SARAH MYERSCOUGH GALLERY F O G Proposal 2018
Joseph Walsh, Dommus Sofa, 2018. Photo: Joseph Walsh Studio
SARAH MYERSCOUGH GALLERY Contemporary Craft and Design Gallery, specialising in wood. London, UK
J O S E PH WALS H MARLÈNE HUISSOUD NIC WEBB GARETH NEAL MICHAEL PETERSON PETER MARIGOLD ELEANOR
LAKELIN
ERNST GAMPERL
Photo: Joseph Walsh Studio
Sarah Myerscough Gallery promotes quality of process and practice in contemporary craft and design, with a particular focus on woodwork. The gallery represents emerging and established international artists and designers exhibiting in major galleries and museums, whilst continuing to establish its presence at leading design fairs around the world; NOMAD Monaco, 2018; NOMAD St Moritz, 201; PAD London, 2016 - 2017 (2018); Design Miami 2015 - 2017; Design Miami Basel 2015 - 2017; Salon Art & Design 2016 - 2017 (2018); Art Geneve 2015; Craft Trend Seoul 2014; Art Paris 2013 - 2015 ; COLLECT London 2012 - 2015/2017; SOFA Chicago 2012 - 2013/2015; Design Days Dubai 2012 - 2013; SOFA New York 2012 - 2013. For Fog, Sarah Myerscough Gallery will present a curated display predominately showcasing unique, handmade furniture pieces, cabinets and sculptural wood objects. The booth will be designed around a central display of three bespokely made sofas and two low coffee tables by the Irish designer/maker Joseph Walsh. The sofas, a two seater, three seater and a four seater, will be made from ebonised ash and white ash designed with the signature sinuous curves and lines characteristic of Joseph Walsh Studio. Echoing the movements of a ribbon, the set of low coffee tables made of walnut, ebonised ash and White Ash, are designed out of a thin strip of wood doubling up on itself in a single fluid motion. These works are new additions to the Dommus collection, launched by Sarah Myerscough Gallery at Salon Art & Design 2017. The Dommus collection was commissioned by the gallery to create a new portfolio of unique furniture, realised for the private home. A series of cleft cabinets by Peter Marigold and Tadanori Tozawa will adorn the walls. The cleft cabinets, each one made of a different Japanese wood, have been cleft, where the wood is split in half and panelled, to create a highly textured finish. This series has come out of a long standing collaborative working relationship between Peter Marigold and Tadanori Tozawa of the renowned furniture company Hinoki Kogei in Japan. The raw nature of the cleft wood creates a highly sensory as well as a visual impact, which sits in contrast to the smooth and sinous lines of the Dommus sofas and tables. Newly commissioned sculptural work by American sculptor Michael Peterson will be displayed. His approach to craft demonstrates a high level of material dexterity, resulting in museum worthy wood sculptures that have been designed from one single piece of Madrone burl that has been carved, sandblasted, bleached and pigmented. Echoing the materiality and organic nature of wood, is Marlene Huissoud’s Cocoon series. Huissoud developed the Cocoon series out of an innate interest in the use of organic, biological and sustainable materials and their material possibilities when used in furniture designing. Her upbringing in the rural french alpes, surrounded by her father’s activities as beekeeper ,influenced her to explore the possibilities of using honeybee resin and silkworm cocoons when designing furniture. Using thousands of silkworm cocoons varnished with a thin layer of a dark natural honeybee bio resin, the works challenge design as simply functional while exploring new processes of making. A selection of newly commissioned objects by leading international woodturners, listed below, will also be included in the display.
J O S E PH WALS H
Dommus 2 seater sofa, 2018. L 2000 x l 907 x H 909 mm.
Joseph Walsh, Dommus Sofa, Photo: Joseph Walsh Studio
Joseph Walsh (born 1979) founded his studio in 1999 in Ireland. Brought up in Ireland and largely self-taught from an early age, he was inspired by his natural environment, through its rugged and wooded landscape. His creative vision as a furniture maker took early influence from vernacular design and later the generation of 20th Century studio makers including John Makepeace, who showed the young designer the expressive possibilities of his craft. Now, with his own team of international craftsmen working on commissions across the globe, he creates unique sculptural hand-crafted exquisite furniture pieces. The creative community that Joseph has drawn around him in Riverstick County, Cork, encourages a greater level of creative diversity and innovation. This commitment to excellence is continuously reflected in his studio practice, as it becomes more significant and ambitious, culminating this year in a major commission for The National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin for a significant Ash sculpture titled Magnus Modus and a monumental commission for 24 unique sculptural chairs for Chatsworth House. His workshop has become phenomenally successful and now comprises of a team of international master makers and design developers to realize the ambitious and unique sculptural pieces.He was conferred with an honorary doctorate in 2015 for his contribution to the arts in Ireland by University College Cork. The designer has exhibited extensively around the world and his work is included in many public and private collections, such as the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Mint Museum of Craft & Design, Charlotte, North Caroline, USA; National Museum of Ireland - Decorative Arts & History, Dublin, Ireland; The Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth House, UK; Embassy of Japan, Dublin, Ireland; Rafael Vinoly, Uruguay; John H. Bryan Collection, Illinois, USA; and Paul Stuart’s, Madison Avenue, New York, USA.
