Creative director, designer, and artist Heron Preston has debuted an art piece made out of Reishi™, an innovative, sustainable mycelium material from MycoWorks. The unique piece, A Fruit Bowl by Heron Preston for MycoWorks, is launching in early 2023 and will be available exclusively on a new digital platform from Preston, marking the first of many launches between the designer and the biotech company.

MycoWorks was founded in 2013 by artists Philip Ross and Sophia Wang who pioneered the concept of using mycelium, an infinitely renewable root-like structure of mushrooms, to create art.The inexhaustible material has been applied to fashion, footwear, automotive, and decor industries, making it an alternative material that has less environmental impact and more customizable freedom. Since its birth, the company has developed and commercialized mycelium into a flexible, durable material similar to the feel of animal leather, branding it Reishi™. 

Preston’s new digital platform is inspired by L.E.D. (less environmentally destructive) concepts, and exploring how these concepts can be applied in different culturally relevant and relatable ways. “A fruit bowl is usually one of the first objects that painters depict to demonstrate their skills and understanding of the medium- this is an exercise on how Fine Mycelium, through my lens, is getting its start - as a fruit bowl,” said Preston. “A material with endless possibilities and applications, like a painting. The fruit made of Fine Mycelium messages new beginnings and a future not bound by our past, but pushed forward through our imagination and human ingenuity; a breakthrough in materials science and biotechnology.”