Almond Zigmund: Where Art, Furniture, and Community Meet
Almond Zigmund has a unique ability to connect the micro and the macro, forming meaningful connections within the local community as well as across the globe. Her artistic work scales from small prints to large public installations, embodying a three-dimensional vibrancy.
“Scale is really interesting because in some ways you can’t know what scale is until you are on site,” she explains. “I immerse myself in whatever space is given me, if I can. Over the past 20 years I’ve developed an understanding of space but also context, an interior office setting as opposed to exterior public setting. I trust my instincts.”
Her colorful and geometric designs can be found everywhere including Lisa Perry’s Onna House in East Hampton, The New York City Department of Transportation in the Bronx, Whitman Walker Health Center at The Liz in Washington DC and even as the winning design for a White Castle commission. She also designed an installation for the American Embassy in Paraguay after a State Department Curator discovered her work as part of the Parrish Art Museum’s Road Show curated by Andrea Grover. “It was one of the most challenging projects due to the secrecy around the plans,” she recounts, “I think I had one rendering. I had to shift and create a narrative within the two pieces. Luckily, we were able to install it on site.”
Zigmund also works with private clients for them to acquire or commission her work. “I welcome feedback on commissions. If people are living with the work, I want them to be happy.” It is still of course her artistic vision, and she adds with a laugh, “If they say they want it gold with a feather, maybe not.”
In the current exhibit at Guild Hall in East Hampton she has created a social space, The Wading Room, as part of the Functional Relationships: Artist-Made Furniture. Far from a hands-off museum exhibit, this is interactive.
This exhibition was organized by Melanie Crader, Museum Director and Curator of Visual Arts, with Philippa Content, Museum Manager and Registrar and Claire Hunter, Museum Coordinator and Curatorial Associate. Zigmund with her 12 years of putting on the Almond Writers & Artists Dinner was the perfect community fit. “Melanie Crader asked me to design a social space, a Wading Room, that people could use,” she recounts, and in partnership with Justin Allen, created her own special chair. Other artists whose furniture will be included are Sabra Moon Elliot, Kurt Gumaer, Saskia Friedrich, Karen Simon, and Nico Yektai as well as Mary Heilmann and Keith Sonnier from the permanent collection.
It’s meant to be a tactile experience. Zigmund explains, “There is a sign on the door saying, ‘Please Sit.’ It is meant to be a place people can come and do their work or read or gather.” There will be other programming including completing a latch hook rug as part of the exhibition, another community activity with a long history.
For Zigmund it is very important that she presents her work in dialogue with the viewer. “Perception and the altering of perception are an underlying theme of my work and how subtle shifts of color or shape or line can reorient you. Conceptually and thematically, it is an embodiment of the idea that perception is easily shifted. Our ideas shouldn’t be without flexibility.”
For Zigmund art is literally what makes the world go around. “Artists and all creative endeavors lead the way. It is a fundamental human need.” She is delighted to invite her audience to come into her world at Guild Hall and… pull up a chair.
