As you wander around Mayfair, you see the same thing that you will find in High Streets up and down the country. Empty retail/gallery spaces caused by a perfect storm of Government policies on business rates, high rentals, Brexit and general uncertainty in the economy. While many smaller galleries have been closing and moving to […]
Why is it that public galleries don’t collect paintings from popular artists, but go their own way with more esoteric artists promoted by curators and international galleries? Apparently there are no works by Banksy in a major public gallery in the UK, something Scottish artist Jack Vettriano has also had to endure – it was […]
It is fascinating to compare two houses in Mayfair built by Sir Robert Taylor in the 1770’s, now both occupied by international art galleries, and how they have survived and been altered over the years. Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac has a beautiful house retaining its neoclassical interiors, connecting through from Dover Street to Berkeley Street with […]
The challenge of having a gallery on the 3rd and 4th floor of a building in the heart of London is how to carry huge sculptures by an artist such as Antony Caro up and down the narrow stairs. In Amsterdam, the answer would be opening windows and a hoisting beam (though it would have […]
Giants have invaded Mayfair! Bursting out of the first floor windows, the giant’s legs drop down into Sackville Street while, through the ground floor windows, you can see his head and shoulders; hopefully his acrobatics have not damaged the historic Robert Adam ceiling in the first floor. No 29 Sackville Street in Mayfair was […]
Once one of London’s most elegant streets, with Georgian townhouses on either side, Dover Street in Mayfair was developed in the late 17th and 18th centuries by a syndicate headed by Sir Thomas Bond (after whom Bond Street is named) on land formerly occupied by Clarendon House. At that time the properties backed on to […]
Hundreds and thousands of sea shells join together to become energetic waves of organic forms. British artist Rowan Mersh describes himself not as an artist but as an explorer of material and form. His early works were flowing, organic and sculptural fashion costumes and textiles including an amazing dress he designed for the World Wildlife […]
In the blackness, one small white dot indicates light in the distance far away, but how far? Is it within reach or is it an infinite distance away? In another area of blackness there are thin black lines, the chinks of light through a door; is the door opening, is it closing, or given is […]
"The many great gardens of the world, of literature and poetry, of painting and music, of religion and architecture, all make the point as clear as possible: The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden. If you don't want paradise, you are not human; and if you are not human, you don't have a soul."
(Thomas Moore)
To be an architect means having a wide range of interests - architecture, art and creativity in all its variety of forms, sustainability, science and innovation. The greatest interest is often where these different worlds overlap and collide - that is when something imaginative often occurs that pushes us all forward to another place
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