Wendell Castle, Osborne Coffee Table, 2008. Polychrome fiberglass, 18-3/4 x 54 x 19 in. ram industrial design, inc., Robert Englert, Grant Meacham, Carlos Suarez, and Bianca Leigh, designers. Lincoln End Tables, 2010. Reclaimed timbers, powder coated steel. Cas Holman, Modular Ecosystem, 2005. Steel, leather, and magnets, dimensions variable.

The Edge of Art:
New York State Artists Series

Designed to Scale

August 14 – October 24, 2010

Designed to Scale, part three of the 2010 New York State Artists Series showcases significant designers from the Central New York region whose work is recognized in the national and international design arenas. Although modest in scale, the exhibition touches on a broad range of innovative design objects—furniture, lighting, commercial products and dining experiences, unique accessories, toys, and surface patterns.

Designers include Chrissy Albanese, Don Carr and Liza Lamb (Carr & Lamb), Wendell Castle, Rob Englert (ram industrial design, inc.), Cas Holman, Chris Irick, and Chase Design. Wendell Castle’s unique rocking chair made of stacked laminated wood is as much about furniture design as it is about sculpture. The fluid, organic form that has characterized Castle’s work for more than four decades is also found in a brilliantly colored retro fiberglass side table originally designed in the 1960s and recently reintroduced to much acclaim.

Using timber reclaimed from the former Lincoln Supply Company, a warehouse located on Syracuse’s Near West Side and sourced by D-Build, the ram industrial design team, which includes Rob Englert, Carlos Suarez, Grant Meacham and Bianca Leigh, designed concept furniture—including these end tables. Ram collaborated with Chris Clemans and his team at the local Cabinet Fabrication Group (CabFab) to execute the two end tables in this exhibition. D-Build, developed by the designers at ram, is an innovative project that aims to connect artists, designers, and builders with desirable reclaimed materials through their website, www.d-build.org. D-Build carefully documents the origins of reclaimed materials during removal by stamping a site-specific QR code on the surface. When the code embedded on these end tables is scanned with a smart phone or webcam, it connects the viewer to the history of the Lincoln Supply Company accessible on the D-Build website.

The Edge of Art: New York State Artists Series is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

Carr and Lamb, Don Carr, designer, Free Luv K2 Women's skis, 2009.