Gabriel Charbit is fascinated by moments of transition, particularly the period of research during which an artist gradually departs from one visual language in search of another. More than finished works, Charbit is drawn to the questions that precede them, to the instant when a new visual language begins to emerge.
Trained as both an engineer and a cabinetmaker before earning a Master’s degree in industrial design, Charbit approaches furniture as a medium of expression. Inspired by the language behind architecture, he draws from it a vocabulary of rhythms and forms. Music has always shaped the way he thinks. Today, he composes with furniture.
His first body of work began with the skyline. Charbit imagined architecture becoming furniture, translating the city’s silhouette into a series of vertical notes that formed his Skyline Ensemble. As his practice evolved, his gaze progressively zoomed from the image of the city to the invisible relationships that give it structure.
Moving to New York marked a shift. No longer observing the city from a distance, Charbit experienced it from within, wandering through its streets and discovering an ever-changing choreography. Surrounded by steel, glass and mirrors, he gradually embraced these materials, drawn to the way they move with light and their surroundings. Like opening a curtain, his work invites the outside in. By isolating fragments of architecture from their original context, Charbit reimagines them as furniture.
This idea became central to his Metropolis Ensemble. Inspired by abstraction, Charbit does not seek to impose a single reading. Instead, his work creates openings to new interpretations. He loves the idea of furniture as a stage, inviting new stories to unfold. Every encounter is different, leaving space for the viewer’s imagination.