An exhibition at Waddington Custot will celebrate the sculptor’s exploration of our complicated relationship with nature
Words by Francesca Perry
Franco-Argentine sculptor Pablo Reinoso creates surprising, otherworldly benches that blend art and street furniture. Reminiscent of sprawling tree roots or wisps of smoke made solid, Reinoso’s benches have brought intrigue as well as public seating to outdoor locations in London, Lyon and Paris.
This autumn, an exhibition from Waddington Custot brings together the sculptor’s work both online and in its central London gallery at a time when many are rethinking and redesigning shared spaces and objects, such as the humble public bench.
Reinoso’s work, which encompasses an array of sculptural projects, focuses on the complicated relationship between humanity and the environment, often combining natural materials such as wood and stone with industrial elements including steel and brass.
Reinoso draws attention to both the destructive and protective power that humanity and nature can exert over one another. This tension between destruction and protection can be seen in new works such as Up Rooted Medium (2020) and Articulation VI (2020), in which he places pieces of dead tree trunk inside man-made metal structures.
Opening in September, two online Special Focus shows of the sculptor’s work will be accompanied by a physical exhibition in Waddington Custot’s Cork St gallery space in London.
In the gallery show, Reinoso’s bench works – from the Spaghetti and Garabatos series – are displayed, encouraging the public to sit and contemplate relationships with space, nature and the city. Works such as the wooden Curly Bench (2019), with its tendril-like extensions reaching up and over the bench, seem to muse on the interplay between the control of the designer and uncontrollable nature.
Images from top to bottom: Curly Bench (2019), Double Talk (2017), Pablo Reinoso’s studio in 2020. All photographs by Rodrigo Reinoso
Digital Exhibitions
Special Focus: Part I | online from 4 September – 25 October 2020
Special Focus: Part II | online from 23 September – 25 October 2020
Gallery Presentation | 4 – 27 September 2020
11 Cork Street London W1S 3LT
