A green revolution is quietly taking shape at EaDo's Canal Street Gallery, embodied by this weekend's opening of Plywood, an exhibition-cum-homage to the strong manufactured sheets of wood — mainstays in the construction field (with a pejorative aesthetic rep) — and the medium of choice for designer Michael Garman and painter Lindsay Peyton.

Both artists, locals of The Woodlands and former classmates at The John Cooper School, are sharing their work to illuminate the intrinsic beauty of the most utilitarian of materials.

Garman is both the mind and hands behind Houston-based design firm ONE3CREATIVE. His furniture is constructed of stacked pieces of production cutoff plywood, which with Garman's Rhode Island School of Design architecture-trained eye, resembles the grain of an as-yet undiscovered exotic tropical wood. The compositions play with proportions and gravity, and the seamless surfaces mean there are no joints — the collection almost looks as if it were cast in a myriad of liquid wooden fibers.

Garman's "Bnch" was honored last year at Toronto's International Design Show with the Best Prototype Award — an impressive feat considering the tight competition against more than 300 other emerging designers. When he returned to Toronto this February, he was met with instant recognition.

But Garman has a relaxed demeanor that's more indicative of a contemplative craftsman than a calculating design scene climber. "I also work in construction," he says, "and in the aftermath of the recent hurricanes, I observed the hordes of scraps everywhere. Even though what I do is nicer than just using scraps, I want to show how you can take plywood and make it something beautiful."

In the collection on display, refinement echoes through the hard wood surface. For "Shlf," Garman used a $2 million laser to pop sections of the grain and rotate them 90 degrees — a compelling element that illustrates the masculine aspect of ornament.

He relentlessly modifies his technique to stretch his eco-imprint to the limit: "Soon I'll be working with a type of plywood that has no formaldehyde in the actual glue — then I will be completely green. Already all of my finishes are as low VOC (volatile organic compound) and water-based as you can get."

Along with wacdesignstudio, Garman's show represents a growing movement of eco-conscious industrial designers in Houston. And considering that our city's far from a design mecca, that's enough to make cities like New York and Milan green with envy.

With their dramatic, Fauve-bright brushstrokes, Lindsay Peyton's plywood oil paintings on Canal Street's walls are a welcome foil to Garman's floor pieces. "Mike was the first to suggest that I take on plywood as a painter," Peyton explains, "and ever since, I've been completely enamored."

She eschews the typical texture that canvas cloth lends paintings in favor of the warmth of the medium and the impulsive quality of plywood: "If there's a knot in the wood, I can use it as inspiration for what I might paint," Peyton says. "Indeed, the glowing wood makes her tempered female portraits all the more romantic.

"This exhibition has been in the making for two years," Peyton says. With this week's Earth Day commemoration and launch of the Lawndale Design Fair 2010, Plywood is an auspicious occasion for art, design and green living in Houston.

A public reception for Plywood will be held at Canal Street Studios from 6 to 9 p.m. today. The exhibition is on view through April 30.