Soft Landing

Eliza Axelson-Chidsey

Jess Fügler

Kate Ferguson

Galerie Shibumi is proud to present Soft Landing, an exhibition celebrating Design Month.

Soft Landing is the first exhibition of its kind for three New York Design veterans, Eliza Axelson-Chidsey, Jess Fügler, and Kate Ferguson. Hosted by the new Two Bridges-based Galerie Shibumi, this is the inaugural presentation during the art and design-laden month of May. With over four decades of combined professional experience in the design industry, Soft Landing acts as an introductory moment for the trio as they step out from the shadow of brands, corporations, and auxiliary roles.

While the pieces range from furniture to sculptural tassels, there is a shared affinity for color and materials. Largely the product of late nights, weekends, and stolen moments, the work is underpinned by rich narratives and personal philosophies.

Eliza Axelson-Chidsey’s pieces include large scale furnishings that combine an interest in 3D puzzles, standardized materials, and a quest for adiabatic design. Jess Fügler prompts the viewer to look closer at her whimsical combination of handcrafted details and industrial production in furniture and lighting inspired by personal memories. Kate Ferguson, working under the project name Katharine.NF, challenges conventions around ornament and functionality in decor to present vibrant, soft-sculptural forms that evoke feelings both tender and macabre.

Soft Landing juxtaposes these disparate practices as part laboratory, part demonstration, part celebration of the opportunity, and the audacity to make anything at all.

Jess Fügler is an American designer whose work explores ideas of narrative, process, and value in domestic objects. Inspired by past and current cultures along with industrial production and handcraft, Jess' work possesses a poetic playfulness driven by a hands- on approach to materials and making.

Originally from San Francisco, Eliza Axelson-Chidsey is a designer, artist, and curator based in New York City. Her interest in material culture is manifest in explorations of form, value, and ephemerality. Excited by research and concepts, and informed by her senses, she is regularly reminded how much learning is found through doing.

Katharine.NF is the Brooklyn, NY-based design-art practice of Kate Ferguson. Classifying her sculptural objects as “Alt Decor”, the project is interested in juxtaposing the dismissiveness of decoration with the use of bodily, biographical materials - all the while winking at their lack of function. Largely exhibiting work for the first time in New York last year, her work was shown with NADA, JonaldDudd, and Galerie Shibumi.