The advent of the light bulb brought with it the downfall of the candle. No longer do people rely on flames to light the way. Now, candles, and thus candleholders, take on different purposes. Mourning the loss of illumination by flame, Junichiro Tanizaki’s book In Praise of Shadows meditates on the beauty of candlelight and its casting of shadows. When JB Blunk returned from Japan in 1954, he brought with him a copy of this book. A new exhibition at Marin County, California–based Blunk Space, 100 Candleholders, remembers the beauty of the common object, gathering over 100 artists to create a candleholder inspired by Blunk or Blunk House, his home and studio.
The exhibition follows Blunk’s 1981 exhibition 100 Plates Plus, which playfully riffed on the design possibilities of the humble serveware. In 2024, Blunk Space continued the series with 100 Hooks. For 100 Candleholders, a range of artists once again bring multiple perspectives, approaches, and relfections on a common object. The result illuminates the functions and power of the candle in contemporary times as well as the evolution of Blunk’s design ethos.
Like Blunk, many of the artists prioritized wood, salvaged objects, and honesty. Max Frommeld utilized salvaged wood to create a wall-hung candleholder, replete with wooden “plugs.” Niles Wertz used Acacia Melanoxylon, a wood found along the coast of Marin, to create a triptych of pillars.
But there’s more than purity of form here. Other artists went monumental in their sculptural work, perhaps a nod to Blunk’s The Planet. Rio Kobayashi balances candles on a cherry wood frame, seemingly on the edge. Wills Brewer’s candelabra (backyard), uses clay, clay waste, and wild clay to create a mini monument of columns. Bethan Laura Wood’s Candelabra Shrine explodes 1950s-inspired fabrics into the three dimensional creating temples and altars of interlocking metal and wood.
There’s also playful takes on candles (Carl Clerkin rests a candle in a teacup); thoughtful remembrances (Ava Woo Kaufman’s resting candles are a vigil to the children killed in Gaza); and candleholders that are not even holders (Sara Anstis and Solange Roberdeau depict candles on canvas).
Equally enlightening is the many ways you can make a holder out of common objects. In a piece titled X Lamp, Dave Muller craftily repurposes a pile of beer can carriers. Karl Fritsch twists palladium white gold wire into a hyper-minimalist sconce. As for rocks and stones, it turns out they’re ripe for sticking candles into.
Partly wacky, ruminant, and graceful, the exhibition amounts to the many offerings a candleholder offers today, from meaningful pillars of mourning and reliquaries to reflections of balance and temporality.
100 Candleholders is on view at Blunk Space until March 28, 2026.