Leaning Dovetails
Cherry 36″H x 17″W x 20″D

I recently added the Leaning Dovetails to my website. I completed the piece a few years ago but it had not made its way onto this version of my website. The catalyst was it’s inclusion in a show at the Silas Marder Gallery. The Leaning Dovetails had a prime position and I was delighted to see this piece again with fresh eyes. Pat Rogers of the Hamptons Art Hub included the piece in her rundown of the Thanksgiving art events. View Story

The leaning Dovetails are based on a notion that has crept into a number of my pieces. That notion is the dovetail as more than a structural joint. My approach transforms them into a landscape within a larger composition. I think of them in terms of a painting: like an interior still life in which the artist introduces a window or a painting on the wall, thus adding a composition within the composition.

The Leaning Dovetails connect to the wall with a clip that is hidden within the thickness of the cherry wood. The mass of the piece comes off the wall in an unusual angle. This sets up the possibility for the piece to immediately become noticed by anyone in the room. The angled thrust pushed all the way down to the floor where the piece adopt a delicate, expressive, stance.

By Nico Yektai -
New York based designer/maker Nico Yektai opened the doors to his Hamptons studio in 1995 after completing the MFA program at the School For American Craft at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The rigorous technical training complimented his background in Art History, which he studied, at Hobart College in Geneva NY. Yektai has synthesized this background into a singular style that has gained him national attention. Visit nicoyektai.com for more information