Travis King In SH/EH Press

Furniture artist Travis King of Springs will open his Washington Avenue studio to the public for a special showing on March 22,from 6 to 9 p.m. ALINE REYNOLDS

Furniture Artist Opens Studio

By Aline Reynolds

Travis King of Springs is an interior designer, furnishing installer and fine artist all in one. With a grandfather who founded the prominent awning company C.E. King & Sons (whose clientele once included Springs neighbor Jackson Pollock), Mr. King is perpetuating the family legacy, forging his own artistic path through the channel of contemporary interior furnishing.
“I came to realize that I love working with my hands,” he said, commenting on his attitude toward the various artistic modes he was contemplating as a teenager. “I did, after all, grow up working on upholsteries and covers in the family canvas shop.”
Mr. King has since developed a reputation for his innovative, hand-crafted furniture, which he has been designing and installing in the Hamptons for more than three years. East Enders can view the large breadth of his furniture styles and fine art works at Mr. King’s grand opening exhibit at his Washington Avenue studio in Springs on March 22, from 6 to 9 p.m.
The exhibit can thereafter be seen by individual appointment.
Mr. King graduated from the reputed Savannah College of Art & Design in Georgia with a degree in furniture design. There, among other projects, he worked on a series of chairs in the style of Olympic sailing boats. “The assignment was to design a piece of furniture inspired by the Olympics, which took place in Atlanta that year,” he explained. “So, the fabric we used was actual sailcloth.” The students combined the cloth with stainless steel to form the back of the chair into a mast-like shape.
Immediately after graduation from college, he moved back to Springs, where he worked on large-scale projects under the supervision of custom cabinetmakers for several years. His career got a jump-start when a large bedroom vanity unit he built for a residence on Meadow Lane in Southampton appeared in a 1999 June-July issue of Elle Décor magazine. This unit consists of a custom-designed queen bed ensemble that features a slick, wood-slat wall supporting a delicately cushioned backrest, two modern-style bedside tables, and, behind the unit, a symmetrical set of clothing drawers with discrete handles integrated into two dresser units.
Increasingly recognized for such original designs, Mr. King opened his own studio in a spacious 2,000-square-foot warehouse-like building in 2004 on Washington Avenue, just off Three Mile Harbor Road. “I like working at my own pace and being tucked away,” he explained, adding that his proximity to Manhattan is a plus.
When asked what makes his work distinguishable from that of other competent East End interior designers, Mr. King points to his obsession with detail and his quest for perfection.
“I’m no factory,” he commented. “Everything that leaves my shop is custom made by me.”
His multifaceted abilities—from designing to building to installing—are what sets him apart.
“I design [a furniture piece] from the drawing and idea stage, then build and create it, then install it,” he said. “In other words, I work from concept to creation, from start to finish,” adding that he uses the highest quality materials, which he purchases on demand from specialty building shops.
Regularly commissioned by prominent Manhattan-based designers such as Fox Nahem and Zung Design, Mr. King builds a wide array of domestic furnishings for East End homeowners and restaurateurs. To date, Mr. King says, 90 percent of his clients have come through word of mouth and that the majority of them “know what they want and are easy to work for.”
Mr. King takes on a wide variety of projects, ranging from intimate bathroom/bedroom vanities to large structures for entertainment centers. Though his specialty is modern contemporary design, Mr. King has made reproductions of antique furniture on request as well as post-modern and modern pieces. He described the multistep process of his job: “I normally start out with 10 sketches, then make three derivative ones based on those, then 10 more, and finally attain a design-shop drawing, which I use to build the piece.”
One of Mr. King’s most ambitious East End projects was the design and construction of a media center/desk unit for a physically challenged customer who worked at home. The interior designer scrupulously examined the area and provided his client with several drawings before building, painting, and installing the unit. Explaining his method of custom design, he said, “the desk unit was designed high enough to allow his wheelchair to fit underneath.” He also assisted in setting up the client’s printer, fax machine, wireless router and DVD player behind a door to keep them out of sight.
Whenever he has a moment to spare from his furnishing projects, Mr. King resorts to his other favorite artistic endeavor: painting. Working from scratch with blank slates of plain, cotton fabric, Mr. King creates cubist oil on canvas works and pointillist profile sketches of human figures.
“I am a perfectionist with my art as much as I am with my furnishing work,” he said, stressing his fondness for “working with layers.” His colorful, shape-oriented acrylic canvas work “Juxtapose” is currently on view in the “Serenity” exhibit in East Hampton Town Hall until May 2.
Mr. King is enthusiastic about hosting the opening at his Springs studio, in which several of his recent interior design pieces and fine art works will be exhibited.
“It’s going to be as much of an introduction to the shop and studio as it is an exhibiting of my finished pieces,” said the artist, who wishes to demonstrate “the work that goes into making my products.” On display will be several of his commissioned furniture pieces in various stages of completion, including a pine antique-style entertainment center, plywood cabinets meant for a builtin closet unit, a plywood office desk, and a stained maple kitchen island.
The exhibit also features his completed oil, acrylic, and ink-dot pieces, including his brand new “Doublecross,” an oil painting on plywood that experiments with the theme of the cross and incorporates a crucifixion at the center.
FurnitureartistTravisKingwillhosta grand opening exhibit at hisWashingtonAvenuestudioinSpringsonMarch 22,from6to9p.m.Fordirections,orto scheduleanappointmentforatourata laterdate,e-mailAnnCarmody,studio coordinator, at ann@traviskingstudio. comorcall(631)604-5022.