Lewis Kemmenoe's first solo exhibition at Max Radford Gallery London, moving from timber into aluminum and metal with organically formed domestic objects

METALLURGY is Lewis Kemmenoe's first solo show, presented at Max Radford Gallery in London. The exhibition marks a shift in the designer's practice: where his earlier work centered on timber, burl veneer, and plywood, METALLURGY moves into metal, using aluminum and other industrial materials to produce forms that retain the organic character his work has always carried.

The pieces in the show take familiar domestic objects as their starting points and use them as a framework for material experimentation. Kemmenoe's interest is in the tactile quality of his objects, what he describes as the concept of skin: both the sensation of contact with a surface and the visual character of how that surface has been finished. The finishes in METALLURGY are varied and deliberate, ranging from raw industrial surfaces to refined textures that register the hand of the maker.

The collection integrates organic and industrial material in specific ways. In one piece, aluminum is worked to mirror the undulating grain patterns of wood. In another, fragments of pale wood appear suspended within metal frames, the 2 materials held in proximity without blending. These are not references to nature so much as direct conversations between opposing material logics, which is where Kemmenoe's practice has consistently situated itself.