London, England

2009

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Gallerist Josh Lilley asked us to design his first solo space in Fitzrovia, a vibrant new centre in London's art world. Lilley represents an emerging generation of abstract painters, whose work -often materially dense, expressive and improvised- requires a range of settings and spaces, and a background which is neither distracting nor sterile. We advised Josh in the choice of a former tailor's workshop with a corner ground-floor space and a large basement divided by a series of brick arches.

Working principally in large-scale model with tiny scaled-down paintings, we helped him determine the richest possible curatorial possibilities for the space: a sequence of three basement rooms with varying character and proportion, and a ground-floor volume which behaves as an extension of the street, with simple, built-in furniture and guard rails, unobtrusively detailed. A slot between the stairs and the ground-floor guard rail serves for the delivery of paintings; large storage closets are placed behind new display walls, some big enough to serve as projection rooms. The gallery is designed as a robust kit of parts with many possibilities for evolution.

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In the basement we sought to maximise display wall space without effacing the presence of the original brick (and wooden ceiling in one zone), which is kept as a leitmotif through each individual volume. In practice it has proved possible to juxtapose tiny works with, say, the 4 metre-long painting completed by Christof Mascher especially for his solo show in the gallery.

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