Super Bowl Update

"The fish is a perfect form." —Frank Gehry

Architect and designer Frank Gehry has long been inspired by fish. He has created buildings, statues and even jewelry for Tiffany's using the form of a fish as the basis for his designs.


above: Gehry's fish, Standing Glass Fish Frank Gehry, 1986, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis, MN

above: Gehry's "Fishdance" sculpture for a restaurant in Kobe, Japan (1987).

above: Gehry's Fish structure at the Olympic Port in Barcelona

above: a necklace and earrings for Tiffany & Co by Gehry

Gehry has always experimented with sculpture and furniture in addition to his architectural pursuits, coaxing inventive forms out of unexpected materials, from the Easy Edges (1969–73) and Experimental Edges (1979–82)—chairs and tables carved from blocks of industrial corrugated cardboard—to the Knoll furniture series (1989–92), fashioned from bentwood. The Fish Lamps evolved from a 1983 commission by the Formica Corporation to create objects from the then-new plastic laminate ColorCore.


above: Various Gehry fish lamps from the past four decades

After accidentally shattering a piece of it while working, he was inspired by the shards, which reminded him of fish scales. The first Fish Lamps, which were fabricated between 1984 and 1986, employed wire armatures molded into fish shapes, onto which shards of ColorCore are individually glued, creating clear allusions to the morphic attributes of real fish.




above: Frank Gehry, Low White Fish Lamp, 1984, ColorCore, silicone, wood, Collection of Fred Hoffman and Frank Gehry, courtesy of Fred Hoffman Fine Art., Image credit: Christine McMonagle

Since the creation of the first lamp in 1984, the fish has become a recurrent motif in Gehry's work, as much for its "good design" as its iconographical and natural attributes. Its quicksilver appeal informs the undulating, curvilinear forms of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (1997); the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago (2004); and the Marqués de Riscal Vineyard Hotel in Elciego, Spain (2006) as well as the Fish Sculpture at Vila Olímpica in Barcelona (1989–92) and Standing Glass Fish for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (1986).


above: Architect Frank Gehry with the orange fish lamp, a trademark of his work in the 1980s. (©1991 Roger Ressmeyer; Fish Lamp © Frank Gehry & New City Editions/CORBIS)


above: an early fish lamp by Frank O. Gehry, cast glass, Courtesy of Joan and Jack Quinn, Beverly Hills, CA

Now, Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present Frank Gehry's Fish Lamps. The exhibition will be presented concurrently in Los Angeles and in Paris.



In 2012 Gehry decided to revisit his earlier ideas, and began working on an entirely new group of Fish Lamps. The resulting works, which will be divided between Gagosians Los Angeles and Paris, range in scale from life-size to out-size, and the use of ColorCore is bolder, incorporating larger and more jagged elements. In Los Angeles, Gehry is also designing the installation for the Fish Lamps, following his inspired design for the Ken Price exhibition at LACMA earlier this year.


above: Untitled (Los Angeles III), 2012–13, Metal wire, ColorCore formica and silicone, 44 x 16 x 55 inches (111.8 x 40.6 x 139.7 cm), courtesy of Gagosian Gallery

The softly glowing Fish Lamps are full of whimsy. As individuals or groupings of two and three, some are fixed to poles or wall sconces, while others can be placed on any existing horizontal surface. Curling and flexing in attitudes of simulated motion, these artificial creatures emit a warm, incandescent light. This intimation of life, underscored by the almost organic textures of the nuanced surfaces, presents a spirited symbiosis of material, form, and function.






"I kept drawing it [the fish] and it started to become for me like a symbol for a certain kind of perfection that I couldn't achieve with my buildings." —Frank Gehry

This 1984 fish lamp by Gehry has an estimated auction value of $90,000-$120,000:


above: Fish Lamp, New City Editions, Canada/USA/USA, 1984, Colorcore Formica, stained and lacquered plywood, glass, 40 w x 24 d x 37.5 h inches (image courtesy of Wright20)

The first Fish Lamps were shown in "Frank Gehry: Unique Lamps" in 1984 at the former Robertson Boulevard location of Gagosian Los Angeles.

Images of last week's opening exhibit at the Gagosian, with photos by Brad Elterman can be seen here.

Frank Gehry - Fish Lamps
January 11 - February 14, 2013
456 North Camden Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
T. 310.271.9400 F. 310.271.9420
losangeles@gagosian.com
Hours: Tue-Sat 10-6

About Frank O. Gehry:
One of the most celebrated architects living today (and a Prtiker Prize winner), Gehry's career spans five decades and three continents. Known for his imaginative designs and creative use of materials, he has forever altered the urban landscape with spectacular buildings that are conceived as dynamic structures rather than static vessels.

