John Procario, Sculpted Sofa III, USA, 2024

John Procario, known for his hand bent Freeform Series’ lighting designs, will be presenting a completely new body of work this fall, the Sculpted Sofa Series. The Sculpted Sofa Series expands upon his early exploration of furniture design first developed in 2019 inspired by his minimalistic lighting series the Freeform Series. Maintaining his signature visual language, the sofa is a culmination of all of his bodies of work, the lyrical line of the Freeform lighting series, the play of mass and scale seen in the Basin and Crevasse lighting series, and the relationship to the human form in the Posterior lounge chair and benches. With each new series and work produced, Procario’s sense of line and form is further honed.

Inspired by both the sensual curves of the human form and Hudson Valley’s rolling landscape, the sofa is shaped in a gentle C curve, its back maintaining a low arch. Following Procario’s signature organic aesthetic, the thirteen-foot frame subtly undulates. Known for his master craftsmanship and ability to create a visual illusion of a line in perpetual motion.

“I like the freedom and sculptural flexibility of a sofa. To me, sculpture is about creating a spatial experience for the viewer.” says the artist. “With the sofa, I can play with the viewer’s experience in a more intimate way [by considering how] people will sit and interact with the piece…” explains Procario who first crafts the piece as a 3D linear sculpture before adding in the functional elements necessary to render the work a sofa.

The Sculpted Sofas’ designs are completely informed by the shape and directionality of the freeform wood base. Echoing his lighting series, the sofa carries a sense of levity in its form – the central point of the sofa floats above ground, only rooting down at the work’s rounded corners. Following an organic and intuitive process, there is no predetermined design, instead the form emerges as a result of a slow building process honoring the microstack laminated wood’s natural curves. The process diverges once the internal armature of the sofa is built – the work is continually built up and carved down until the desired shape is achieved resulting in a completely unique work with each piece. The sofa’s base is a crisp ash wood and upholstered in a dreamily soft cream alpaca/wool blend.

As Procario works on a commission basis, custom designs may be requested.

Ash Wood, Alpaca Wool Blend Fabric
35h x 116w x 50d in
88.90h x 294.64w x 127d cm