Gallery Libby Sellers is presenting the first solo show in London by young Swiss designer Nicolas le Moigne, comprising lighting, product and furniture designs that have been created in the years since his graduation in 2007.

NICOLAS LE MOIGNE, 8th February-10th March 2011

GALLERY LIBBY SELLERS

41-42 Berners Street, London W1T 3NB (020 3384 8785)

Le Moigne graduated in product design from ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne in 2007, when gallery owner Libby Sellers first picked up on his work. To offer an overview of his work since then, this London exhibition brings together some of his designs for industrial companies as well as limited editions commissioned for NextLevel Galerie in Paris and Helmrinderknecht in Berlin.

Le Moigne (now a professor at ECAL), is happy to work between industrial clients and specialist design galleries. This juxtaposition is celebrated in the exhibition, which includes the debut of several new designs.

The designer’s approach is described by the gallery as showing “an understanding of complexity and contrast: seemingly fragile yet resilient, at once organic yet also industrial, assuredly sophisticated yet without guile.”

The gallery is open Tuesday-Friday 11-6 and Saturday 11-4.

Images – from top: Slip stools, 2009. Photography by Tonaitiuh Ambrosetti. Courtesy Gallery Libby Sellers; Flore vase, 2009. Photography by Tonaitiuh Ambrosetti. Courtesy NextLevel Galerie, Paris; Gaia plate, 2009. Photography by Tonaitiuh Ambrosetti. Courtesy NextLevel Galerie, Paris; Reflecting ring, 2010. Courtesy A. E. Koechert, Vienna; Podium low table, 2011. Photography by D. Droz + T. Ambrosetti. Courtesy Helmrinderknecht, Berlin; Slip Lamp, 2011. Photography by D. Droz + T. Ambrosetti. Courtesy Gallery Libby Sellers.

Midcentury Modern, the popular one-day show of 20th-Century design classics and modern collectables, returns to Dulwich College. The event is a great opportunity to snap up rare or unusual products without high mark-up prices.

MIDCENTURY MODERN, Sunday 20th November 2011 (10am-4pm)

Christison Hall, DULWICH COLLEGE

London SE21 7LD

Entrance: £7 on the day

Browse around some of Britain’s leading mid-century dealers of Scandinavian, European and American furniture and decorative arts. Merging the past with the present, young British designers sell their designs upstairs.

Midcentury Modern is an unpretentious one-stop shop for busy people who love collecting beautiful pieces for their homes.

Participating dealers and designers can be seen on the Midcentury Modern website.

Copies of LONDON DESIGN GUIDE 2012-2013 are available to purchase at the show – head to the stand of contemporary design retailer Theo.

Gallery Libby Sellers, the new design gallery from curator Libby Sellers, brings together some of Europe’s most progressive designers in its latest exhibition – Grandmateria II.

GRANDMATERIA II, 14th October-7th December 2011

GALLERY LIBBY SELLERS

41-42 Berners Street, London W1T 3NB (020 3384 8785)

The exhibition title alludes to the mythologies of the Philosopher’s stone: a stone said to have alchemist powers to transmute lead into gold. By working with modest materials, using materials out of context, or by layering the materials with rich narrative each of the represented designers elevate the ordinary to extraordinary effect.

Grandmateria II highlights design’s ongoing ability to transform preconceptions of the everyday. The choice of materials – pallet wood, local brick, found pine, tail lights from industrial vehicles, boiled leather, fibre cement, ceramic or woven wool – combine with intelligent narrative to question both traditional cultures (local and global) and the materialism of consumer economics.

Designers included in the exhibition are Fabien Cappello, Formafantasma, Simon Hasan, Stuart Haygarth, Nicolas Le Moigne and Nina Tolstrup.

Images – from top: BrickGlass by Fabien Cappello (2010) Photography by Fabien Cappello; Paletable by Nina Tolstrup (2010) Photography by Studiomama; Slip Lamp by Nicolas le Moigne (2011) Photography by Nicolas le Moigne; Tail Light by Stuart Haygarth (2011) Photography by Stuart Haygarth.

Now in its fifth year, the SuperDesign event returns with a collective exhibition of specially commissioned studio pieces by both well known and emerging designers, taking place at The Dairy in Bloomsbury.

SUPERDESIGN, 13th-17th October 2011

THE DAIRY

7a Wakefield Street, London WC1N 1PG

SuperDesign seeks to emphasise the current synergy between design and the visual arts with inventive displays that present contemporary design in a fresh light. Yearly, this show brings together collections from leading galleries and international designers at a crucial time in the art calendar year, during Frieze Art Fair.

Galleries include The Apartment, Nilufar, Spring Projects and Vessel Gallery.

SuperDesign, devised by gallerist Patrick Brillet, has cemented its reputation as an important exhibition of contemporary design-art pieces. The event is open both to the general public and to an audience of international collectors, critics and designers.

