New York, NY – August 19, 2024 – Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London’s renowned beacon of contemporary craft and material-led design, is thrilled to announce its much-anticipated inaugural exhibition in New York City at Galerie56. This landmark show marks a significant milestone as the gallery’s first international exhibition and sets the stage for an exhilarating exchange between the natural world and one of the greatest cities in the world.

Highlights include:
Full Grown’s sculptural willow chairs grown over many years from a single tree, cast in bronze for the first time
Eleanor Lakelin’s timeless horse-chestnut burr vessels which feature in the permanent collections of the Museum of Art and Design, New York and The V&A, London

An elegant new collection in blonde wood by pioneering British furniture designer John Makepeace OBE Masterful turned wood vessels by Ernst Gamperl, winner of the first Loewe prize in 2017
Teresa Hastings’ structurally complex and richly tactile hand-made wool rugs and sculptural tapestries, made between her studios in London and the Indian Himalayas

Christopher Kurtz’s carefully balanced sculptural wood furniture and delicate forms, evocative of ancient rock formations and symbols
Nic Webb’s hand-carved oak pendant light and companion table, emerging from a collaborative process guided by the unique character of the wood itself

“We are absolutely thrilled to introduce this beautiful work to New York City, the ambition for ‘Shades of Light’ was to create an assemblage of crafted works that celebrate organic materials while emerging from highly skilled and experimental processes” said Sarah Myerscough. “This exhibition is not just a showcase of extraordinary talent, but a celebration of the best makers working at the intersection of material science, craft knowledge and sculpture. Connected to the innovative creativity of a selection of international contemporary artists, designers and makers, we want this exhibition to inspire hope; hope in craft knowledge and material intelligence. Where nature and creativity are balanced; these works breathe integrity, authenticity and emotion into our future interior spaces.”

For 15 years, Sarah Myerscough Gallery has been sharply focused on sculpture and design using natural materials, relishing a connection to the natural world. Representing highly-skilled artist-designer-makers whose practices are grounded in craft-making traditions but defined by contemporary innovation. Through diverse making processes, the Gallery program embraces the elemental, the imperfect, and the complex intersections between history and future, hand and technology, form and function. Nick Compton in Hole and Corner Magazine comments that “Sarah Myerscough represents a collection of more than 20 artist- makers – and together they represent a unique and compelling take on what contemporary craft can and should be; not perfect or obviously pretty, nor backwards looking, but born of an intimate understanding of material and the cause and effect of craft skills”.

The artworks within the exhibition, titled Shades of Light, signify the restorative capacities of craft making processes. Envisioning craft as an ongoing and changing mode in which material and artist are in a potent and formative relationship with each other, the works are formed through distinctly contemporary approaches to craft and design.

The Gallery will exhibit the Blonde Embrace Collection by iconic British designer and sustainable design pioneer John Makepeace OBE (UK). The works highlight Makepeace’s elegant and functional visions for wood and his ergonomic approach to form. Alongside this collection, Christopher Kurtz (USA) has created a carefully stacked hand-carved side table, as well as a delicate and gestural work that highlights the sculptural and emotional impact of skilled craft. Continuing the exploration of wood, the Gallery presents work from Julian Watts (USA) exploring the intersections between body, landscape, and function through a selection of unique folkloric sculptures. Also engaging with traditions of woodcarving is experimental designer Tadeas Podracky (Czech Republic). His opulent Morana Chair made from hand-carved spruce wood, emerges from the tradition of relief carving combined with Tadeas’ otherworldly, sculptural vocabulary. While Marc Fish (UK) has created the Ethereal Console, akin in form to a ribbon suspended in mid-loop; appearing weightless, this work is exemplary of Marc’s meticulous material research.

Continuing with wood as a core focus of the Gallery’s programme, Katrien Doms (Belgium) wields fire and scorching heat to sculpt softwoods into undulating wall hangings. In certain lights, these works become a deep gold, examples of wooden matter in a transient reaction to their environment. Peter Marigold (UK) has designed another addition to his Cleft series, as part of his ongoing collaboration with Japanese master craftsman Hinoki Kougei. The result is a rich sensory experience; the cleft planes where the wood has been pulled apart and sanded back are characterful and richly textured. Nic Webb’s (UK) elegant pendant and table highlight the influence of vast forested landscapes as well as Japanese philosophies of nature on the artist, all contributing to Nic’s reverence for the properties of wood.

