F LOY D G O M P F TA B L E A U X O F D E C AY A N D R E N E WA L
L I L L ST R E E T A RT C E N T E R
© 2012 Lillstreet Art Center 4401 N. Ravenswood Ave. Chicago, IL 60640 Artwork © Floyd Gompf Text © Paul Smirl Photographs © Joe Tighe Photography and © David Velasco All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic or mechanical means, without permission in writing from Lillstreet Art Center.
F LOY D G O M P F TA B L E A U X O F D E C AY A N D R E N E WA L E s s a y by Pa u l S m i r l P h o t o g ra p h s by J o e T i g h e a n d D a v i d Ve l a s c o
F
L O Y D G O M P F makes art out
discarded objects, honoring their history
of forgotten objects. He scrounges
while creating entirely new uses for their
back-alleys, scours flee markets, surfs
materials. On October 18, Lillstreet’s staff
eBay and creates furniture out of the
had the privilege of visiting Gompf’s home
things you’ve thrown away. Turning the
studio in scenic Union Pier, MI and found
aged and overlooked into the bright and
a man entrenched in a signature style of
whimsical, Gompf reclaims the essence of
work in a space saturated with art.
Floyd in his Michigan Studio
With a BFA in Design and an MFA in Sculpture, Gompf has the pedigree of a ceramicist: for years he focused on producing black and white abstract Floyd’s showroom doubles as artist retrat avialble for rent
sculptures and endured a decade-long run of American Craft Enterprise shows. Yet, unsatisfied with the direction of his production line, Gompf left clay behind in 1985 and went searching for art in dumpsters. Drawing from his experience as a sculptor and taking on the new process
of woodworking, Gompf has since spent the last twenty-seven years gathering, collecting and transforming found objects in a self-taught fashion, combining tossedout wood pieces to create rustically colorful tables, cabinets, cupboards and figurines. Examining Gompf’s pieces, it’s easy to meditate on the transience of man-made objects and the endurance of nature.
Through the amalgamation of wheels, frames, banisters and wooden scraps, Floyd’s portfolio exhibits tableaux of decay and renewal as man-made forms are deconstructed and added together to create new and useful items. Forming a beautiful, patchwork aesthetic, Gompf shows that materials can continually be repurposed until they eventually decompose.
Jewelry Box, Cart with Wheels, Buffet Table, and Dining Table with reclaimed oak top.
As a multi-disciplinary art center and gallery space, Lillstreet is proud to display Gompf’s work and hopes to aptly represent its historical and ecological lineages. Taken from Gompf’s richly adorned home in the crests of Michigan’s lakeside landscape, Floyd’s pieces have been transported out of the artist’s natural, creative environment and now inhabit a differently imaginative space. Inside the home of Floyd and his wife, artist Linda Hoffhines.
Various side tables
Yet, just as Floyd’s salvaged materials take on new lives as he intuitively puzzles them together, Lillstreet hopes to give Gompf’s art new homes and users. Looking at Lillstreet’s newly acquired Gompf pieces, one sees a set of multipurpose furniture: there’s a rolling stage coach that doubles as a table, a jukebox-shaped bookcase with shelves
White side table (detail)
Egg cart (detail)
Tall red cupboard (detail)
and a hinged cupboard, and a cooper’s tritable formed from an actual barrel maker’s bench. With a widget- framed mirror, a miniature metallic robot and a Lake Michigan-shaped coffee table anchoring Lillstreet’s Gompf arsenal, patrons have the opportunity to view Floyd’s signature crafts in a variety of shapes and sizes.
White side table; mirror in background
Floyd’s furniture in use at his Michigan showroom/artists’ retreat.
Whether you need decoration, storage space or overall liveliness in your home, Gompf’s pieces do the job. Marked by the artist’s instinctive assemblage and his materials’ mysterious histories, Gompf’s work can’t help but transform a room. Bringing us closer to nature with his sustainable furniture, Floyd makes us wonder what gems we’ve all thrown away.
Floyd’s playful clay creations atop one of his wooden tables.
PA U L S M I R L is a writer and artist from Waukesha, Wisconsin and currently a senior at Lawrence University. He is interning at Lillstreet this semester as a part of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest’s Chicago Program. J O E T I G H E is a Photographer and Solutionist from Chicago, IL working for Lillstreet Art Center. In his own work, he consistently seeks interesting processes of creation to document and understand.
D AV I D V E L A S C O is a photographer and printmaker from the northern suburbs of Chicago. He is a recent graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design, and is interning at Lillstreet working primarily with photography and video.