Above: The dining room at the “Function & Design” exhibit at Artspace at Untitled gallery is furnished in modern Moroccan style. Below left: Skyline Ink designed and fabricated the “Lounge in Static” chair for the media room of the “Function & Design” exhibit. Below right: An urban garden made largely of recycled granite is one of the six living spaces in the “Function & Design” exhibit.

From Tuesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.

‘Function & Design’
Collaborative efforts create intriguing room motifs

A flock of paper doves flies over a dining room colored in warm Moroccan hues. Gnarled fenceposts give a rustic air to the bedroom’s four-poster. And a surprisingly comfy chaise that looks more like a bed of nails than a chair dominates a futuristic media room.

But these artfully decorated rooms aren’t found in a house. Rather, the rooms make up the exhibition “Function & Design” at Artspace at Untitled art gallery.

For the exhibit, more than 50 Oklahoma and two Kansas artists collaborated to craft imaginative furniture, housewares and decor for a contemporary urban living room, bedroom, dining room, home office, media room and outdoor patio.

“Everything from the rugs to the light fixtures … was done by these 52 artists,” exhibit curator and Untitled founder Laura Warriner said.

“Function & Design” was conceived as a follow-up to Untitled’s popular 2008 “Dinner in the Deuce” exhibit, in which teams of architects, artists and designers worked together to create 14 distinctive dining areas. Both exhibits were inspired by the changes to the gallery’s Deep Deuce neighborhood.

“When I first came down here, there was nothing. It was just desolate. These were all abandoned parking lots and stuff like that,” Warriner said, nodding toward the gallery windows. “In the last 15 years, I’ve watched all these living spaces pop up around us, so I thought it would be kind of neat … if we could create an urban space.”

Artists from across the state were invited to an initial brainstorming meeting for the new exhibit. Participants picked the room they wanted to work on, and the teams took a collaborative approach to designing each space.

“I wanted to give the artists the experience of learning how to collaborate — which most visual artists, it’s not in their DNA to do that — and through their collaboration, to go outside their own comfort zone,” she said.

Each room has a different theme and look, based on the tastes and techniques of the artists who worked on it. The dining area conveys modern Middle Eastern flair, with a Moroccan-style table-tray sitting on a bright rug surrounded by shimmering pillows.

Glass artist Elisa Cossey, who lives near Blanchard, made the sturdy glass sink, while Oklahoma City glass artist Nicki Albright crafted the colorful plates. With help from their husbands, they collaborated on the glass tile-topped bar and Brazilian cherry wood bar table and stools. The project prompted Cossey to expand her color palette.

“It caused Nicki and I to become real good friends,” she added, noting they now swap ideas and advice on their work. “It’s helped me tremendously.”

“The whole thing was just a learning experience,” Albright added.

The 12 employees of Skyline Ink, which creates animations for architectural projects, designed and fabricated the media room in sci-fi style, studio President Brian Eyerman said.

The centerpiece is the “Lounge in Static” chair made from 2,500 stainless steel rods first mapped out in computer models then precisely cut and assembled to ergonomically support a person.

“We were just thrilled with the response to it. … At the opening of the show, people were lined up to sit in the chair,” he said, adding the studio is reproducing the design. “It’s almost like a Ferrari of chairs; it almost has this energy to it.”

The teams were urged to use recycled materials, not only to reflect “green” trends but also to offset the costs of crafting their functional artwork. Behind the gallery, granite pieces left over from a past exhibit are cleverly arranged in a garden of geometric shapes and patterns.

“This is a perfect urban garden; one you don’t have a take care of. No watering,” Warriner said with a smile.

The exhibit has become Untitled’s most visited on record, with 1,400 people touring it to date, development coordinator Autumn Daves said.

Warriner hopes the show will get visitors to look beyond big-box stores and shop local artists when decorating their homes. The furnishings, which are for sale, aren’t just for display. The plates are intended for eating, the chairs for sitting and the bed for sprawling.

“Most people’s definition of an artist is someone who does painting or sculpture, and you hang it on a wall or set it on a table,” she said. “This is art, but it’s functional art.”

On exhibit

“Function & Design”

When : Through March 27.

Where : Artspace at Untitled, 1 NE 3.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.

Information: 815-9995 or artspaceatuntitled.org.

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Artspace at Untitled's “Function & Design” showcases artistic urban living

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