PHIL PANZA FOR CORRIDOR
Photo: Dan Snyder
Stylist: Michael Grayer
Photo Assistant: Diego Martinez
Brooklyn, 2022
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PHIL PANZA FOR CORRIDOR | PHIL PANZA FOR CORRIDOR | PHIL PANZA FOR CORRIDOR | PHIL PANZA FOR CORRIDOR | PHIL PANZA FOR CORRIDOR
INTERVIEW WITH PHIL PANZA
OCTOBER 2022
DM: Diego Martinez
PP: Phil Panza
DM: Hey Phil, thanks for having us over for a great shoot. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background in art?
PP: My name is Phil Panza, I was born and raised here in New York, upstate, around Beacon. I went to school in Columbus, Ohio, just to get out of the city and experience more of the US - that’s actually the furthest West I’ve been out. After school I travelled around Europe for a while. I was studying fashion at that time, and I really wanted to take that classic route of working with a fashion brand - but after my time in Europe, I came back to NY and ended up getting into various things out here.
At one point I was working with a small, couture fashion house, where everything was made by hand. I had a studio in my bedroom, and I was working with jewelry, still trying to find a visual language for myself, trying to make something sellable but also aesthetically pleasing. Once I knew I was able to create things people were interested in, I just started playing around with a bunch of mediums.
I was working as an interior designer, remotely, which allowed me to go out to Portugal, and started tufting whilst I was out in Lisbon. I ended up getting my name out more, and then came back to NY for a little bit, got my first studio space and started just rebuilding my name out here.
DM: How does your background in fashion influence the way you think of projects or art pieces now?
PP: I think early on, my idea of fashion was to approach it as if I was making variable sculptures for people to wear. Looking back on it, that’s where the inspiration for the Yankee Hat came in - wanting to approach furniture as functional sculpture, influenced by fashion. Rugs are also functional sculptures, but they weren’t really in that same lineage that I wanted to be in.
That was my first piece using natural materials and kind of bridging the gap between function and the artistic aspect of it. Having the object be the driver, and the function be second place - I love art, but I just wanted to figure out how to take it and have it live in real life.
"HAVING THE OBJECT BE THE DRIVER, AND THE FUNCTION BE SECOND PLACE - I LOVE ART, BUT I JUST WANTED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO TAKE IT AND HAVE IT LIVE IN REAL LIFE."
DM: Do you usually lead with a concept, and then start a piece? How does that process work for you?
PP: I feel like a lot of artist when they’re creating 3D works on a budget, like a DuChamp lamp - you just kind of start out with objects that are around you. I think there’s a lot of beauty from Noguchi and Calder and Duchamp, using everyday items like a tie, or a piece of wood, or whatever it may be and combining other materials and sanding it down and creating nuances within a simple object. That’s how I started, and honestly it’s still how I approach my work.
Now I have connections with stone masons and fabricators and upholstery spaces, and they all have a lot of random, different material. I kind of go from that, and then decide what the material is saying to me, and the piece kind of tells me where it wants to go. That’s how I gravitate towards it, it’s still just playing around and not having that- you know, woodworkers intellect that tells you exactly what to do. It’s fun coming into things without that and learning by trial and error. Researching how wood bends, stuff like that.
I definitely have designs in my head that I want to create. I have a pretty quick sketching process that I take a couple of minutes to do, and I have hundreds of them - It’s only when I stumble on certain materials that any of them come to life.
DM: What’s the story behind the Lazy Daisy? I know that came together in a solo show here in New York for you. I also saw some daisy drawings in your studio that were really nice.
PP: Yeah, that was my first solo show. It was a bit rushed, but I had already created the Lazy Daisy, when I was in Lisbon, and it was all scrap material, using things at various studios and shops and applying them to the chair. When I came back I wanted to figure out how to make it more approachable, because it’s a very accessible piece. A lot of my work actually comes from toys and things that I enjoyed when I was a kid - so I did the lazy daisy in chalk, and I love chalk pastel - it’s super true to natural, instinctive form that sort of makes up as you go. As I was giving the piece it’s final shade I was drawing these daisies that were like people dancing, and I ended up using some of those for the show. There were tangled ones, untangled ones, couples in harmony, in the sun, with genuine entanglements, single ones - a whole bunch of lazy daisies.
