Friedman Benda is pleased to present Upbeat, Michael Anastassiades’ debut solo-exhibition. A seminal figure in contemporary design, Anastassiades is internationally renowned for his precisely considered forms that delicately balance material and light. To realize this ambitious body of work, Anastassiades intentionally divested his exploratory prototyping process of industrial fabrication methods. Instead, he consciously resolved to confine production within the studio walls. Alongside the embrace of a novel material language, studio-focused construction prompted the adoption of hand-made methodologies, directing Anastassiades to techniques rooted in centuries-old Japanese craft traditions.

Arranged into striking linear configurations that take inspiration from the Manhattan skyline and knowingly refer to Dan Flavin’s groundbreaking Tatlin series, the pieces in Upbeat adroitly interweave geographies and temporalities, as well as Eastern and Western art historical canons. Via the aggregate of their tangible and ideological parts, Anastassiades’ pieces at once compress and expand temporal and physical space, distilling these pluralistic dimensions into a poised singular moment.