Max Protetch Gallery is pleased to announce Studio @ Max Protetch, an exhibition of work by Tobias Putrih. The exhibition will be held in the gallery’s Project Space at 511a West 22nd Street. Concurrent with this exhibition, Putrih will represent Slovenia at the 52nd Venice Biennale with two installations.

Studio @ Max Protetch consists of a large installation comprised of many interlocking component plywood parts. These parts, which appear as elements of modular furniture ranging from desks and shelving to chairs and screens, are designed such that they can be combined in an infinite number of ways. Putrih originally conceived the work as an experiment in collaborative activity, anticipating that a group of viewers could work together to produce a never-ending serious of formal variations. Though the work will be presented in fixed form at Max Protetch, it will continue to suggest the possibility of collaboration by non-artists.

Studio also represents a new chapter in Putrih’s continuing investigation of modern design. At once inspired by and willing to question the legacy of such figures as Charles and Ray Eames, Fredrick Kiesler, and Buckminster Fuller, Putrih highlights the contrast between functionality and expression that runs through the history of 20th Century design and architecture.

Studio is a dynamic cross between mass-produced object and individualist statement. Throughout his work, Putrih has questioned and tested the ramifications of mass production and functionality, in both artistic and industrial practices. At times, he has opted to create objects from humble materials that look as though they have been created by machines, as in the Macula series from 2005. In Studio, however, he reverses this formulation with a sculpture that is made up of produced elements whose arrangement is in a state of perpetual flux.