It’s official! The new edition of LONDON DESIGN GUIDE 2012-2013 is now available, featuring totally new content and plenty of great features. Order your copy now for only £12 and we will dispatch it to you wherever you are in the world.

LONDON DESIGN GUIDE 2012-2013 gives a fresh insight into the city’s contemporary and vintage retailers, as well as design galleries, museums and bookshops. All 140 new and established hotspots are compiled and reviewed by design commentator Max Fraser.

Shops are categorised by neighbourhood and accompanied by detailed maps – plus walking tours written by local tastemakers including Sheridan Coakley, Tom Dixon and Kit Kemp – to help navigate the best that the city has to offer.

You’ll find restaurant, bar and cafe recommendations, selected as much for their design credentials as for the quality of food and service.

And we’ve commissioned 10 short essays by local experts including Naomi Cleaver, Hugh Pearman, Benjamin Hubert and Libby Sellers, each discussing an aspect of the industry, be it designing, producing, selling, communicating, collecting, even discarding design.

The 2012-2013 edition also introduces 4×4, a new 16-page supplement featuring the top furniture, lighting and accessories designs available in London design stores. The survey does your homework for you, evaluating the designs based on quality and longevity.

The 208-page LONDON DESIGN GUIDE is a snapshot of the design scene today, a celebration of creativity and a practical tool for Londoners and tourists alike. There’s no better incentive for exploring the wealth of design in the capital.

It’s “a must-read” according to the New York Times.

Publisher: Spotlight Press

Editor: Max Fraser

Book designer: Richard Ardagh Studio

Cover designer: Peter Crawley 

One of London’s destinations for graphic art – Outline Editions – has welcomed graphic artist Anthony Burrill to curate a month-long solo show entitled ‘Clear Your Head Every Day’. Burrill is best known for his woodblock prints of uplifting and thoughtful slogans.

‘CLEAR YOUR HEAD EVERY DAY’ 10th June-16th July 2011

OUTLINE EDITIONS

94 Berwick St, London W1F 0QF (020 8451 3400)

The show includes a collection of 30 new small-scale limited prints and neon artworks as well as Burrill’s collaborations with furniture designer Michael Marriott and sculptor Wilfrid Wood.

Live workshops are taking place in the newly re-designed gallery space. Each piece is for sale (prices vary from £30-£300). Burrill says ‘Clear Your Head Every Day’ is a show very much in the spirit of an open studio. Everything shown is based around a theme of positivity and as the title suggests, its about an antidote to stressful, city life.

Burrill is better known for his slogans such as ‘Work Hard and Be Nice To People’ which have become mantras for the design community and beyond. Commissioned by everyone from the Tate to Colette in Paris – Burrill has recently created a series of posters with political messages for the British Library as well as producing adverts for the London Underground and the Economist.

Gallery opening times: Tues-Sat 12-6.30pm

Pornography, orgies and certain sexual practices are not subjects that we expect to see represented in the polite world of porcelain figurines. But then Barnaby Barford, an artist showing his latest series at David Gill Galleries, has never come up with the obvious.

‘LOVE IS…’ 27th May-30th June 2011

DAVID GILL GALLERIES

3 Loughborough Street, London SE11 5RB (020 7793 1100)

In his latest series, Barford turns his attention to the tricky space between lust and love and the pleasures and problems inherent in pornography. A large-scale mirror frame, that looks like a flamboyant piece of decorative art, is an accumulation of 500 exquisite handmade porcelain tiles featuring the covers of magazines ranging from the winsome Legshow to the frankly named Backdoor.

Two-way mirrors recall the Victorian peepshow; a little boy appears to be waiting innocently, until the light switches on, landing him amid an intriguing sexual encounter.

“I’m exploring the difference between love and lust,” says Barford. “and to a certain extent looking at what each means to us today. How Love is beautiful, everlasting, charitable, heavenly, it is something we all strive for in life. Lust is momentary, sinful, selfish, sometimes brutal. I think more and more we mistake feelings of love with those of lust.”

Barford deals with universal themes – jealousy, promiscuity, romance – with a light touch and an aesthetic sleight of hand. His work provokes and appalls, at the same time as it makes us laugh.

Previous series have dealt with plastic surgery, US-Soviet relations, binge-drinking and ASBOs, in scenes played out on stark white plinths by figurines taken from both ceramic’s aristocratic history – Meissen, Royal Doulton – and it’s cheap and cheerful gift shop variant.

Lab Craft: Digital Adventures in Contemporary Craft is an exhibition exploring the use of digital technologies in craft practice. The exhibition, curated by LDG editor Max Fraser, is showing at Arts Depot gallery in London as part of its 18-month tour of the UK.

