Furniture designer to the Dorset in crowd, Laurence Llewelyn-Gardencity has at last been honoured by a solo exhibition designed to place his work in the best possible light. Sponsored by the Threadbone Corporation, it open to previews in the Threadbone Gallery Crendell on 26the June. It opens officially to the general public on 1st July and is expected to attract a number of visitors.
The highlight of the exhibition, according to Exhibition Curator Dr Retero Uppe-Holstery, is likely to be two items from Llewelyn-Gardencity "New Town Suite" Collection (2011) in which the designer playfully plays with both furniture and his own childhood roots. "The highlight of the exhibition is likely to be two items from Llewelyn-Gardencity "New Town Suite" collection (2011) in which the designer playfully plays with both furniture and his own childhood roots", she said. Born in Letchworth in 1970, Llewelyn-Gardencity trained at the Hatfield Institute before taking up an apprenticeship with well-known Dorset Master Craftsman, Craft Masterson. He began his own independent company with fellow designer Milton Keynes in 2002.
One of Llewelyn-Gardencity's most characteristic innovations was to construct his furniture from wood and fabrics of bland - even anodyne - colourings and then project on to them images of places which had a personal meaning for him as "an artist and human being". Over time these images "imprinted themselves in both a "physical and tantric sense" leaving impressions even I could not have predicted or designed".
On being told of the designer's aims and philosophy, Gallery fitter Arthur Sidcup said "Well I don't know about all that - it's just furniture to me and it wouldn't find room in my house. Fancy watching Match of the Day with your backside on somebody else's loft conversion. Is that a thing nowadays?", adding only, "they're not all locked up yet you know... The stuff we have in here sometimes ...".
Two of the exhibits at The Threadbone Gallery Crendell's Laurence Llewelyn-Gardencity Exhibition. The Twofer (LEFT) and the Onefer (RIGHT) are part of an unmatched pair. "Consistency is the sign of a weak mind and symmetry is unnatural", Llewelyn-Gardencity has opined." The chairs originally sold for £15, 3 packets of Woodbines and a West Life CD. They are now thought to be worth "considerably more".
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