Dommus low tables, 2018. White Ash, 1300 L x 2000 x 1500 to 800 x H 350 t 600 mm
Sarah Myerscough Gallery launched the Dommus collection at Salon & Art in New York last year. The Dommus collection, Dɔommuʊs being the Latin word for a dwelling, was created by the studio to differentiate between the studio’s commissioned site specific pieces and a new portfolio of unique furniture, realized for the private home. This elegant family grouping of refined Walnut and Ebonised Walnut pieces: a cleft wood cabinet, an organic sculptural table and twisted chair forms, have been specifically designed for the home. This year Sarah Myerscough Gallery will present new works from the ‘Dommus’ series, including three unique sofas and two low coffee tables. The sofas, a two seater, three seater and a four seater, will be made from Ebonised Ash and White Ash designed with the signature sinuous curves and lines characteristic of the studio. Echoing the movements of a ribbon, the set of low coffee tables made of Walnut, Ebonised Ash and White Ash, are designed out of a thin strip of wood doubling up on itself in a single fluid motion.
Joseph Walsh, Dommus low coffee table set, Photo: Joseph Walsh Studio
From left to right Enignum Chair, resin and ebonised walnut, 2017. Dommus Chair, ebonised walnut, 2017. Enignum VIII Chair, Ash, 2017. Dommus Chair, Ash, 2017.
Photo: Joseph Walsh Studio
MARLÈNE HUISSOUD
Marlène Huissoud, Cocoon series (detail), Photo: Marlène Huissoud Studio
Marlène Huissoud, Cocoon series, Photo: Marlène Huissoud Studio
The pieces from Marlène Huissoud’s recent collection entitled ‘Cocoon’ are made from thousands of silkworms’ cocoons varnished with a thin layer of a dark natural honeybee bio resin. Beautifully sculptural, the works challenge design as simply functional while exploring new processes of making, in particular the use of sustainable material and insects’ material. Huissoud graduated with an MA from Central Saint Martins’ School of Art and Design in London where she first developed the project From Insects : an exploration of insect materials. She has been named as one of the UK’s top 70 rising design stars and represented the Future of British Design organised by Design Council in 2015. She has been nominated by the Arts Foundation UK for the Material Innovation Award in 2016, won the Make me! Design Prize in 2015, was nominated for Design Parade at Villa Noailles in 2015, and won the Diploma Selection Award at Designblok in 2014. Her work as been exhibited worldwide in major institutions such as Victoria and Albert Museum London, Design Museum Barcelona, Artipelag Museum Stockholm and MAK Vienna. She lives and works in London. (left) Cocoon cabinet, 2017. Silkworm cocoons and Honeybee bio resin and oak base, 120 x 60 x 50 cm. (right) Cocoon Bench Frozen Collection, 2017. Silkworm cocoons casted in Pewter, 50 x 100 x 45 cm.
NIC WEBB
Photo: Nic Webb
Nic Webb studied painting at Brighton University, graduating in 1994. He has since worked as an artist and maker with focus on wood and clay. His making is both traditional and experimental, producing work that he expresses to elemental forces and happenings that are beyond the makers control. Webb’s working practice is born of a desire to work with wood instinctively in an attempt to free his work from the convention and perception of the made object. Using traditional tools, modern methods as well as elemental forces such as fire, ice, air and water he shapes and sculpts in an unbound and organic manner. ‘Human making is delicately bound to the materials of the natural world. As we interact with our surroundings we realise and learn of this interconnection. As makers, we are able to explore our world and express our thoughts freely.’ -Nic Webb
Open vessel , 2018 Worked made from the trunk and root ball of Birch tree, external surface polished and oiled, 45 x 45 cm
Photo: Callum Richards
GARETH NEAL
Gareth Neal and Zaha Hadid, VE-SEL, 2017. Photo: Petr Krejci
In 2014, Terence Conran teamed up with the London Design Festival, Benchmark and the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) to present “The Wish List”. Ten leading designers were asked to consider the question: What have you always wanted? For this project, Zaha Hadid was invited to collaborate with, Gareth Neal, commissioning him to create a bespoke design for something Zaha Hadid has always wanted, but never been able to find. Initial designs were created by Gareth Neal, and discussed collaboratively with Zaha Hadid. Over a week long period, two vessel prototypes were created at Benchmark. During the London Design Festival, the pieces were exhibited in the V&A Museum. Gareth Neal’s furniture design practice was established in 2002 and is currently located in the creative heart of East London. Neal specialises in the production of unique pieces, which are exclusively designed for individual clients and companies. His practice combines the technical modes of 3D computer drawing and CNC processes, with the intricacy of professional craftsmanship. Gareth’s practice seeks a reconsideration of contemporary furniture design, questioning our perceptions of history and the contemporary, the material and immaterial. The work is positioned at an intersecting point between art, design and craft, evading any simple categorisation into a specific discipline. This innovative approach provides a critical framework for his ideas as the designs develop into new and diverse territory. Neal graduated from Buckinghamshire University in 1996 with a BA Honours in Furniture Design and Craftsmanship. His work has received critical acclaim and has featured in numerous publications and exhibitions, both in the UK and internationally. Neal’s work is in the prestigious public collections of the Crafts Council, UK, and Manchester Metropolitan, UK. The artist’s selected exhibitions include, ‘Against the Grain’ at The Museum of Art and Design, New York; ‘Telling Tales’ & ‘Power of Making’ at Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and ‘The State of Things’ at The Design Museum, Holon, Israel. Neal’s work has also been exhibited in Design Miami, Basel; Pavilion of Art and Design, Paris; COLLECT at the Saatchi Gallery, London; S.O.F.A. Chicago, USA; and the Mint Museum, North Carolina, USA.