LAB CRAFT, 6th May-26th June 2011

ARTS DEPOT

5 Nether Street, Tally Ho Corner, London N12 0GA (020 8369 5454)

Lab Craft features 26 makers who combine the hand, mind and eye, technical mastery of tools and materials and aesthetic sensibility, with digital technologies such as rapid prototyping, laser cutting, laser scanning and digital printing. It explores the use of technology as an extension to the capabilities of the human hand.

Lab Craft includes work by some of the most experimental names in craft and design including; Tord Boontje, Michael Eden, Gareth Neal, Timorous Beasties and Nina Tolstrup, with many showing new work.

It features textiles, ceramics, furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting and much more. Two commissioned films accompany the exhibition; one exploring process, showing footage of work being produced using a range of the new technologies and the other showing a series of interviews with the exhibited makers and key figures in the field of digital making.

Fraser says “Today we live in a Digital Age; a time when technological advancements are presenting craft practitioners with liberating opportunities. A new visual language is emerging. A language which involves manipulating, distorting and exploiting the parameters of digital software and fabrication tools. These tools enable the production of objects that move beyond the limitations of the hand.”

“Imagine objects three-dimensionally printed from a bed of nylon powder; shapes appearing to seamlessly morph and merge with each other; materials etched and cut by computer-controlled lasers and milling machines; movements and sound waves captured and translated into physical objects by sensors and scanners; and new forms randomly self-generated by computer software. Lab Craft presents the imagined as real objects.”

“As the human touch is considered a pivotal anchor in the definition of craft, is this made redundant amid the adoption of digital tools? Does digital perfection allow space for the great charm of mistakes? Far be it from spelling the end of craft as we know it, Lab Craft presents an exciting extension to the maker’s toolbox by showcasing a variety of items that utilise digital technologies, wholly or in part, in pursuit of pioneering new outcomes.”

The exhibition is curated by Max Fraser, in partnership with the Crafts Council, and designed by maker Tomoko Azumi.

Images, from top: ‘Information Ate My Table’ by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom; ‘Babel’ vessel by Michael Eden; ‘Shine’ candelabra by Geoffrey Mann; Chair upholstered with ‘White Moth All Over’ by Timorous Beasties; ‘Bubble’ neckpiece by Lynne MacLachlan; ‘Assa Table Loop Light’ by Assa Ashuach; ‘Matrix bracelet 2′ by Justin Marshall; ‘Digital Shibori’ by Melanie Bowles; ‘Woven Wood’ by Gary Allson and Ismini Samanidou.

COLLECT, the international art fair for contemporary objects organised by Crafts Council, returns to Saatchi Gallery where 37 of the finest craft galleries are showcasing museum quality pieces by over 500 artists.

COLLECT 2011, 6th-9th May 2011

SAATCHI GALLERY

Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, London SW3 4SQ

Fans of ceramics, glass, jewellery, textile, wood, furniture, silver and fine metal work are likely to enjoy a visit to this event.

Several new features are appearing this year, including On Screen, a film programme exploring the mediation between craft and moving image. Four organisations – Animate Projects, Ateliers d’Art, Crafts magazine, and onedotzero – are presenting a daily programme of films that document skills and processes, makers and their working environments and explores how craft skills contribute to the making of film and animation.

On View showcases cutting-edge textiles presented in partnership with Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Collection is a selection of 11 objects from the Crafts Council’s permanent collection including recent acquisitions. The display includes Tomoko Azumi’s ‘Table=Chest’, Geoffrey Mann’s ‘Crossfire Teapot’ and Michael Eden’s ‘Wedgwoodn’t Tureen’.

Events and talks for COLLECT are taking a new, more intimate turn, with a series of tours and talks taking place on different gallery stands each day.

The exhibition is open 11am-6pm from Friday 6th – Sunday 8th May, and 11am-4pm on Monday 9th May. Standard ticket £15.

Images, from top: ‘Colourware’ by Sebastian Bergne and Sophie Smallhorn; ‘Grey Bloom’ by Michael Eden; ‘Wynona Ryder Lost Jewels’ by Anya Kivarkis; ‘Indian Pot 2′ by Bud Latven; ‘Garland 3′ by David Watkins; ‘Rosewood Vessel’ by John Jordan.

KK Outlet presents the first solo show of renowned image and music maker Trevor Jackson. NOWHERE features highly personal photographic and video studies that explore related themes of honesty, simplicity, manipulation and ego.

NOWHERE, 4th-26th March 2011

KK OUTLET

42 Hoxton Square, London N1 6PB (020 7033 7680)

NOWHERE reflects a subtle side of Jackson’s visual personality, the works are a move away from his recognizable bold commercial graphic style.

Trevor Jackson is many things: Art Director; Graphic Designer; Moving-image maker; and music producer. His work has been included in exhibitions and catalogues around the world. He has released his own albums as PLAYGROUP, as well as producing many remixes for the likes of Massive Attack, U2, Unkle, Gossip and Doves.

All works featured in NOWHERE are limited editions.