CHICAGO — As an enthusiast of unconventional seating, I find myself drawn to chairs that prioritize creativity over comfort, much to my family’s occasional dismay. Such inventive designs are prominently featured in the group exhibition The Heresy of Legacy, now on display at Volume Gallery, which recently relocated to a larger venue in West Town. The exhibition showcases playful reinterpretations of classic designs, such as a 2003 piece by the late Garry Knox Bennett, which humorously combines Gerrit Rietveld’s “Zig Zag” chair with a miniature ladder. Another clever work by Matt Olson/OOIEE deconstructs a replica Marcel Breuer “Cesca” chair, reassembling it in an unexpected, yet still usable, manner.
Additional innovative chair designs can be found at Chair-ish, a two-person exhibition by Alex Chitty and Norman Teague at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art in Glen Ellyn. Chitty, a sculptor who transforms high-design items into artworks, and Teague, a notable furniture designer, engage in a creative dialogue without directly collaborating. Instead, they inspire each other, resulting in daring experiments such as slicing a Charles and Ray Eames chair into pieces. This act of irreverence towards iconic designs is a central theme in Chair-ish, where both artists repurpose original and replica furniture pieces by notable designers, challenging traditional reverence for these objects.
Chitty’s works highlight the abstract beauty of design elements, as demonstrated by her “Brace” paintings, which feature cherrywood frames intersected by jute webbing. Her Configuration series includes vibrant green metal panels from USM Haller’s modular system, adding a touch of elegance to the exhibition. On the floor, Chitty assembles whimsical humanoid sculptures from various furniture components, while Teague’s anthropomorphic creations include “Eames Face,” a sculptural figure using parts from different chairs.
Under his Norman Teague Design Studio, Teague creates practical furniture, but for Chair-ish, he embraces the freedom from functional constraints, producing imaginative pieces like the “Truss Chair” and the “Pollinia” armchair, incorporating diverse materials, including car parts. Their one true collaborative piece, “Eames/Judd/Shapiro/Teague/Chitty Bench,” combines elements from multiple designers, offering the exhibition’s only seating for visitors.
The Heresy of Legacy is open at Volume Gallery (1700 West Hubbard Street, Chicago, Illinois) until March 28. Chair-ish runs at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art (425 Fawell Boulevard, Glen Ellyn, Illinois) through April 11, organized by CCMA Assistant Curator Julia Walker.