Gareth Neal and Zaha Hadid, VE-SEL, 2017. Photo: Petr Krejci
MICHAEL PETERSON
Michael Peterson, Blocked/ Split/Hollowed, 2018. Photo: Jean Peterson
Michael Peterson’s work has evolved from turning bowls on a lathe to his current, monumental sculptures inspired by the geographic environment of the Pacific Northwest. Peterson’s organic abstract pieces are powerful in their artistic grasp of sculptural form and expressive texture. These sculptures are impressive examples of contemporary design, while also reflecting the artist’s reverence for the natural world. The artist’s selection and sourcing of wood is a significant step in his process of making. Every few months during the logging season in Southern Oregon (November – May) Peterson and his wife will travel from their home in Lopez Island, Washington (roughly 500 miles) to find the perfect pieces of wood. Michael Peterson was born in 1952 Texas, US. Since 1986, he has exhibited in group and solo shows throughout the US, including Revolution in Wood at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC. in 2010, Craft Spoken Here at Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA in 2012 and a major solo exhibition Michael Peterson: Evolution/Revolution at the Bellevue Arts Museum in 2009. The artists work can also be found in many public collections throughout America, including the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; as well as the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
PETER MARIGOLD
Peter Marigold and Tadanori Tozawa, Cleft series, 2017. Photo: Nacasa & Partners
Dodai, 2012. Hiba (Japanese cypress) and Igusa (wovengrass), various dimensions.
Cleft Series (image in the previous page) comprises six cleft cabinets that has come out of a continued relationship between British designer Peter Marigold and Tadanori Tozawa from the renowned Japanese company Hinoki Kogei, Japan. The distinct character of each cabinet has been achieved by using single pieces of Japanese woods, cleft for each cabinet, resulting in a highly textured surface, reflected on each door. “I have long had a preoccupation with bi-symmetry. The notion of splitting one thing into two is, I find quite strange. A destructive moment creates; a cell divides. I have experimented with this idea through various projects, including my Split Box Shelves in which a single log is randomly split to create an irregular yet perfectly complete shaped box, and later in the Palindrome series in which rough moulds and casts are joined together to form reflected bi-symmetrical pieces of furniture. During the development stage of the first project I worked on with Hinoki Kogei, the Dodai benches (image on the left), Mr Chuzo Tozawa proposed that we could use gigantic logs split into two to form the sides of the benches, and we have continued to use this process for these new cabinets, giving a frontal focus to this dramatic cleaving action. A further curious effect of bi-symmetrical objects is that they invariably hold animal or human like characteristics, our brains are hard wired to find faces, torsos, eyes and I enjoy this ambiguity when looking at forms created using just vegetable material.’ -Peter Marigold
Born in London 1974, Peter Marigold followed a path from sculpture at Central Saint Martins into theatrical and event scenography, gaining a broad range of making skills. In 2005 Marigold joined the M.A. Design Products (Platform Ten) course at the RCA under Ron Arad and has since concentrated almost solely on furniture. He was awarded an Esmee Fairbairn bursary following his graduation exhibition at the Design Museum. His work has been exhibited in both the UK and abroad including the Milan Furniture fair, Design Miami, Stavanger 2008 (Norway), and MoMA New York. In 2009, He was awarded one of the four ‘Designer of the Future’ awards by Design Miami, followed by a significant installation at Art Basel. Marigold’s work featuers in the Museum of Jerusalem collection, the Design Museum Holon and various other private collections. Recent projects include the design and production of the large central information desk for the Museum of Childhood, a cast porcelain collection for Meissen (Germany), a permanent furniture installation for the Museum of Israel and a nomadic display system for Oyuna (Mongolian Cashmere) and a large public artwork for the new Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh - a 188m long wall design that will feature panelised 3D macroscopic skin textures wrapping around the building.
