"We’re a city that does not have a collectible design fair," Yashar continues. "A metropolitan city of our kind in the moment we’re having now—which is another golden age—to think about the fact that so much culture is created in Los Angeles and exported, and, yet, we don’t have a lot of those institutional things that other cities have on a level that we deserve. Furth Yashar & is, in a way, a stop-gap measure. We wouldn’t do it if there wasn’t a need for it. We’re doing it because there’s a need."
Oliver Furth (L) and Sean Yashar (R), photo by Stephen Busken courtesy of Furth Yashar &
For their second exhibition, Furth Yashar & went west: to Brentwood, featuring the dazzling sugar sculptures of artist Maayan Zilberman at designer Aliso Palevsky's boutique.
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"We wanted to bring work that is super 'downtown' uptown," Yashar says. "Or, work that you would expect on the East to be on the West. What we like to do a lot of times is take things out of the context that you’d expect it in. ...Also, our community—both [of us] being born and raised in Los Angeles—we have friends and colleagues and people we know all across the city. We know what their limitations are. So, I think that show was also about bringing something good to our friends on the westside."
Furt Yashar &'s third show, which recently concluded at the Schindler House in West Hollywood, featured four separate artists: Elyse Graham, Alex Hagentorn, Alex J. Reed, and Jonathan Zawada.
"Together these artist-makers advance [architect Rudolph] Schindler’s narrative of Los Angeles as the grand dame of blank slates," a press release for the show notes, "with the Schindler House serving as the penultimate forum on which these young creatives will define their practice and earn their place in the pantheon of contemporary, collectible design and art."
So why haven't you seen Furth Yashar &'s shows flood your Instagram feed?
"We both believe in the compass of curiosity," Yashar notes. "The people who are ready to see it will discover it in a way that is natural—and it can be natural on Instagram, but if you look at Furth Yashar &, we’re not posting a lot, we’re not hashtagging up a storm. Even if you come to the show, you see there aren’t signs for social media. I think it’s not about forcing. There’s not a marketing or social media plan. It’s really about curious people finding it, and the laws of attraction."
"These days, you go to a fair or a show, and it feels like an Instagram check," Furth adds.
"We’re not click-bait," Yashar clarifies. "We’re not about that at all."
"We’ve gotten a lot of positive response, but we’ve gotten a lot of people that have thought differently about LA as a market," Furth concludes. "People from New York and Europe, that have approached us or have had that conversation themselves, and also people here thinking about LA in a different kind of way. So, I would not be surprised if there is a design fair in the next 12 months. And I wouldn’t be surprised if one of us was involved with one."
LACMA, image courtesy of @jess_larson
Image courtesy of @pacificdesigncenter
Cristina Grajales Gallery, image courtesy of @pedrobarrail
Maayan Zilberman's sugar sculptures at Palevsky, image courtesy of @olivermfurth
Schindler House, image courtesy of @albertchandra.1
Stefan Bishop with a sculpture at the Furth Yashar & show at the Pacific Design Center, image courtesy of @stefanbishop
Header image courtesy of Furth Yashar &