German-American artist Josef Albers, among the most accomplished educators of the Bauhaus and founder of Black Mountain College, has come to inspire generations and generations of artists through his seminal handbook ‘Interaction of Color,’ where he argues that all color is relative and that we never see a color isolated but always in relation to other colors. In a new installation, ‘Rest Stop’ at Matter Gallery in New York, which I have visited this evening, and which consists of a series of objects and furniture, architects Eleni Petaloti and Leonidas Trampoukis demonstrate their own take on Albers’ legacy. The objects intersect three elements which manifest the DNA of design: material, form, and color. You can interpret these jeweled and complex objects in a variety of ways. You can see them as illustrating the classical of ancient Greece, Petaloti and Trampoukis’ native country; or as an expression of modernism; or as an exemplification of tribal sensibility, depending on the viewer. Another layer inserted is that of the craftsmanship. Blown glass, resin, acrylic, marble, all combined with one another in the most compelling colors. I loved the tableware series, called the Relativity of Color (above), where each piece is made of two elements, created in a wide variety of colors, adorning the table like jewels and introducing sensuality to the dinner ceremony.
