The Los Angeles–based artist James Cherry is a keen observer of his surroundings. The shapes, structures, and materials he encounters—the silhouette of a starfish, a skyscraper’s form, spindly twigs, local produce, and even dust—often end up in his abstract, sculptural lamps. In fact, the name of his solo show, open at New York’s Tiwa Gallery from 12 December 2024, ‘From Pollen,’ is taken from his fascination with microscopic particles. 'I love the idea of turning this dust around us into something that's structural and holds form,' he says while explaining how he made the textured, papier-mâché armature of a three-foot-tall floor lamp in the exhibition.
‘From Pollen’ is composed of twenty five lamps Cherry created this year during a residency at Salmon Creek Farm, a former Northern California commune built in the 1970s turned creative retreat, and a stint in a temporary studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn. While the coastal redwood forests of the former and industrial environs of the latter have little in common, both influences have converged in objects that are striking and a little bit mysterious, with hints of the natural and man-made worlds within them.
