This month, Volume Gallery in Chicago opened Super Natural, a solo show of new furniture and planters from LA-based designer Ross Hansen. Like earlier work, much of the new collection has been created in the Cranbrook alum's signature material: molded ceramic epoxy. This time, though, the colors, textures, and forms reach a new level of exuberance—a welcome sight after this long, strange summer; a heartening jumpstart to the fall season's cultural calendar.

With a background in landscape design, Hansen is inspired by the forms and the mayhem of the natural world, and for years now he's been exploring the possibilities of ceramic epoxy to riff on nature's complexities. He custom-builds his molds to facilitate the combination of various materials with the epoxy, cast together for structural integrity and aesthetic variation. Even as he works with an ever-wider variety of materials, molding continues to be a process that yields unique objects reflective of his spirited artistic decisions.

"We are excited to be presenting new works by Ross Hansen in his second solo exhibition Super Natural," say Sam Vinz, cofounder of Volume Gallery. "With these new works he is pushing his design language into new and varied materials, such as cast glass, leather, wood, and fiberglass. Hansen’s ability to blend these new materials into his pieces so seamlessly is compelling not only because it creates beautiful works, but because it gives us insight to the progressive nature of his practice and the direction it is heading." ◆

Super Natural is on view at Volume Gallery through October 31, 2020.