Studio: Jon Goulder

Jon Goulder.

Image: Bo Wong

Not only is it amazingly rare, expensive and risky in Australia for a furniture designer to be awarded a solo show, but the fact that Jon Goulder designed and crafted eleven new pieces in twelve months verges on heroic. What appears to be an eclectic lineage of structural and material strategy in the LD desk, Oh La La chair and Amoré Mio low chair is beyond style. It is art: experimental, beautifully resolved and timeless. The pieces, including the Glissando credenza and several earlier works, appear related to the highly regarded Calypso lounge and Leda seat. And then there’s the extraordinarily masterful Form wall shelf.

As a passionate, fourth-generation furniture designer and craftsman, Jon is distinctive. His deep understanding of material, structure, weight and balance first awakened in a childhood spent in the southern highlands of New South Wales, surrounded by his parents’ carefully selected lifelong investment in beautiful furniture. They created an eclectic, much-loved collection to be handed down for generations.

From the age of fifteen, while working as an apprentice in the family business, Jon’s skills were developed through his commitment and capacity for hard work. In 1996, when he was selected as one of an elite group of eight to study under the stewardship of the great master-craftsman George Ingham at the Canberra School of Art, these skills were honed. Since 1998, Jon has maintained a serious design practice. His work is sought after, his impressive exhibition list includes Milan, and museums such as the Powerhouse, Sydney and WA Art Gallery hold several of his pieces in the permanent collection.

Jon was lured by Form to relocate with his young family to Perth in 2006, which has led to a series of significant opportunities, beginning with Jon’s lead role as mentor in Form’s Designing Futures program and the 2009 designer-in-residence at the Midland Atelier . Jon gratefully acknowledges that without Form, his solo exhibition would not have been possible. An independent organization working to enhance Western Australia’s creativity, Form initiated a partnership with the Midland Redevelopment Authority to develop the creative industries centre at the Midland Atelier.

11.12 Furniture by Jon Goulder, he says, demonstrates that the “Midland Atelier’s production and design capability provides support for artists that exists nowhere else in Australia.” Now, in collaboration with the Atelier, a series of pieces from the exhibition are in production: the Amoré Mio low chair and coffee table, the Fill bookshelf and the LD desk are in production and the Glissando credenza, Form wall shelf and Calypso lounge are available in limited batches.

Update from Jon Goulder, December 2012

Since my exhibition 11:12 I moved to become the Head of Workshop At the Midland Atelier, I have worked in that position for two years and have established the facility to a point where is Australia’s largest furniture design collective and we have become economically self sustainable. The Atelier employs around eight to ten designers at any one time and offers top professional rates. I resigned as head of workshop last month due to an overwhelming amount of opportunities for my own practice. I figure the atelier is in good shape to now hand over to a workshop/production manager and that is what I have done – helped establish and hand over.

I am looking forward to continuing to work with FORM and the Midland Atelier in a design capacity in the future. Form has been an amazing support to me over the past five years and we continue to maintain a great working relationship.

Running along side this is my practice, last year my work was collected by the National Gallery of Australia and has been showcased in a number of exhibitions.

Solo exhibitions

2012: Jon Goulder solo exhibition, Wesfarmers Conference, Melbourne
2010: 11:12 Jon Goulder solo exhibition, FORM, Perth

Group exhibitions

2012: One/Third, Saturday in Design, Styecraft Showroom, Melbourne
2012: De-sign-eD, Sofa Gallery, Canberra School of Art
2011: Matilda, London Design Festival, London
2011: Recent Acquisitions, National Gallery of Australia
2011: Australian Chair Survey, Gallery of Australian Design, Canberra
2011: Capital Growth: The Piggy Bank Project, Artisan, Brisbane
2011: Remix, Art Gallery of Western Australia

Recently I worked with Alex Lotersztain, Helen Kontouris and Adam Goodrum on a project called One Third and Alex was incredibly generous in opening up his channels for us into a distribution deal with Stylecraft showrooms.

I am currently designing a small collection for Dessein Furniture with Adam Goodrum and Justin Huchinson. We are designing an exciting collection to be produced in Asia and released in Australia next year, I can’t say much just yet but this project looks to be very exciting.

I have just crated up my new dining chair for a two-year-long touring exhibition called Wood Art Design Architecture with the Jam Factory Adelaide.