ELEANOR LAKELIN
Eleanor Lakelin, Askorn I, 2018. Lathe turned sandblasted and bleached, 50 x 50 x 32 cm. Photo: Jeremy Johns
Eleanor is fascinated by wood as a living, breathing substance with its own history of growth and struggle centuries beyond our own. She sculpts her distinctive forms using a traditional woodworking lathe and centuries-old chisels and gouges alongside modern techniques and tools. She is particularly inspired by the organic mayhem and creative possibilities of burred wood. This proliferation of cells, formed over decades or even centuries as a reaction to stress or as a healing mechanism is a rare, mysterious and beautiful act of nature. The twisted configuration of the grain and the frequent bark inclusions and voids are challenging to work and the forms difficult to hollow but the removal of the bark reveals a secret, ethereal landscape, unseen by anyone before. Parts of the form are sculpted smooth and others left raw and untouched. Heavy, forceful hollowing gives way to sandblasting and fine and dextrous work cleaning up every fissure and contour. Pieces are bleached and scorched and tirelessly hand-worked to different lustres and an alabaster-like smoothness. They become objects that invite touch and objects that touch us, reminding us of our elemental and emotional bond with wood and our relationship to the Earth.
I peel back bark to reveal the organic chaos that can exist in the material itself and build up layers of texture through carving and sandblasting. I use the vessel form and surface pattern to explore time, the layers and fissures between creation and decay and the erosion of nature. –Eleanor Lakelin
Brought up in a rural village in Wales, Eleanor Lakelin now lives and works in London. Having originally worked in education in Europe and West Africa, Eleanor retrained as a cabinet-maker in 1995. For the last twenty years she has dedicated herself to working in wood and honed her skills through a series of masterclasses. Since 2011 she has concentrated her practice on making sculptural forms and vessels and has exhibited widely in the UK. Recent exhibitions include Art Monte-carlo, Nature Lab at Design Basel and a collection of work showcased at the British House in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during the Olympic Games 2016. She was most recently nominated for the British Wood Awards 2017
ERNST GAMPERL
Photo: Bernhard Spรถttel
While training in carpentry twenty years ago, Gamperl turned to the lathe rather by chance, and embarked on a lifelong relationship with wood. Over the last twenty years, he has studied the drying properties of the medium and its impact on the final sculpture. Gamperl turns wood when it is wet to create a dialogue with the medium before arriving at a final shape. The curved edges, bulges and indentations emerge out of the natural deformation of the wood and are an essential part of Gamperl’s design, as are branches and irregular growth formations, and the fissures and fractures that the artist consciously repairs and controls. The immanent expressive power of the wood, for example its grain, lines and colouring, its softness or hardness, compact heaviness or paper-thin transparency, are underscored by Gamperl’s treatment of the surfaces: waxing and polishing, scrubbing out the streaks or carving filigree parallel grooves, contrasting smooth and shiny with rough-hewn, scarred surfaces. Ultimately, Gamperl creates understated and enduring vessel forms, which have surface qualities that accentuate the essential beauty of the wood with compelling effect. Gamperl lives and works in Germany. He is a master craftsman and sculptural artist of international standing, and has worked with numerous creative giants including Tadao Ando, the famous respected Japanese architect, and most recently Martino Gamper, designer and guest curator at the Serpentine Gallery in a major 2014 exhibition. His work is included in many public museum collections across Europe, including Museum of Arts and Crafts, Hamburg; The International Design Museum/Neue Sammlung, Germany; Collection Issey Miyake, Japan; The National Foundation for Contemporary Art, Paris; Collection Grether, Basel; The Grassi Museum, Leipzig; Collection Vok, Italy; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In March 2017, Gamperl was awarded the Loewe Craft Prize, judged by an impressive panel including Design Museum London director Deyan Sudjic; designer Patricia Urquiola; Vitra chairman Rolf Fehlbaum and the Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson. The Loewe craft prize, launched by the Loewe foundation in 2016, awards and celebrates newness, excellence and artistic merit in contemporary craftsmanship.
DESIGN MIAMI / BASEL 2015
DESIGN MIAMI 2016
PAD LONDON 2016
Photo Frank Sadaa
SALON ART & DESIGN, NY 2017
Photo Dominic Harris
DESIGN MIAMI, 2017
Photo James Harris
SARAH MYERSCOUGH GALLERY
Viewings by appointment only Studio 401, Southbank House Black Prince Rd, London SE1 7SJ UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7495 0069 info@sarahmyerscough.com