Once upon a time admirers of Libby Sellers were made to follow her, like 1990s ravers, to temporary locations across London, where she would hold exhibitions featuring Europe's most progressive designers. She championed Stuart Haygarth, Moritz Waldemeyer and Julia Lohmann at her Exhibition Road location during the 2007 London Design Festival; and last year she hosted Fabien Cappello's recycled-wood Christmas Tree Project in Hyde Park Corner before - poof - disappearing once again.
This month, however, the former Design Museum curator is finally settling down, in a permanent space on London's Berners Street. Her inaugural exhibitions continue her provocative tradition. Until 8 October she will devote a swath of the new space to Formafantasma, a duo of Eindhoven-based Italian designers who explore the complex cultural relationship between southern Italy and colonial Africa.
'It is the perfect show to open with,' says Sellers, 'because it sets the benchmark for what I hope my forthcoming exhibitions will be able to do - reveal beautifully made but very political and social work carrying a deep narrative and many layers.' Formafantasma's Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin will show not only their acclaimed ceramics series but also their mounted mohair textiles, each depicting a different Italian colony in Africa.
Sellers also invites Belgian gallerist Caroline Van Hoek to guest-curate Woods, the work of 21 jewellery artists designed exclusively in wood. The buffed-wood beads beautifully echo the heritage theme of the Formafantasma show, yet they seem appropriately up to date for a 2011 London Design Festival.
Formafantasma's Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, both Italian born, explore the relationship between southern Italy and colonial Africa in their work
Their critically acclaimed 'Moulding Tradition' ceramics have features of Italian and North African ceramic traditions...
... while their mohair textiles, also currently being show at the gallery, each depict a different Italian colony in Africa
A detail of one of the mohair works – this one representing Tripoli
The Formafantasma exhibit runs until 8 October
ADDRESS
Gallery Libby Sellers
Ground Floor
41-42 Berners Street
London W1
-
Maserati unveils the Fuoriserie By Hiroshi Fujiwara MC20 Cielo modelHiroshi Fujiwara, the so-called Godfather of Streetwear, lends his talents to Maserati’s in-house bespoke division, creating a stylish take on the company’s open-topped supercar
-
Diffar is a new Japanese hair brand making perfume oil at the foot of Mount FujiDiffar, a newly founded Japanese beauty brand, creates perfume oils for hair in its Mount Fuji laboratory that are set to travel the world
-
New exhibition, ‘Architecture for Dogs' celebrates the human-canine bondAs a showcase of designs for dogs opens in Milan, we find out why inviting our four-legged friends into exhibitions benefits everybody.
-
Inside the distorted world of artist George RouyFrequently drawing comparisons with Francis Bacon, painter George Rouy is gaining peer points for his use of classic techniques to distort the human form
-
‘I'm endlessly fascinated by the nude’: Somaya Critchlow’s intimate and confident drawings are on show in London‘Triple Threat’ at Maximillian William gallery in London is British artist Somaya Critchlow’s first show dedicated solely to drawing
-
Surrealism as feminist resistance: artists against fascism in Leeds‘The Traumatic Surreal’ at the Henry Moore Institute, unpacks the generational trauma left by Nazism for postwar women
-
Looking forward to Tate Modern’s 25th anniversary partyFrom 9-12 May 2025, Tate Modern, one of London’s most adored art museums, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a lively weekend of festivities
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA week in the world of Wallpaper*. Here's how our editors have been entertaining themselves in the run up to Christmas
-
Love, melancholy and domesticity: Anna Calleja is a painter to watchAnna Calleja explores everyday themes in her exhibition, ‘One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night’, at Sim Smith, London
-
Ndayé Kouagou speaks the language of the chaotic social media influencer in LondonNdayé Kouagou celebrates meandering incoherence with an exhibition, ‘A Message for Everybody’, at Gathering in London
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA snowy Swiss Alpine sleepover, a design book fest in Milan, and a night with Steve Coogan in London – our editors' out-of-hours adventures this week
