“A Decade of Studio Job 2006 -2016” At The Armory Show Presented By Chamber

Thu, Mar 3 - Sun, Mar 6  2016

From March 3 until 6, during The Armory Show, a unique exhibition space in New York will present a booth dedicated to special projects by Dutch-Belgian design duo, Studio Job. Founded in 2000 by Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel, Studio Job’s practice combines a high level of craftsmanship with extreme ornamentation. The presentation reflects their practice through a selection of the studio’s creative work over the past decade, from the iconic Homework series (2006), and Piece for Peace (2010) to Horse Bust (Chess Piece) (2014) and the never-before-seen draft for Sinking Ship (2016).

Artwork 

“Chess Piece,” designed for Jeff Koons, combines references to the artist’s work: his blown up sculptures of ordinary objects such as balloon animals, and the vacuum cleaners he placed in fluorescent-lit plexiglass boxes. Studio Job have used a Nilfisk GM 80 Pbuste vacuum, available in either bronze or brass. Job said, “I love Jeff Koons and I love Nifilisk. It’s such a high quality vacuum cleaner!”To mimic Koons’ lustrous surfaces, Studio Job have made the horse’s head of polished alloy, bronze or brass like the Hoover. When the vacuum is switched on, the horse’s eyes light up, as it sniffs through its nostrils.

 Crafted from Indian Rosewood, the “Bavaria Triptych Mirror” features intricate laser-cut inlays depicting idyllic farm motifs and the trappings of a pastoral life. Inspired by 17th- and 18th-century Bavarian hand-painted furniture, Studio Job playfully employs marquetry to impersonate the “fine art” of painting.

They used seventeen colored dyes to create the inlays, which are made from various wood types. Their Bavaria series depicts a storybook theme of Paradise—an animated naiveté in which man’s labor, when applied to nature’s bounty, reaps a plentiful harvest.

Alex de Witte and Studio Job have collaborated for Chamber to make two special editions of “The Big Bubble,” which was originally conceived while blowing bubbles. Aside from wanting to capture the same fluid reflection, De Witte wanted to convey a sense of weightlessness and ephemerality. In contrast, Studio Job make monumental objects cast in bronze. Their stand – made from patinated, polished bronze – appears immovable.

View Artsy for an overview of the artwork that will be exhibited.

About Studio Job

Based in Antwerp and the Netherlands, Studio Job, a design duo founded over a decade ago by Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel, produces one-off pieces of sculptural furniture that share little with the reigning aesthetic of minimalism and spareness. Their cast bronze works—tables whose surfaces are models of inverted cathedrals, lamps shaped like the Eiffel Tower—are laser cut for minute detailing and exquisite surface texture. Often described as “neo-gothic,” Studio Job’s pieces are fanciful without being kitschy.