Elena Frampton introduces Frampton Co’s annual summer show – an expression of her personal contemplations and re-engagement with the vitality of the natural world during lockdown.
“Our external worlds were cut off, it was a time to go inward,” Elena says. “I was finding new perspective as I took my hands away from the keyboard and into the dirt. Through gardening, I was thinking about experiences of space through a refreshed lens.”
Elena became more engaged with the dualities between inside and outside. As one does, she manifested this into a design decision: The Barn underwent renovations and now boasts a brilliantly boundaryless window-paned façade!
“I began thinking about how to construct a livable environment that broke through the duality, that brought the outdoors in, that granted our spaces some wildness.” Thus, Exhibition The Barn’s 3rd annual Summer Show was born.
Elena’s process of discovery involved leaning into artist relationships to commission or secure new works, most powerfully with Nick Missel, an emerging designer who casts large-scale undefinable shapes in silicone. And through her process of research and Facetime studio visits, that led, most excitingly, to new-to-the-scene artist-designer Sunshine Thacker of Texas. Alongside Thacker’s work are select pieces from our own F Collection, the bespoke line of fine furniture designed and produced in-house; as well as art and design from emerging talents like Elias Hansen and Fitzhugh Karol, a strong highlight of female painter Kazuko Inoue and market veterans Wendell Castle, Matthew Satz, among others (*full downloadable list here*).
Unconventional color, shapes and forms anchor the space, true to our reigning art and design ethos: break the mold, shift the perspective, make it wild. Every work is beautifully layered and complex with their own story to tell.