The design duo Full Grown (UK), who have cultivated their orchard of grown Willow chairs over nearly 20 years, have had their masterpiece Gatti Chair cast in bronze. In New York for the first time, the enduring quality of bronze enables the chair to have a different relationship to time. Also exploring the field of grown design is Diana Scherer (Netherlands). Through the artist’s extensive botanical research, Diana cultivates and shapes various roots across both natural and man-made templates to achieve an intricate lace-like wall hanging.

The Gallery will also exhibit artists working with the vessel form through myriad approaches, showing an exquisitely delicate Oak vessel from master woodturner Ernst Gamperl (Germany). The artist won the first ever Loewe Craft Prize in 2017 in recognition of his extraordinary craftsmanship. The show also includes Marc Ricourt’s (France) intricately carved seed-like vessel forms, which he treats through lightening, dying or applying ferrous oxide. Ceramicists Luke Fuller (UK) and Aneta Regel (Poland) continue the investigation, this time expressing geologic themes, through protruding rock inclusions and layers of clay representing pre-historic and sedimentary matter. The Gallery will also be exhibiting Gareth Neal’s (UK) natural sand Twisted Pair, emerging from 3D printing processes, Neal’s work speaks to the evolving aspect of craft, specifically its capacity to absorb and build upon contemporary technology.

The show also highlights artists rigorously engaging with binding, knotting and weaving. There will be a monumental tapestry from Loewe Craft Prize winner Lin Fanglu (China). Fanglu’s work is inspired by the traditional craftsmanship of the Bai ethnic minority, located in China’s Yunnan Province, to produce deeply thoughtful works that center the place of women and culture in craft. Teresa Hastings (UK) has created a hand-spun rug, born from an extensive making process, between the artist and makers located just outside of Varanasi India, the piece has been naturally dyed using Teresa’s recipes. ARKO’s (Japan) rice straw wall sculpture, a by-product of the rice plant, is meditatively hand-sewn to re-invigorate this often overlooked material. Finally, included in the show are major works from wood sculptor Eleanor Lakelin (UK), who just had her second major solo show with the gallery in London and significant ceramicist Julian Stair (UK). The artists’ reverence for historic form in craft yields a timelessness. Through Lakelin and Stair’s power to evoke the body, their work shifts from historical objects to otherworldly, contemporary subjects.

Galerie56 and Sarah Myerscough Gallery invites all art lovers, collectors, and media representatives to join us for the opening reception on September 5, 2024, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM at Galerie56!

Established in 1998, Sarah Myerscough Gallery represents a distinguished group of contemporary craft and design artists, specializing in material-led processes with a focus on wood and natural materials. The gallery works in both public and private collections, maintains a full programme of exhibitions and participates in leading art fairs around the world, including TEFAF Maastricht, PAD London, Masterpiece London, Design Miami/Basel, Design Miami, SALON Art + Design New York, and FOG Design + Art San Francisco.

ABOUT GALERIE56

At the center of Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood, Galerie56 is nestled into the street-level base of the iconic 56 Leonard – designed by acclaimed architects Herzog & De Meuron, and flanked by the new landmark sculpture by Anish Kapoor.

It is conceived as a civic gesture meant to extend the seemingly private world of art and architecture into the context of the city. It reflects deep American values of openness, transparency, and desire to welcome all international cultures to be part of a democratic discourse accessible to all.

Through establishing a dialogue with Anish Kapoor’s sculpture, the space not only acts as a physical node on Church Street but also as a larger metaphorical node within the vast network of artists around the world. The interior massing of the gallery space works in close synchronization with that of the form of the building – a deconstructed interpretation of its pronounced volumes by translating them into a series of intersecting planes within the space.

The space establishes a dialogue with other vivid nodes like the Empire State Building and One World Trade Center, through thoughtful gestures such as theme-lighting during important civic events. The gallery serves as a beacon for the cultural ethos of the city.