Selected Reviews
Nico’s carved and polished wooden benches...use planes and structure in a way that is determined yet strangely unpremeditated. Allowing the works to create their own inner dialogue through interlocking surfaces that are extremely elegant and refined, Nico is able to conjure sculptural spaces that balance form and function without allowing either to prevail at the expense of the other. Aug 12 2004, Eric Ernst
The gallery's most monumental room presents examples of creative furniture by Nico Yektai. A corner table blurs the boundaries between art and function and takes on a bit of a conceptual thrust by sculpturing its own angled wall in dark toned verticals of uneven height. July 23 2000, Phyllis Braff
Nico Yektai, the lone sculptor of the bunch, who makes well-crafted, playfully abstract furniture in natural wood. His take on a chaise lounge with it broad swaths of bentwood like sweeping brushstrokes... May 30 1999, Hilarie M. Sheets is a contributing editor at ARTnews.
Nico Yektai’s work lies somewhere between furniture and sculpture. One of his works, a wood screen over 8 feet tall, sits in the middle of one of the galleries. By using diagonal lines and open planes on six panels. the artist evokes Gothic architecture as well as Eastern interior design A chance for discovery in Guild Halls 24/7 May 27, 1999 Erica-Lynn Gambino
Nico Yektai's furniture is more than furniture, and is one of the great successes of the exhibit. Mr Yektai’s furniture is surprisingly lyrical; he turns geometry on its head. Everything he makes is is elegant and surprising; one senses a childlike wonder at work even while the craftsmanship is superb. His furniture makes you look at the world in a new way. And that’s what art is all about. May 20 1999, Rober Long
Several large, compelling sculptures by Nico Yektai underscore a rich imagination. Although initially they seem to have a quirky, art-furniture quality, the lasting impression comes from their tendency to develop a pull between abstract and utilitarian meanings. ''My Gift to Cleopatra,'' a chaise-shaped assembly of wooden elements, is a no-holds-barred fantasy that is astonishing in the way it structures exacting positions for each segment of cushions, risers and supports. May 2 1999, Phyllis Braff
Above the Nico Yektai bench are two Art Brut works by Martin Ramirez and a cluster of smaller works on paper by master artists- two Franz Klines, a Jackson Pollock, and a Barnett Newman. 1999, Estelle Ellis, Caroline Seebohm, Christopher Simon Sykes
Where the conventional furniture maker will apply himself arduously to putting pieces together as smoothly as possible and labour mightily to make surfaces flush where they meet, Mr. Yektai takes the opposite tack. He regards each as “an element of composition within a piece of furniture” and unabashedly emphasizes their very discreetness. September 18, 1997 Mary Cummings
Mr Yektai avoids straight lines when he can, and he manipulates surface planes in such a way as to make the pieces seem slightly off balance. May 9, 1996 Robert Long
The wood furniture of Nico Yektai, exquisitely crafted and executed...makes news in both form and function. Mr Yektai Shows every promise of becoming a master maker of creative furniture. There is one tiny end table of cherrywood with dovetail joinery and insets... it is an utterly fulfilled piece demonstrating the stringent and uncompromising nature of quality. At the show’s opening on Saturday, the painter Howard Kanovitz bought it. May, 9, 1996 ,Rose C.S. Slivka