Opening
Saturday, November 02
5 – 8PM

On View
November 02 – December 14 2024

Wednesday – Saturday
Noon – 5PM

Marta
3021 Rowena Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90039

Marta is honored to announce Treehugger, an exhibition of new sculptural-functional works by Lindsey Muscato & Joshua Friedman of Los Angeles furniture practice Base 10. With a focus on response to found forms, this presentation—the artists’ second with the gallery following Kodama (2020)—revels in the virtuosity of organic growth, finding strength in both the constraints of structural preservation and the depth of material possibility inherent to the natural occurrences of Wood.

Titled with affection and respect, Muscato and Friedman developed the works in Treehugger within the context of salvage, meticulously sourcing arboreal forms from the corner wealth of their Mount Washington studio (pictured above left) to the property on which their two sons’ elementary school sits. The provenance of these foundational forms, the majority of which are species of native or naturalized California trees gathered over a period of several years, underpins the importance of alternative sourcing, the varied locations of which have proffered materials that both augment inspiration and reduce inhibition, allowing the artists to embrace the character of their chosen forms and elevate them with seemingly few or even ‘minimal’ design interventions—the generous crescent of the interior of a sycamore tree becomes the backrest of a chaise longue, while the parallel flutes of a carob, twining upward with the grace of a fawn’s legs, are the unlikely rails of a ladder. This recognition, and subsequent conservation, of innate potential cedes one set of controls while eliciting another, generating a new code of engagement that guides function and considers the reflexive attitudes with which the human body interacts with form.

Threaded throughout this exhibition is a clear devotion to craft—to the set of skills that allow for the precise fabrication of artistic choices. Each concealed connection of joinery, every seamlessly scribed chair back-to-seat, is a reminder of Muscato and Friedman’s study of the methods of apanese woodworking and its necessary tools—hand-planes, adzes, a magnificent collection of chisels—that have so shaped the duo’s practice. Whether redwood or pine, hung cabinetry or seating, each work is an intuitive exploration of material whose treatment, like a tree that angles its growth to the direction of the wind, is entirely without question.

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Located in Los Angeles—their workshop just down the road from Marta—Base 10 is the studio moniker of artists Lindsey Muscato (b. 1984, Bellflower, CA) and Joshua Friedman (b. 1980, Santa Barbara, CA). The duo, partners in life and practice, create functional sculpture from solid timber, with a particular focus on joinery and wood-work with a reverence for material, precedent, and procedure. Treehugger marks the pair’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. Since Kodama (2020), Muscato & Friedman’s works have been featured in several group presentations with Marta, including this year’s Rites of Spring and Design Miami Los Angeles.

View press coverage of Treehugger via Family Style.