Carpenters Workshop Gallery New York has opened its first solo exhibition, “Carapace,” a new body of limited-edition works by Dutch artist Maarten Baas.“Carapace” (which means the protective, hard or decorative shell of an animal, turtle or beetle) features a series of furniture with bronze plating, “dot-welded, piece by piece, to form the skin of the furniture, acting as a protective shield, similar to a turtle shell.”
Carapace Cupboard, steel
Carapace Small Cabinet; Carapace Desk
“I feel it’s important to have a hard layer under which something good and fruitful can bloom,” says the designer. “The works explore the feelings of vulnerability protected against environmental influences. ‘Carapace’ confronts the concept of the ‘protective’ in harmony with the precious, represented by the duality of the bold metal exterior concealing a very refined interior where treasures can lie.”
“I like the contrast between a very hard outside and a soft inside, something that’s fragile, something that needs to develop, like an oyster has in the most extreme way,” continues Baas. “And every one has it, literally... One’s heart is protected by one’s chest, but also more psychologically, everyone tends to protect parts of themselves that are sensitive.”
The exhibit will run until April 30.