INTERSECT by Lexus

INTERSECT BY LEXUS. The gallery is one of the many features of INTERSECT BY LEXUS, a multi-disciplinary venue that opened Manhattan’s Meatpacking district in 2018. It is a self-described “lifestyle hub” that offers a shop, restaurant and cafe in addition to innovative programming that includes art exhibits, performances and screenings. Visitors who enter encounter a vision that at once makes them pause to consider what they are viewing. At first glance, the elements of the installation are simple: fourteen cast-mold resin Shift Benches, arranged in a semi-circle of graduating hues. But then their experience morphs into a visual journey as they are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of color that surrounds them. The installation plays with the idea of how color is perceived by creating a gradation from red to blue, colors inspired by the Lexus cars themselves. When approaching the benches, viewers are struck by the subtleties in the resin and the shifting hues, which create a slightly disorienting and provocative sensation. Ellis created the installation by first exploring the venue’s three floors of space. Noticing the motif of the Spindle Grille throughout the environment, he recreated its shape with a focus on the changing of colors and the gradation of the resin within them. He also took note of the design of the Lexus car itself, particularly its intersecting line pattern. He then used that theme in both the shape of the benches and in how the resin works with the cores inside to create crossing and shifting lines within.