World-renowned architect Frank Gehry is most often recognized for his architectural works – the Sydney Opera House and MIT’s State Center among them – as well as the characteristic metal shells and curved planes. On a more tangible scale, but no less extraordinary, are Gehry’s fish lamps that he first started crafting in 1983 after a commission from Colorcore, a division of the giant Formica corporation specializing in formica laminates. Gehry’s vision of the fragmented white material as the scales of a fish propelled a series of lamps with forms carry the realism of the aquatic creatures and with scales of the “fall-into-place” quality present in Gehry’s architectural works. The white translucent material entrances onlookers as the lamps glow soft amber under the flood of incandescent light. Selected lamps from the series are on display at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, and will also be on view at the Paris location in two weeks’ time.
