Joris Laarman: Symbio
Symbio presents two groundbreaking bodies of work from the laboratory of Joris Laarman. This marks his first solo exhibition in New York in almost a decade, following the celebrated 2017 retrospective at the Cooper Hewitt Museum.
SYMBIO is a landmark intervention into contemporary design. Drawing on years of multidisciplinary research, Laarman merges advanced technologies, sculptural experimentation, and the vital dynamics of Nature into singular objects. Developed in close collaboration with research institutes and cutting-edge start-ups, these material investigations address urgent environmental challenges. Laarman’s fusion of the technical and the poetic signals a welcome, imaginative optimism in a time of emergency.
The exhibition features four works from the Ply Loop series: a chair, a console, a freestanding bookcase, and a wall shelf. Meticulously assembled by hand and guided by Laarman’s distinctive use of digital design and fabrication tools, these pieces push the possibilities of plywood into new aesthetic terrain. Their complex geometries are made possible by an innovative biodegradable resin, inaugurating a non-toxic and renewable chapter in the history of engineered wood. While the Ply Loop works on view push the sculptural boundaries of plywood, the underlying research points toward a scalable, regenerative future.
A second series, Symbio, has also evolved from several strands of research. These benches are conceived as objects in active dialogue with their environment. They have been 3D-printed in a mixture of materials exploring groundbreaking progress in concrete that permanently stores carbon rather than emitting it. Infused with a bio-active substrate placed within recessed channels, the objects support the growth of mosses and lichens. These living graphics follow a reaction-diffusion pattern first described by Alan Turing, which Laarman adopts as a potent symbol of symbiosis—between nature and architecture, computation and craft.
Across his career, Laarman has consistently created objects without precedent or parallel, distinguished by a rare combination of avant-garde experimentation and material intelligence. Yet the strongest resonance of SYMBIO lies in its implications. The dynamic aesthetics and scientific foundations of both Ply Loop and Symbio suggest the exhilarating possibility of positive change. Together, they affirm the enduring power of imagination—demonstrating how craft, material science, and computation can converge to shape a regenerative future.
Concurrent with his solo exhibition at the gallery, works from the Maker (2014-2024) and Microstructures series (2014) will be presented at Fondazione Dries Van Noten’s inaugural presentation, The Only True Protest is Beauty, opening to the public in Venice on April 25, 2026.
Friedman Benda
About
One of the leading creative voices of his generation, Joris Laarman is internationally renowned for working at the intersection of cutting-edge technology and craft to create poetic, emotionally charged work that challenges the boundaries of design and science. Laarman’s highly conceptual, groundbreaking approach inspired by nature has redrawn the parameters of contemporary design over the past two decades.
