Omer Arbel

Architect? Designer? Sculptor? Welcome to the remarkable experiments of a fascinating innovator.

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I first encountered Omer Arbel when he began creating blown-glass lighting through Bocci, a company he co-founded in 2005. Clear globes were randomly suspended throughout rooms rather than clustered around a central chandelier. The effect was magical.

I thought of his work as fine craft, with its emphasis on the materiality of glass, although Arbel’s education was in architecture. It’s not unusual for architects to extend their design work beyond buildings – think of Russel Wright’s ceramic dinnerware, for instance, or Eero Saarinen’s pedestal chairs.

But even as he was starting out, Arbel followed a path that surpassed design alone. His emphasis was not on the final shape of his objects, whether lighting, furniture, sculpture or buildings. Rather, he focused on experimenting with materials – their physical qualities and ways of manipulating them – in what he calls “free explorations.”

Arbel embraced imperfection and error. Not everything he produced was functional – many objects were simply for aesthetic contemplation. He started to get a reputation as a sculptor and designer because people didn’t know where to slot him.

Fast forward almost 15 years to Particles for the Built World, Arbel’s solo exhibition at the Surrey Art Gallery, on view until June 16. Here, the extent to which his work transcends the notion of design becomes clear. The focus is his recent work with fabric-formed concrete, as well as experiments with glass.

The show is dominated by large concrete structures cast in fabric-lined wood forms. The fabric is geotextile, a permeable black material used to stabilize large blocks of soil above and below ground level. It leaves a crosshatched pattern on the outside of the concrete.

Arbel’s forms are sculptural with rounded curves and simplified floral shapes. The larger ones have plugs cut out from the core and are crosscut to reveal aggregate stones mixed with cement and sand, the ingredients of concrete.

The show also includes photographs of cross-sections of Arbel’s blown glass, as well as a piece of geotextile used to make the concrete forms, spread out like a fan on a gallery wall.

A second room features plans for a South Surrey home, still under construction, for which Arbel is experimenting with concrete. The house includes fabric-formed concrete pillars up to 30 feet in height that are shaped like inverted trumpets. Slender at their base, they open up at the top as part of the house’s roof.

“My intention is to develop a way of working with concrete that acknowledges its liquid nature and yields expressive form,” he says.

Arbel was born in Israel and moved with his family to Canada when he was 13. He completed a Bachelor’s degree in environmental science at the University of Waterloo in 1997 and apprenticed with Spanish architect Enric Miralles.

When Miralles died three years later, Arbel moved back to Canada and completed a degree in architecture. He now splits his time between Vancouver and Berlin, where Bocci has offices. His work has earned many awards and has been exhibited at leading institutions around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Art Institute of Chicago. ■

Omer Arbel: Particles for the Built World is on view at the Surrey Art Gallery in Greater Vancouver from April 13 to June 16, 2019.

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