In a Landscape

Friedman Benda is pleased to present In a Landscape, Ferréol Babin‘s first solo exhibition in New York, opening March 6, 2026. Debuting a new body of work, the show introduces an intimate dialogue with painted furniture, opening a new dimension in Babin’s practice and deepening his ongoing reflections on nature and the act of making.

      Working with wood from neighboring forests, he cultivates a deep connection with his surroundings. The trees themselves — their textures, rhythms, and forms — shape Babin’s sensibility. Rooted in place yet creating his own world, his work feels deeply personal, a reflection of both his lived environment and inner landscape. In contemplating nature and looking at details — as if finding shapes in clouds or branches — he explores the tension between how nature is depicted in painting and how it can be embodied in an object. 

      For Babin, painting is an act of improvisation — a means of expressing and exploring the landscape that surrounds him. Distilling fragments of the countryside into color and texture, he treats wood as his canvas. The gesture of painting introduces a new pleasure to the process of making furniture: what once ended with carving and oiling now continues with visual cues drawn from his observations. A sense of sincerity runs throughout his practice — an honesty anchored in clarity, material sensitivity, and craftsmanship. Painted furniture has long existed within folk traditions but remains rare in contemporary design; here, Babin gives that lineage a quiet nod, weaving it into his expansive vocabulary.