Jacob Kulin, furniture maker and sculptor, presides over a
studio space tucked in a remote corner of Southie. His workspace is quiet; he
is not. An intense 37-year-old with twinkling eyes and a friendly canine
sidekick, Kulin has the wardrobe of a lumberjack and the heart of an entrepreneur.
This is a man who's designed mounted wall sculptures for billionaires in Dubai
and cruise lines in the Caribbean, but who will also beat down barn doors in
rural Pennsylvania to purloin just the right wood.
His creations at Kulin Modern
embrace such seamless conflict: some stools and tables, for instance, pit
hard-edged metal and glass against the softness of reclaimed oak. Inspired by
his family's Scandinavian heritage, Kulin favors modern lines mixed with warm
wood patinas. And please banish any thoughts of IKEA from your mind: instead
think reclaimed oak balancing translucent glass, warm black walnut elevating
small aluminum shelves.
Kulin got his start working with jewelry and small metals, and he
considers his large-scale work an extension of this background. "I'm creating
large jewelry in the shape of sculpture, on an architectural level," he
enthuses. "The person who likes clean, slick, modern lines, somebody who likes
mixing classical with modern elements, will appreciate my work," he says. "The
reclaimed essence speaks to certain people. I'm trying to use edgy materials
and edgy forms, curved compositions. When asymmetry and symmetry collide - it's
organized chaos."
To this end, Kulin strives to wed sleek elements of metal and
glass with the unpredictability of nature. This is a man who is truly
passionate about wood. He often journeys to Amish country in the wilds of rural
Pennsylvania, where he was raised, to unearth usable materials. He bounds down
the hall to his personal workshop, gesticulating wildly, talking about a recent
piece of salvaged wood that he transformed from a barn door into a bench. "I
really think the fact it's reclaimed is important. It's being recycled, reused.
It has more character, bar none, than any new material I could get, so it's
win-win. I love the old patina, the history." His eyes light up, and he stares
at me intently: "This barn was built well over 150 years ago, and this tree was
probably growing for 150 years before that. You're looking at a bench in 2009
that really started its life in the 1700s. It grew for 150
years!"
Despite his love of nature and his earthy demeanor, Kulin's scope
is global and his focus is on the future. He's been commissioned by Gillette,
AstraZeneca, and money-is-no-object collectors in the Middle East. Here in
Boston, he was represented by the Judi Rotenberg Gallery before striking out on
his own. These days, he's a one-man show: "I'm the designer, photographer,
website designer. I have to be able to articulate my work. I have to walk the
walk and talk the talk."
He thinks Boston is a more challenging city to do that in than,
say, New York, where people are more willing to drop big bucks on artwork. But
he's gotten a warm reception in Boston since arriving in 2000, after training
at Skidmore College and the Cranbrook Academy of Art. "There's a different kind
of temperament here. This is a manageable city. I feel kind of like part of my
mission is to bring my energy and my love of what I do to the people here in
Boston. Look! I'm right here, surrounded by the ICA, the Boston Design Center,
the South End. I'd love to know somebody like me, if I were a designer," he
says with a smile.
