On the Same Subject

New York – Friedman Benda is pleased to present, On the Same Subject , Raphael Navot’s first solo gallery exhibition. On the Same Subject marks the culmination of an ongoing four-year collaboration with the gallery and serves as a commentary on Navot’s own evolution as a designer. A polymath designer acclaimed for his retail and hospitality spaces and private residences, Navot references his own daily drawing practice to liberate himself from preconceived expectations. Free to question every step and choice in the creative process, Navot uses this opportunity to reflect on the rigorous journey from first concept to realized physical work. “By forgetting the destination and reversing the method, you’re leaving the intention to navigate around the many facets of the same subject,” he states.

One of the rising form-givers in the field, Navot communicates through a collective language harnessing the power of universal symbolic archetypes. An homage to the natural world, this series features a dialogue between handicraft and the natural landscape—referring to the very origins of furniture: “a pile of rounded rocks that invites sitting, a supported sliced pebble that becomes a usable surface. These compositions consider the idea of comfort as both mental and physical,” Navot states.