Friedman Benda is pleased to announce Assemblage 5, Faye Toogood’s first solo exhibition with the gallery and in the United States.

Faye Toogood’s Assemblage 5 takes on a pantheistic tone, tapping into age-old animist notions of the elements water, earth and moon. Lithium-barium crystal, cob composite, and silver nitrate bronze personify the nature of these elements and mark a trio of firsts in Toogood’s material language. The British designer’s signature explorations of geometry and form are visible throughout.

Inspired by primitive elements and archetypes, works in this series draw imagery from cups, pews, spoons, and beads. Spoon Chairs and Pew Benches build on and transmute the reassuringly chunky forms of Toogood’s Roly-Poly furniture designs. The iconic Element Table is transformed into a pair of molded pieces that play with negative space, wherein shaped voids suggest the missing polyhedrons of earlier collections.

A series of Cup Stools and Side Tables upend conventional thought about seating and the drinking vessel. Sculptural archaic relics, such as a hand-formed, oversized solitaire game and wearable tapestries, evoke the naïve abstraction of parietal art and reinforce the strong spiritual character of Assemblage 5.