This exhibition, sponsored by the John and Robyn Horn Foundation, will be on view at GoggleWorks from May 7th -June 27th, 2021.

According to WEM, Wharton Esherick (1887–1970) was an artistic polymath whose significant contributions to American art, ranging from works on paper to sculpture, can be found in major museum collections across the country. Perhaps best known for his groundbreaking sculptural furniture, Esherick is widely regarded as the grandfather of the American Studio Furniture movement and one of the foundational figures of contemporary craft and design. His fiercely individual approach to art making, as well as his highly original fusion of form with function, has inspired many notable artists and designers.

The exhibition presents significant Esherick originals as the seeds of that inspiration, exhibiting them alongside a collection of works from internationally-recognized wood artists in his circle of influence, including Jasper Brinton, Michael Brolly, Amy Forsyth, Ray Kelso, Jack Larimore, and Michael Puryear.

Two online discussions will be presented highlighting experts and artists in the field sharing their insights about the influence and works of Wharton Esherick. Discussions will be presented through Zoom, and access and registration information by calling or emailing GoggleWorks or visiting the art center’s Facebook page.

• May 27th, 6:30pm: Stories and Concepts: The Lifestyle and Perspectives of Wharton Esherick

• June 15th, 6:30pm: Design, Materials, and Technique: The Work and Influence of Wharton Esherick

Michael Brolly is a woodturning artist from Philadelphia, PA whose lathe turned objects have gone on exhibit all over the world. Brolly started showing his work Nationally before graduating from Kutztown University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1981. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally throughout his career including solo exhibitions and major national travelling exhibitions. Brolly's work can be found in both permanent and private collections including The Detroit Institute of Art, Yale University, LACMA Long Beach, The Center for Wood Art and The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and has been featured in numerous books, news articles and magazines.

Jack Larimore makes work like good theater. He sets the scene, draws us into his story and then touches a nerve with his performance. Jack's stage is that nebulous space allotted to "furniture," roughly the immediate area that circumscribes the things we sit on or put things on, that are comfortable and that function to help us go about our daily lives. This stage is a place of interaction, more than just a good spot for chairs and tables. It is a place where the human elements confronts the mechanical, where nature collides with nurture or, when Jack waxes philosophic, where the intuitive animal in us encounters the cage of reason and science.

For Jack, furniture must synthesize—combining a little bit of the natural science of wood, some engineering and some technology with the human need to enter the world with our spirit intact by finding a vehicle to "act out" our personality in the environment of our home. Jack knows how to get the most out of the ritual enactments of daily life. He knows just the right moment to make you aware that you are placing your teacup on the table that resembles one of the most undulating of natural forms, a lily pad, or that as you are walking over to put something on a small foyer table, the table looks like it is actually walking over to you. This moment of self-awareness is intrinsic to every ritual, and it is one in which traditionally ritualistic objects play a catalytic role.

Jack likes nature. Maybe it's his background in landscape architecture that surfaces—part-building, part-gardening, organic and manmade, part-transient and part-permanent, inside and outside—a theater of time and incident, sometimes under control and sometimes as fickle as the wind.

Michael Puryear

"Being a visual person, design has always had a special resonance for me. The attraction of furniture in particular arose from my early awareness and appreciation of the clarity and directness of Shaker and Scandinavian design

I love the problem solving aspect of figuring out how to create the best possible piece to suit a client's needs. Whether it is a chair, table or bed. How the human body interfaces with the object, moves around it, uses it, and how it looks is all considered.

The design process involves a give and take between the client and myself. Since each piece is hand built in my shop, they take time, but my clients feel it is worth the wait."

Ray Kelso has been building furniture for over forty years. He works in his studio at his residence in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

“I do not feel bound by the confines of the straight line or by any other conventions of classical furniture design. In fact, many walks in the woods have taught me that a straight line and flat plane are not natural occurrences, but are man-made devices created to provide a sense of simplicity and order in our lives. I believe that furniture, perhaps even more than the structures in which we place it, is such an intimate part of our lives that it needs to manifest the natural and playful world of which we are a part. I attempt to do just that in each piece that I create. Like a walk in the woods, I stray from the straight line and the sharp corner. And like trees that provide raw material and much of the inspiration for my work, my furniture begs to be touched. I attempt to instill a sense of playfulness in each piece, all the while being conscious of the fact that it must function as intended. If my work raises the spirit and brings a smile to the face, then I have been successful.”

Amy Forsyth

"My work is currently in the medium of sculptural furniture, and also in music. I spend most of my time doing three things: designing and building furniture and sculptural pieces, teaching design at Lehigh University, and playing music, most often with friends. I do not restrict myself to one particular medium; I make drawings and objects of wood, I studied architecture, have worked in clay, studied dance, etc. This is both my strength and my weakness. I am not as good of a craftsperson as someone who spends all their time in one discipline, but because I am not restricted by medium, this gives me new ways of discovering and conjoining ideas.

Unlike my architectural training, which demanded precise planning and restrictive drawings, my music and my furniture allow me to make use of in-the-moment inspirations, ones that sometimes succeed and sometimes fail dramatically. I value this kind of process, as well as the sense of community I’ve found in making music—I’ve also been working on some collaborative pieces in my visual work, as well. Visual work does not usually lend itself to this kind of process as naturally as music does, but every now and then, the right kind of collaboration presents itself. "

Jasper Brinton, designer and woodworker, lives in an old schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania, near the village of Kimberton. Born in 1938 in Alexandria, Egypt, of American parents and raised in the Middle East he attended Gordonstoun school in Scotland, where he received extensive training in traditional joinery from a Clydebank shipwright. After attending the University of Pennsylvania he worked first for a publisher, and then a film maker, before turning to wood, his real passion. This led to a forty year career centered around contemporary furniture and its functional design.

As principle of Brinton Design, which he founded in 1969, Brinton received a grant in1985 from the Carter administration for a demonstration facility / solar workshop and showroom. In an industrial capacity he has worked in Lebanon, France and California, both in the private and contract field.

Over the years Brinton has received numerous commissions from public institutions and private corporations. Some examples include: Plastic furniture, Super Sign, Beirut Lebanon. Villa furnishings, Lockheed Corporation, Riyadh SA. Executive director's suite, Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Conference table, Chester County Library. Interior restaurant design, The Philadelphia Story. Contract office furniture, Triad Condas America, (Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles). Architectural work include: his solar studio, a guest house, some additions and a number of interiors, plus the modernization of five farmhouses in Burgundy.

For individual designs he has received awards from the Civic Center Philadelphia, Delaware Art Museum, Chester Springs Studio and the Wharton Esherick Museum. His work can be found in many area homes. Brinton is married to Lindsay Johnson. They have two children and four grandchildren. Brinton, is currently pursuing an interest in sculpture, printmaking and writing. He consults and co-designs with his son John, an established master woodworker, located near Charlottesville, Virginia.