While exploring the entries in a group show called “Fellow Traveler” at Williamsburg’s Riviera Gallery, HC2 came across a talented young man named Dan Funderburgh. He’s a Brooklyn-based illustrator, artist, and wallpaper designer whose creations are rooted in the world encompassed by the decorative arts. At Fellow Traveler, his fondness for adornment was literally thrown into relief by a triptych of laser-cut, laser-etched cardboard tools. The series, a collection of iconic tools typically found in a workshop, was inspired in part by a hand-painted Persian anchor Funderburgh had seen in the Louvre and a few photographs a friend had taken of an abandoned tool shed in Long Island. The Tools are produced in an edition of five each, selling for between $100 and $500 depending on size.
In addition to the tool wall, Funderburgh was showing a small group of laser-cut tributes to dead objects such as a VHS tape, a wing-tipped shoe or a pair of spectacles. Titled “Papel Picado,” meaning perforated paper, the pieces are based on Mexican folk art displayed during the Day of the Dead. They are produced in an edition of 15, and sell for $100 each. The intricate detail reminds us of the Polish Pavilion we featured back in January ’08. If the quality of this recent collection is any indication of future achievement, our suggestion is to snag these posthaste.
