LAMB Gallery is pleased to present Take a Seat, an exhibition that brings together an international group of contemporary artists, both emerging and established, to explore the tensions between the functionality and artistry of a commonplace object: the chair. A simple yet essential part of daily life, the chair serves as the central motif, presented through both painted and sculptural works that experiment with a variety of materials, weights, and textures. In this exhibition, chairs transcend their utilitarian role, becoming symbols of personal and collective memory, cultural significance, and artistic expression.
Through each artist’s unique interpretation, chairs are reimagined and repurposed, then placed into the narrative of the gallery space which provides an unconventional setting for the object. This gallery setting challenges the boundaries of viewing and interaction, as these objects, while still identifiable as chairs, cannot be used in their functional sense and an invisible wall is created. Therefore, as the playful title suggests, visitors instead are invited to “take a seat” in a metaphorical sense.
At the heart of the group exhibition is Franz West’s Untitled (Sit Down) (1996–2000), a work that encapsulates the central tensions explored throughout the show. This piece builds on West’s enduring interest in interactive art, and in Untitled (Sit Down) West introduces text, adding a conceptual dimension that deepens the tension between interaction and inaccessibility. The phrase "sit down" extends a playful and seemingly direct invitation to the viewer, yet the work’s elevation as an art object ultimately withdraws the possibility of physical interaction, subverting the initial call to engage.
The use of text as a vehicle for meaning emerges across other works in the exhibition, particularly Jenny Holzer’s Survival: Bodies lie in the bright grass... (1989). Holzer transforms functional furniture into a platform for activism, with the granite bench serving both as a symbol of permanence, evoking monuments or graves, and as a channel for social critique through the incorporation of text.
Similarly, Ai Weiwei’s Marble Chair (2008) echoes these themes by referencing the traditional Chinese yoke-back chair, while reimagining it in solid marble. The chair speaks to the erasure of Chinese cultural heritage during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), with Ai drawing on personal history—his family was allowed to keep only a few possessions, including a similar chair, when they were sent into exile. The permanence and weight of marble become metaphors for both the resilience of cultural identity and the loss it has endured. Like Ai’s chairs, tradition runs as a common thread between many of the works in the exhibition, as seen in Elías Peña Salvador’s Catalan chairs in Farewell at Dawn (2024) , and James Lomax’s Mexican cantina chairs in Chair Study (for a sinking city) (2024), which is a direct reference to the environmental crisis in Mexico City. Additionally, Alma Berrow’s Take a Pew (2024) draws on Christian tradition with her characteristic humorous take.
The invitation to “Take a Seat” inevitably calls attention to the role of viewer participation and the spaces where the body can physically sit. Yet, in the gallery setting, this interaction remains absent, creating a tension between both an expectation and lack of physical engagement. This theme extends to other works in the exhibition, such as Jess Allen’s Nobody’s Watching, study 5 (2022), in which empty, shadowed chairs evoke feelings of loneliness and solitude. Marco Bizzarri’s hazy, atmospheric scene in Apertura III (2024) similarly explores the enigmatic nature of memory, where fleeting light and shadow suggest presence or absence, hinting at figures that once were but are no longer visible.
Through this interplay between invitation and restraint, Take a Seat encourages viewers to contemplate the boundaries between art and functionality. By presenting the chair as an object both to be viewed and to be reflected upon, the exhibition transforms this common piece of furniture into a symbol of personal, cultural, and historical narratives, prompting a deeper exploration of the spaces we occupy—both physically and conceptually.