Martino Gamper & Adam Pogue

October 21–December 3, 2023

Blunk Space is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by London-based designer Martino Gamper and LA-based artist Adam Pogue. Each has created new work informed by JB Blunk's own philosophy that "the process is the doing, the bringing together.”

Having both spent time at the Blunk home and studio in Inverness, California, they committed to working without preconceived ideas, making intuitively and allowing the materials at hand to govern the resulting works. Most of the works were conceived or executed on-site. Gamper used salvaged wood from local wood sawyer Evan Shively to produce cutting boards, wood-framed mirrors, and a series of benches for Adam's patchwork cushions. Based on his residency at the Blunk House this summer, Pogue made a large- scale hanging screen, an assortment of sculptural cushions, and two stuffed chairs.

Like Blunk’s, their work is playful, intuitive, and resourceful, investing their intentionally-designed objects with the chance of abstraction. The need to make something useful yet creative is a puzzle to be intuitively resolved.

While Gamper’s practice includes interiors, design objects, and textiles of all scales and types, one of his foundational projects, ‘100 Chairs in 100 Days’, involved collecting discarded chairs on the streets of London and making one new chair each day from the old. The resulting amalgamations were humorous and thought-provoking, a hodgepodge of seating and questions about seating.

Pogue has created his own textile appliqué language, inspired by Korean ‘bojagi’ and traditional quilting techniques, using textile remnants and vintage fabrics sourced from LA’s Garment District, where he lives. The resulting artworks are patchworks of playful grids and incidental orthogonals.