UMBRAE S COFFEE TABLE BY RAPHAEL CRESPIN

The UMBRAE series investigates the architecture of shadows. The certainty of bronze is unsettled by the quietest of gestures and permanence yields to quiet shifts in perception. Constructed from panels and blocks, each table begins with a vocabulary of solidity with forms that appear anchored and deliberate. This sense of grounded permanence feels absolute until we notice select fissures in the geometry: surfaces fracture, lines falter, and in these subtle displacements, the shadow finds its voice

The works breathe through these fissures. Darkness pools at the edges, softening the weight of metal, drawing presence from absence. What first appears monolithic reveals itself to be porous, shifting, alive to the play of light. With a thrilling sense of improvisation, Captivating Paradoxes emerge as Solidity, void, permanence, impermanence, Luminosity, and darkness converge in fragile equilibrium

In their measured restraint, the UMBRAE tables become monuments to exquisite tension that are simultaneously grounded yet unsettled, austere yet tender, silent yet filled with almost musical resonance. Meditations on how light, shadow, and form conspire to shape experience, the works reveal how absence can be as forceful as matter