NEW YORK, NY.- Friedman Benda presents, Relations, an in-depth look into the creative duo OrtaMiklos and the designers Leo Orta and Victor Miklos Anderson. The exhibition offers insight into Orta and Miklos, who decided to separate this past year to develop their individual studio practices. Divided into three separate sections, works by OrtaMiklos alongside pieces from Orta and Miklos Anderson’s independent studios. Relations captures this rare moment in the careers of these emerging designers by looking at how their approach to design has evolved while working as part of a collective and how that experience continues to shape their approach since leaving the partnership.

Orta and Miklos Anderson founded OrtaMiklos in 2015 while studying at the Design Academy Eindhoven and spent their formative years working in collaboration while developing their individual practices—sharing ideologies and developing a signature sculptural language. OrtaMiklos’ approach since its establishment has been rooted in experimentation and improvisation, with many of their ideas beginning in guerrilla performances. Upending the conventional design processes, the duo can be defined by a fluid view towards design—blurring the line between digital and reality, performance and function, tangible and intangible. Relations highlights the last pieces created by OrtaMiklos which includes lighting, desks and chair sets and symbolize the culmination of their approach in expressing theatricality in material forms.

Since dissolving OrtaMiklos, Orta established his own studio in Les Moulins, France and Miklos Anderson established his workshop in Jyderup, Denmark to explore new avenues they began together as a duo. Reflecting on this heightened period of creativity while looking at their origins, the exhibition will explore themes of identity, collaboration, and evolution and reflect on the role of the collective in the design field through this unique lens.

Leo Orta

Leo Orta (b. 1993, Paris) graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2019. Working across a variety of media including sculpture, installation, painting and performance, Orta’s work questions the existential nature of being human and examines the social and emotional bonds humans create within their communities and environments. Orta currently lives and works in Les Moulins Seine-et-Marne, France.

Victor Miklos Anderson

Victor Miklos Anderson (b. 1992, Kalundborg) graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2020. Actively questioning existing behavioral norms, his practice is rooted in an experimental and conceptual approach towards design. Informed by his passion for humanitarianism, Miklos Andersen thus introduces abstract elements into the language of design and constructs a contemporary aesthetic that is both materially and politically relevant to our time. Miklos Anderson currently lives and works in Jyderup, Denmark.