Marta presents Prairie’s Edge, the inaugural solo exhibition of work by artist and designer Sarah Burns. Named for the Minnesota casino frequented by Burns’ grandmother, this presentation of nine furniture explorations is a deeply personal study of autobiography and the varied typologies of American craftsmanship.

Each display — organized loosely in so-called Room Groups that recall those in her parents’ Midwest furniture store — reflects the artist’s interest in traditional materials (ex. wool, glass, birch, steel, cotton) used in unlikely complement. Every choice is an impish yet refined reimagining of the formal qualities of the home space, imbued with the warmth of memory and its attendant emotional landscapes.

This odic investigation allows for the expression of Burns’ simultaneous concerns of narrative and function: Knob Screen operates as a spatial determinant while also acting as an armature for material explorations of privacy and non-privacy; Coastal Mirror, inspired by the side-view mirrors on tractor-trailer trucks, swivels open to re-present or absorb its surrounds; Party Table gives new meaning to flipping-the-table, variously inviting community or solitude based on its configuration.