Frank Gehry was born in Toronto in 1929. He studied architecture at the University of Southern California and urban planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His drawings, models, designs, and sculpture have been exhibited in major museums throughout the world. Among his most celebrated buildings are the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany (1989); the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, (1997); and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles (2003). Awards include the Pritzker Architecture Prize (1989); the Wolf Foundation Prize in Arts (1992); the Praemium Imperiale in Architecture from Japan Art Association (1992); the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (1994); the National Medal of Arts (1998); the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects (1999); the Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects (2000); and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Americans for the Arts (2000). "Frank Gehry, Architect," the most comprehensive exhibition of his work to date, was presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2001. Gehry's latest building, the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation in the Bois du Boulogne, Paris, will be completed in 2013.

information courtesy of the Gagosian Gallery press release, images courtesy of The Jewish Museum, Wright20, Gagosian Gallery, Sotheby's, Christies

above: one of the more uusual wooden toy cars, Tomoki Azumi's 'Would You Like A Slice Of Toast?'



Matteo Ragni has gathered together 100 masters of design from all over the world including Karim Rashid, Marcel Wanders, Barber Ogersby, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Jaime Hayon, Fabio Novembre and Setsu & Shinobu Ito to name but a few. With these globally renowned designers and the support of Alessi, Ragni created “100% TobeUs: 100 designers for 100 new toy cars.”



TobeUs was born as a result of a designer who had become a father and couldn't stand watching his own children captivated by toys just for a few hours and then destroying or growing bored of them. According to Matteo Ragni the easiest solution to this is to give children the possibility to 'love' an object.

To accomplish this, Ragni felt the right choice of material with a recognizable smell, an unquestioned resistance to impact and texting, and, ultimately, a dignified end: recycling or re-utilization was the way to go.

This is how the idea of TobeUs was born: toy cars made of cedar wood, strong and sweet-scented, beautifully and cleverly planned by skillful and passionate designers.


above, clockwise from top left: Fabio Novembre, Paolo Lomazzi, Setsu & Shinobu Ito and Donato Durbino

Some resemble architecture, others dinosaurs. Some are incredibly aerodynamic, while others have multiple angular components. And still some are inspired by present automobiles and others double as everything from pencil holders to puzzles.

Here are some of the more unusual examples from the collection of 100:

Karim Rashid - Tobek:

Fernando and Humberto Campana - Untitled:

Marcel Wanders - Journey Of A Cedar:

Matteo Bazzicalupo - Fakir:

Barber Osgerby - Three, Two, One:

Miriam Mirri - Bed and Breakfast:

Alberto Meda - Solar Car:

Duilo Forte - 3CV:

Paolo Orlandini - Archicar:

Kazuyo Komoda - Doll Dining Car:

Mario Trimarchi - H-Onda:

Spalvieri Del Ciotto - City Car:

Marco Dessi - La Transportamatite:

Raffaella Mangiarotti - Superfast Sketch Holder:


Since its inception, designers who wanted to draw their own TobeUs have multiplied. It seems that everyone has an idea for a wooden toy car. But the project has caveats - TobeUs is made by two cuts in a wooden stump that always have the same size, so it's a project and design exercise that imposes clear limits.

You can even try your own hand at it with a downloadable template:


See all 100 designs here.

The exhibition at the Museum of Science and Technology in Milan (Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia di Milano) runs from December 5th through January 13th, 2013.

Artist Clay Sinclair (shown below)has a new exhibit at London's Woolff Gallery running through the 23rd of November.



The artist sums up his work and inspiration as follows:

"I love creating art. I also love thinking.
A quick look inside my brain and you’d see it is always ticking over with new ideas, moral dilemmas, plans for the future and rationalisations of my sometimes absurd behaviour. This obviously influences my art where my thoughts, anxieties, complexities and contradictions are there for all to see.

Like all of us, there is another side to me.
When I think back on the art I have seen in major exhibitions, the artists that have had a lasting impact on me could be separated in to two categories. The ‘mental stimulators’ such as Hundertwasser, Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry and those that transcend conscious thought, Howard Hodgkin, Anish Kapoor and Mark Rothko. These latter artists create art that cuts through the clutter of my mind, and touches the emotional, unconscious part of me which I so often neglect.

I hope that with my art I am able to both stimulate, challenge and provoke and also enable stillness and contemplation in the present moment.
Both are what I am." --Clay

Here's a look at the works shown in the exhibit:

















Below is a short film encapsulating artist Clay Sinclair's 'I Think... I AM' exhibition at Woolff Gallery:

Film directed by Prano Bailey-Bond Produced by Woolff Gallery

Woolff Gallery
London - 11th Oct - 23rd Nov 2012.
89 Charlotte St, London, W1T 4PU

all images courtesy of Woolff Gallery