Rick Yoshimoto & Charles de Lisle

March 11 – April 23, 2023

Blunk Space is pleased to present Rick Yoshimoto & Charles de Lisle, an exhibition of furniture, sculpture, and ceramics. 

In 2013, Rick Yoshimoto and Charles de Lisle met at JB Blunk’s home in Inverness, California, and discovered a shared affinity for clay and design geometries, and a mutual disregard for the traditional boundaries of art, design, and craft. At the time, Yoshimoto was working in Blunk’s studio and there were sculptures and ceramics scattered around the workshop in various stages of completion. “It was the very simple geometries made in clay and wood, the clean lines, the fact that the pieces were both decorative and functional,” explains de Lisle. “I immediately identified with Rick’s work.”

Yoshimoto was born on the Hawaiian island of O’ahu and studied art at California State University Long Beach and the University of California Irvine in the 1970s. After graduating, he headed north; Canada was the goal, but he only made it to Point Reyes Station, California. He started working with JB Blunk in 1978 and lived in Inverness for almost forty years. It was during the first year of working with Blunk that he learned to use a chainsaw and began carving wood. Like Blunk, Yoshimoto’s practice is an amalgamation of craft, art, and design and his indifference for these categories has imbued his work with freedom and humor.

Growing up in rural Massachusetts, de Lisle’s father ran a furniture factory and the odd shapes and problem-solving nature of the handmade jigs his grandfather created for the shop were early sources of inspiration. De Lisle studied ceramics in college and moved to the Bay Area in 1990 to be a part of the infamous West Coast ceramic scene that included Peter Voulkos, Richard Shaw, and Ron Nagle. After he found a studio in Oakland, de Lisle started welding and working with metal. He went on to design and fabricate lighting and furniture, which eventually led to his work as an interior designer.

Although Yoshimoto’s and de Lisle’s practices look different (de Lisle runs his design studio in Sausalito, California, and Yoshimoto works on his own in his workshop in Lamy, New Mexico), the hybrid nature of their work and interrelated skills led to a collaboration in 2014. Wanting to replace fabric of a chair with a sculpted chainsaw texture, de Lisle relied on Yoshimoto’s experience working with wood to help define the parameters of the project and realize his idea. After the “chainsaw” chair they made a shelf, table, headboard, benches, and a sink.

This exhibition presents the core pieces from Yoshimoto and de Lisle’s collaborative project alongside new work by both artists. The ceramics, lighting, and sculptures demonstrate the versatility and complementary nature of their practices.