Gallery FUMI is presenting a new series of works by Tuomas Markunpoika in “Contra Naturam,” on view through September 8, 2018.The exhibition explores the visually and conceptually captivating relationship between natural and artificial, craft and industrial materials. “Verging on the sculptural, the works in the exhibition bear the marks of their own creation. Building layers of ancient Moroccan Tadelakt plaster on a ductile synthetic material in a labor-intensive process, the artist works and reworks the form with spatulas and palette knives, etching the powdery fragility of plaster onto the seductively tactile surface of the finished piece,” writes the gallery. “Prized for its durability, owing to an entirely natural composition, the light-absorbing surface of Tadelakt seems shaped by nature’s energy, as if aged, weathered and eroded by water and wind. The resulting duality of natural and man-made conveys conceptual depth to the richly modeled texture of the works,” says the gallery.“Contra Naturam” features rich color variations and “exhibits an unified vocabulary of softly-edged, organic shapes — stripped to the essential, the works appear to simultaneously curve inwards and outwards, seamlessly blending into a fluid rhythm of line and angle. Engaging with notions of craft and value, and advancing the artist’s stylistic language, ‘Contra Naturam’ offers a testament to the elegant complexity of Markunpoika’s aesthetics,” adds the gallery.Tuomas Markunpoika is a graduate Cum Laude from the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven. In 2012, he was nominated for ‘Best Contemporary Design’ by the Design Museum, London. His work is part of prominent private collections worldwide and has been featured in important group exhibitions at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Design Museum Helsinki, and Design.VE Biennial Design Festival. “When objects lose their tactility and plasticity, they lose the incorporated dimension of time. Natural materials have the quality to express age and the history of human use,” says Markunpoika.“Contra Naturam” is on view through September 8, 2018 at Gallery FUMI, 2 Hay Hill, Mayfair, London W1J 6AS, UK.For more information, visit: https://galleryfumi.com/Click on the slideshow for a sneak peek at the exhibition.http://www.blouinartinfo.comFounder: Louise Blouin  Read more