The whole story is that it’s a lazy daisy, it’s a play on words. I want to use plays on words and metaphors and then give them life. To have the art piece perform it’s own name - it’s a Daisy that comes up and then comes down. It’s a floor piece, so it’s function is for laying down, and making the user a lazy daisy. Once I had that idea it was sort of just born into itself.
"NOW I HAVE A LOT OF RANDOM, DIFFERENT MATERIAL. I KIND OF GO FROM THAT, AND THEN DECIDE WHAT THE MATERIAL IS SAYING TO ME, AND THE PIECE TELLS ME WHERE IT WANTS TO GO."
PP: The show was called Dancing in a field of Daisies - if you walk into a field of daisies, it’s similar to the world - some flowers are getting a lot of sun, some aren’t - from a far it looks beautiful but when you get in and see them they’re all going through completely different realities. That’s usually how all of my work starts and how I hone in, and then research comes and more ideas sort of come in and land where they land.
DM: - Does music play any way into your work or methodology?
PP: In my jewelry sometimes I’ll stamp lyrics, and I’m always listening to music while I’m creating. Funny enough, I don’t know why, but I think that music definitely influences my jewelry much more than other times. There’s a certain flow when you work with jewelry, a lot of my pieces are very organic. I’ll take a block of silver and chop it down, put grooves in it, and it’s purely based on the music.
DM: - How did your perspective change coming from Lisbon back to the scene in New York?
PP: Lisbon was a huge inspiration, I’ve been around Europe a good bit, Lisbon is one of my favorite spaces. The energy, the shitty graffiti, the light, the architecture. Not all of the graffiti is shitty, by the way.
PP: Now Lisbon is a lot more popular. When I was out there it was less on the map. You’ve seen Paris, and Berlin, you know what the energy is like there. In New York, there are big things - there’s money, art, design, etc - in Lisbon, there’s just purity. It feels untainted. They enjoy their culture and way of life a lot. There’s an ease of life, that lets time pass as it does. I felt a lot of bliss there, and I was finding more natural materials, being more raw with my own work - using more stone. The thing that was important was that lack of urgency, and being able to find refinement in that.
That being said, that’s also the thing that’s more unique to New York. When you’re really trying to work and do shit, it takes a little more effort and there’s sort of a lag in Lisbon, the urgency isn’t there. In New York, the pace changes. You can have more new things, more quickly. Things are more refined, the inspiration isn’t so much eclectic, not much outside - people are the thing that inspires. The things they do, the idea of the city being the first point of contact, the place where shit hits first. The connections are endless. I love Brooklyn, I’m super into the skate scene, so I love that too. It’s New York, you know.
DM: Can you tell us what you’re currently working on that you’re excited about, or what you have coming up? What’s the long term vision?
PP: I have a Pink Essay show coming up - they’re sick, they’re two dudes, David and Matt, who started a visual library of different designers and chairs and furniture that bridges the gap between fashion, design and art, so we’re super aligned. It’s really sick to see what a lot of those artists are doing, it better verbalizes what I’m trying to create. I have a show with them on the 4th of November, so I’m working on a pretty funky chair. Other than that, just continuing to play with things. I have a moss collection that I’m finishing the last piece for - really just trying to get some more structure, and come out with series.
PP:The moss pieces are playing with elements, first with moss, then with the sky, then eventually going to play with the other elements. I have chair that’s inspired by rain. I have piece called Between A Rock and A Hard Place, it's a rock, a cushion, and the wall. I want to keep using plays on words. There’s still some Lisbon in me, just jumping idea from idea, so I’m trying to find more of that grounding and really come out with series and small bodies of work.
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Phil Panza is a multidisciplinary artist working out of Brooklyn, New York, in furniture, jewelry and design. Follow his work on Instagram here.
