Maya Frodeman Gallery West is pleased to present Is This Real?, an exhibition of furniture and art with Sawkille Co. and Jonah Meyer. Grounded in craft yet expansive in vision, the exhibition reflects Meyer’s ongoing exploration of material, process, and form, where utility and imagination coexist without hierarchy.
Founded and owned by Jonah Meyer and Tara DeLisio, Sawkille Co. is known for its meticulous craftsmanship and deeply rooted commitment to sustainable production. All works are handmade in Sawkille’s Kingston, New York workshop using locally sourced wood from the surrounding Hudson Valley forests. The visible hand of the maker remains central to each piece, underscoring a belief that objects gain character through time, use, and care. Is This Real? highlights recent developments in Meyer’s practice, shaped in part by time spent in the American West. Desert landscapes have introduced new iconography and spatial ideas, visible in deeply carved motifs, refined animal forms rendered in silver, and an expanded body of wall-mounted and sculptural works. While recurring patterns appear across media, their translation – from drawing to carving to metal – produces subtle shifts that emphasize process as a generative force.
Meyer works within an artisan workshop model, training a small team while remaining intimately involved in carving, material decisions, and finishing. This collaborative structure enables a wide-ranging body of work while maintaining cohesion across furniture, objects, and sculpture. Nature-derived references mingle with playful, almost folkloric elements, resulting in a visual language that feels both grounded and animated. Initially emerging through decorative interventions on functional forms, Meyer’s artistic practice has evolved into freestanding sculptural objects that comfortably occupy the space between design and fine art. The distinction between these categories is intentionally blurred, reflecting Meyer’s long-held interest in studio art and his belief that the two disciplines enrich one another. DeLisio is responsible for nurturing this co-creation at every evolution, teasing out Meyer’s natural ability to design and showcasing his work as the creative director of Sawkille.
Meyer is the co-owner, designer and artist behind Sawkille Co., and has a background in fine art painting and sculpture, as well as woodworking. His identity as an artist was formed in the fields of Pennsylvania, where creativity and artistry met face on with the practicalities of homesteading in the seventies. Meyer sensed early on that being an artist was his true path, and was encouraged by his parents, a potter and a goldsmith, who were pursuing their dreams of homesteading and respective crafts. Meyer graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and moved to the Hudson Valley, where he generated his own version of sustaining life through art. Meyer sold his first chair design to one of his art school professors, which fueled further exploration of chairs, first with twigs and roots and heavily organic shapes. Influences range from Shaker furniture and Scandinavian design to masters such as George Nakashima, Wharton Esherick, and Sam Maloof. Like these predecessors, Meyer draws from tradition not as a fixed style, but as an open-ended framework for continued exploration. Together, the works in Is This Real? present a cohesive yet ever-evolving practice – one that honors craftsmanship, embraces experimentation, and allows furniture, sculpture, and ornament to exist in dynamic conversation.
