During the preview for his debut solo show at Latitude Gallery, Charlie Mai recounts that once, during a dinner party, someone told him they wanted to fuck his chairs. They are irresistible. Mai is known for his chair design — foam exteriors, turned inside-out, bound with electrical rope, giving BDSM — and his street-wear-clad folk Chinese figurines (which were shown in New York Fashion Week), which explore a clashing of wealth and culture. “A fissure that identity politics ignores,” says Mai. The painted ceramic figurines began as critique but have since evolved to question the prerequisites of inclusion and the tokenization of identity within artistic communities. Displayed by the entrance, they stand on shelves that resemble his chair works; glass presses into the bound foam as it would flesh.
