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.

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.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM LONDON DESIGN GUIDE! We hope you had a relaxing Christmas break. As life settles back down to normal, you are probably on the cusp of unceremoniously turfing your Christmas tree out into the cold. Why not consider an alternative after-life for your tree?

Gallery Libby Sellers and the designer Fabien Cappello are staging The Christmas Tree Project which will see abandoned and previously loved trees from across the Greater London area being regenerated into handsome stools with the trunk and branches forming the seat and legs respectively.

Gallery Libby Sellers is inviting clients new and old to contact the gallery to schedule a post-Christmas collection of their tree and place their order for a unique and handcrafted Christmas Tree Stool by rising designer Fabien Cappello.

This sounds like a responsible and sustainable option. Indeed, in London alone, it is estimated that most of the 976,000 Christmas trees in the capital will be simply thrown away – left in a laneway, shoved in a rubbish bin, dumped on a street corner – its twinkling lights and Alpine scents a distant memory.

To arrange for the transformation of your Christmas tree, contact Gallery Libby Sellers on 07774 113 813 or email gallery@libbysellers.com

Orders should be arranged on or before 6th January 2011 and collections will be made shortly thereafter but only in the Greater London area, though deliveries of trees are welcomed from anywhere. No purchase of a tree is necessary – Cappello can also use discarded and found Christmas trees for the stools. Prices will be based on the collection and return address, but starting from around £400+ VAT.

A percentage of profit from the Christmas Tree Project will be donated to The Woodland Trust, which is also running it’s own Christmas card recycling campaign.

Pop-up gallerist Libby Sellers is showcasing the ‘Tidal Ossuary’ body of work by designer Julia Lohmann and partner Gero Grundmann. The exhibition comprises a series of covetable small vessels made from found animal bones collected from the banks of the River Thames.

TIDAL OSSUARY, 5th February – 4th March 2010

GALLERY LIBBY SELLERS

hosted by JACQUELINE RABUN GALLERY, 32 Grosvenor Crescent Mews, London SW1X 7EX (07774 113 813)

The series continues Lohmann and Grundmann’s investigations into the contradictions inherent in our relationship to animals as sources of food and materials. Tidal Ossuary is ‘an elegant collection of beastly origins’ – the bones used to make the vessels were chance finds along the banks of London’s River Thames.

The designers’ investigations into the origins of the bones and their displacement on the banks of the Thames suggests that they are 19th Century waste that was thrown into London’s Victorian sewer system and turned out into the river. Given the Thames pathway’s proximity to London’s Smithfield meat market and the underground waterways that link the market to the river, the designers believe the bones to be by-products of the Victorian meat industry.

Their fascination with the waste lies in the resonant histories inherent in the bones and the many evocative narratives that they trigger. Once deemed as rubbish, these remnants of meals long past have survived beyond their supposed use-by-date and have now been returned to objects of use and worth. Typically for Lohmann and Grundmann this questioning of value systems – in which the overlooked and discarded are given new purpose and meaning – is paramount.

The series is an open edition of mixed materials including polished bone, silver, resin, and stainless steel.