Carpenters Workshop Gallery is pleased to announce THE GRADUATE(S), its collaboration with design curator Lidewij Edelkoort to highlight young talent gathered from Europe’s best design schools. The gallery’s London space, in the heart of the Mayfair Design District, is offering a platform to graduates as a steppingstone to promoting and producing their work.
 
As a renowned trend forecaster, Edelkoort has a proven record of finding creative talent that reflects the zeitgeist. She has surveyed the work of recent graduates from more than 50 academies to formulate a final selection that defines a new organic design language, observing how, “A fresh generation of designers are investigating their identity and their roots – sometimes literally going back in history to uncover authenticity and primal instincts. They create hybrids between technology and touch, innovating materials, forging form and conceptualizing rituals for a more humble lifestyle fit for our ever-evolving times.”
The exhibition will unveil works from 14 design talents from ECAL (Switzerland), Royal College of Art (United Kingdom), École National Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (France), Royal Danish Design Academy (Denmark), LUCA School of Arts (Belgium), and Design Academy Eindhoven (the Netherlands).
 
As Edelkoort explains, “A new form of archaeology emerges. Students catalogue this experience by creating new artefacts, remnants for living that are arranged as still lives. A true sense of exploring classic of ancient beauty, rendered in quick gestures and abstract patterns, sporadically using colour in hushed harmonies. Furniture is therefore coated to look like stone, a post-fossil idea dreamt up for tomorrow’s Fred Flintstone. Amphorae resemble historical vestiges while bronze is cast into miniature monuments, decorating homes, composing collections and providing spiritual depth for the future.”
 
THE GRADUATE(S) features works by fifteen designers, made from a variety of both poor and precious natural materials. Among them, Martin Laforet has wired LEDs to a rough slab of concrete to create a beautiful lamp. Thomas Ballouhey coats found ingredients with sand to envision porous rudimentary furniture for the interior. Carlo Lorenzetti forges earthen recipients for water and botanicals, ritualistic tools for a new kind of well-being.

Crackling clay grows over the polished marble and granite assemblages by Priyanka Sharma. Steel is rendered in varying oxidised patinas by Anton Henrik Denys. The translucency of cow intestines is lit up in a chandelier by Kathrine Barbro Bendixen, recalling the emotional vocabulary of Eva Hesse. And textiles take on highly tactile dimensions in sensorial woven rugs by Sofie Genz. These objects are all tinted in natural shades ranging from brown and beige to red ochres and bronze. Yet an accumulation of shapes and materials brings some brightness, a spectacular cabinet-collage by Kostas Lambridis.
 
A digital catalogue will be available through the gallery in early September. For further information, interview requests and full image selection available for press, kindly contact Carla Colón & Andrey Furmanovich at cwg@nadinejohnson.com or on +1 212 228 5555.
 
This special exhibition is part of London Design Week. A cocktail reception with Lidewij Edelkoort and the designers will take place on Monday, September 18 from 6:30-8:30 PM.
 
THE GRADUATE(S)
EUROPEAN DESIGN TALENT SELECTED BY LIDEWIJ EDELKOORT
Monday, September 4 – Saturday, September 23, 2017
Monday to Friday 10 AM to 6 PM
Additionally open Saturday, September
 
Carpenters Workshop Gallery
4 Albemarle Street
London W1S 4GA
 
download the press release

www.carpentersworkshopgallery.com