Carpenters Workshop Gallery: Radical Making

Carpenters Workshop Gallery presents Radical Making, a landmark group exhibition that explores the art of process; how artists and designers transform ideas into tangible form. Bringing together voices that span generations, disciplines, and geographies, Radical Making examines the continuum of creation: from the first drawn line to the final gesture of completion. Each work becomes a meditation on form, material, and the physical expression of thought.

The Art of Process

At its heart, Radical Making is an exploration of process as philosophy. Rather than focusing purely on the finished object, the exhibition turns our attention to the act of making; the choreography of thinking, sketching, modelling, and crafting that gives birth to each design. The exhibition celebrates both intuition and intellect, revealing how makers across eras have balanced precision with experimentation, structure with emotion.

This interplay of thought and material is what unites the diverse selection of works. Whether cast in bronze, sculpted from volcanic stone, or woven from organic matter, each piece in Radical Making demonstrates that craftsmanship is not merely a technical pursuit but a form of thinking made visible.

From Precision to Intuition

The exhibition draws deliberate contrasts between the architectural clarity of minimalist form and the organic freedom of material experimentation. Works such as Nendo’s Scatter Shelf (2011), Serge Mouille’s Large Lamp with Six Rotating Arms (1963), and David Adjaye’s YaaWa T1 Table (2020) highlight a pursuit of structure as poetry, where geometry, proportion, and light intersect to create objects that feel both rational and deeply expressive.

In contrast, the fluidity of Wendell Castle’s Double Trouble Settee (2014), Nacho Carbonell’s Big Round Chandelier (2021), and Shaha Raphael’s Articulation01 Desk (2025) reminds viewers of the human hand at work; the marks of intuition, improvisation, and material curiosity. These are objects that blur the boundary between art and design, merging sculptural instinct with functional form.

Historic Lineages and Contemporary Legacies

Carpenters Workshop Gallery positions Radical Making as a dialogue across time. Historic works by Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé, Pierre Jeanneret, and Zanine Caldas ground the exhibition in the foundations of functional modernism; a period when design became a vehicle for social progress, utility, and beauty in equal measure. Their timeless forms, crafted from wood, metal, and natural materials, established a vocabulary that continues to inform design today.

Juxtaposed with these pioneers are contemporary figures whose practices extend and reimagine that legacy. Ingrid Donat, DRIFT, Vincenzo De Cotiis, and Maarten Baas offer new readings of modernism, translating craftsmanship into a language of emotion, light, and narrative. Donat’s distinctive bronze reliefs recall the tactile intimacy of sculpture; DRIFT’s ethereal installations transform natural phenomena into technological poetry; De Cotiis fuses classical materials with raw imperfection; and Baas’s expressive, often theatrical approach challenges the very definition of design.

Together, these makers articulate a shared pursuit: the search for meaning through the act of making. Their works speak to a new understanding of craftsmanship as a radical act; one that bridges history and innovation, intellect and instinct.

Material as Language

One of the most striking aspects of Radical Making is its material diversity. Each artist’s chosen medium, whether molten bronze, carved marble, volcanic stone, or delicate dandelion seed, becomes a form of expression in itself. Materials are not passive vessels but active participants in the creative process. They dictate resistance, invite discovery, and ultimately shape the final form.

For designers like David Adjaye, materials are the architectural storytelling; a dialogue between structure and identity. For others, like Nacho Carbonell, it becomes an emotional landscape, where texture and imperfection reveal a deeply human approach to the craft of making. This multiplicity of material voices underscores the exhibition’s central idea: that design, like language, evolves through use, adaptation, and reinterpretation.

Design as Thought

Every artwork in Radical Making can be read as both object and idea; a sentence within an ongoing conversation about what it means to design. This curatorial approach reflects Carpenters Workshop Gallery’s enduring mission: to champion artists and designers who transcend categorisation, who see the act of making as both concept and craft.

By pairing mid-century icons with contemporary innovators, the exhibition situates design within a broader cultural continuum. The works on display are not isolated gestures but responses to shared questions: How do we give shape to thought? What does it mean to create with intention? And how does the physical act of making preserve, transform, and communicate those ideas over time?

A Continuum of Making

The dialogue between generations is what gives Radical Making its strength. Rather than presenting a linear progression, the exhibition celebrates simultaneity; the coexistence of approaches that are both deeply personal and collectively significant. Each work is a node within a living network of influence, an articulation of how creative thought moves through time.

In an age increasingly dominated by digital tools and automated production, Radical Making feels particularly resonant. It reminds us of the enduring value of the hand, the studio, and the workshop, spaces where ideas are tested, refined, and brought to life. These are the crucibles of contemporary creativity, where material intelligence and human emotion intersect.

A Platform for Material Thought

Since its founding, Carpenters Workshop Gallery has established itself as one of the world’s leading galleries at the intersection of art and design. With locations in Paris, London, Los Angeles, and New York, it has consistently presented exhibitions that challenge boundaries and expand the definition of functional sculpture.

Through shows like Radical Making, the gallery continues its commitment to artists and designers who approach materials as mediums of thought, whose works are as intellectually rigorous as they are visually compelling. This exhibition not only celebrates craftsmanship but situates it as a vital form of cultural expression in the 21st century.

All photography: ©Benjamin Baccarani courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery

A Celebration of the Human Hand

Ultimately, Radical Making is a tribute to the human impulse to create. It captures the moment where concept becomes form, where gesture becomes object. Whether through the engineered precision of Adjaye’s architecture or the organic spontaneity of Carbonell’s sculptural lighting, each piece invites viewers to consider the invisible process that lies behind the visible work.

In doing so, the exhibition reaffirms that making, in all its forms, remains one of the most powerful ways to think, to feel, and to connect.

---

Radical Making

20 October – 23 December 2025

Carpenters Workshop Gallery, 54 Rue de la Verrerie, 75004 Paris

carpentersworkshopgallery.com

---