Interior Designers, Matthew White & Frank Webb, are Named to House & Garden’s List of “The New Tastemakers -- 50 for the Future of Design”

In their April, 2006 issue, House & Garden honored Matthew White and Frank Webb as new tastemakers for their innovative approach to furniture design and their blurring of the boundaries between design and art. In particular, the magazine focused on a site-specific art installation that the team created for Houston’s Rice Gallery, one of the only galleries in the country dedicated solely to installation art.

New York, NY (PRWEB) March 22, 2006

For the April, 2006 issue of House & Garden, the editors have compiled their second, annual list of break-out talents in the world of design. Dubbed the “new tastemakers,” this select group of 50 designers, architects, landscapers and artists were chosen by the magazine’s editors as key figures shaping the future of design.

House & Garden honored Matthew White and Frank Webb as new tastemakers for their innovative approach to furniture design and their blurring of the boundaries between design and art. In particular, the magazine focused on a site-specific art installation that the team created for Houston’s Rice Gallery, one of the only galleries in the country dedicated solely to installation art.

This special exhibition grew out of the design duo’s innovative line of furniture called White Webb’s Intaglio. Beginning with striking, one-dimensional images of antique furniture and decorative objects, Mr. White and Mr. Webb exaggerate proportions and blend multiple designs, which they then silk-screen onto 3-dimensional forms. The resulting pieces are bold and imaginative reinterpretations of the works that originally inspired the engravings.

Impressed by the wit and daring of the men’s furniture line, Rice Gallery invited the designers to extend their creativity to the art world. For their resulting installation, Eminent Domain, White and Webb used the same technique, but injected a new take on scale and perspective. By plastering the gallery walls with enormous blow-ups of botanical engravings, they created an ominous garden that threatened to swallow a pristine, black and white pavilion that they placed at its very center. Intended to evoke the eternal struggle between man and nature, Eminent Domain was one of the most successful installations in the gallery’s ten-year history.

To read about House & Garden’s New Tastemakers – 50 for the Future of Design, pick up a copy of the magazine at newsstands now.

To take a virtual tour of the exhibition that caught the attention of the House & Garden editors, please visit http://www.whitewebb.com/exhibit.php?portfolio-exhibitions.

To learn more about Rice Gallery, visit http://www.ricegallery.org.

About White Webb, LLC

White Webb, LLC is an interior design firm with offices in New York and California. The firm’s principals, Matthew White and Frank Webb, bring a sense of history to every interior design project, but balance it with an appreciation for modern life. This blending of old and new is the hallmark of the White Webb sensibility. Whether working with major art and antiques in architecturally significant houses or creating a fantasy setting in the gallery world, White Webb approaches all projects with an eye toward the past and the future, and a touch of wit.

For more information on White Webb, visit http://www.whitewebb.com.

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