“Before the Fantastic…” opens at Charles Burnand Gallery.
Puerto Rican artist and designer Reynold Rodriguez is obsessed with the ephemeral. “Prior to every storm,” he says, “there is a moment of clarity and quiet space, the pre-cursor to the dutiful chaos that will ensue, a moment where procedural development begins.”
Rodriguez, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design with over twenty years of experience designing furniture, has a new solo show at Charles Burnand Gallery. “Before the Fantastic…” considers this “nexus” when emotions and ideas crystallise into physical forms.
The collection, realised over two years, features handmade furniture and lighting. Using plaster and salvaged wood, Rodriguez reflects on the quiet moments that precede inspiration. The result is tactile, surreal, and even anthropomorphic. “I started building furniture so I could talk to it,” Rodriguez tells design journalist Bethan Ryder during a gallery talk about the show. “That’s why some of these objects have arms and legs.”
They have a distinct emotional presence, too. With dramatic, sculptural forms and titles like “The Table That Dreamed… (Of Being Light)” and “The Saddest Lamp… (In The World),” Rodriguez’s collection feels animated and full of longing. “Yes,” he says to Ryder, “it’s a breakup collection.”
Rodriguez felt inspired to create deeply emotional work after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017. Following the storm, fallen mahogany trees laid scattered across San Juan, where the artist was born and raised. The wood struck him as a powerful medium for creating pieces with strong emotional and political histories.
Rodriguez’s charged work captivated Charles Burnand Gallery owner Simon Stewart. “The distinctive, highly characterised works of Reynold Rodriguez combine endless wit and drama,” he says. “This, fused with an innate understanding of materiality, forms which are often exaggerated, and a strong narrative makes for unique, highly desirable and collectable pieces.”
“Before the fantastic…” runs until 13th January, 2023 at Charles Burnand Gallery in Fitzrovia.
Charles Burnand Gallery
27 Whitfield Street
London W1T 2SE
Photos courtesy of Charles Burnand Gallery.
