India Mahdavi and David Shrigley : The Gallery Restaurant at Sketch

The Gallery at Sketch in London has re-opened its doors early this June – the restaurant now hosts an installation with new works by British artist and last year’s Turner Prize nominee David Shrigley. Paris-based architect and designer India Mahdavi was commissioned to refurbish the iconic Mayfair gastro-brasserie and create a new setting for David Shrigley’s witty artworks.

To give Shrigley’s drawings and ceramic tableware room to breathe, India Mahdavi has conceived a soothing, monochromatic, strikingly comprehensive interior. Updating the archetypal brasserie design with a very contemporary all-over Ladurée-esque powder pink on the walls and on the velvet-covered custom-made furniture. The classic, almost bourgeois design invites a deliberately playful contrast with the amusing, raw and outré 239 drawings lining the restaurant’s walls.

        

About – The largest presentation of original David Shrigley drawings to date opens 6th June. Celebrated British artist, David Shrigley, is set to transform The Gallery at Sketch as part of a long-term programme of artist-conceived restaurants at the iconic London venue. Opening for lunch, afternoon tea and dinner on 6th June 2014, the project follows the huge success of artist Martin Creed’s restaurant commission at Sketch in 2012. 239 new works will line the restaurant’s walls, forming the largest group of original drawings David Shrigley has ever exhibited. The drawings, touching on the grand themes of life, death and beyond, will offer points of departure for diners to muse on.

The exhibition continues on the restaurant tables: Shrigley has understood the dining table as an auxiliary exhibition space, a platform for the presentation of new work by himself and Master Chef, Pierre Gagnaire. The work will comprise new ceramic tableware, manufactured by British heritage brand Caverswall featuring Shrigley’s distinctive mordant drawings and texts, in a holistic interaction with Gagnaire’s food.

The meal itself becomes a site-specific sculptural work that references sketch’s location in the heart of London’s West End and invites diners to respond with their own thoughts and reactions. David Shrigley says, ‘I’m delighted to be working with sketch on such an exciting commission. Amongst other things I have created all the ceramic tableware for the restaurant. It will be the first artwork that I have made that can go in the dishwasher. It will be very clean artwork. Clean artwork is good artwork, in my opinion.’

In addition, fashion designer Richard Nicoll has been enlisted to create bespoke uniforms for the Gallery restaurant staff to wear. For the girls, the design is a play on Nicoll’s signature T-shirt dress silhouette; for the boys, a smart, grey boiler-suit.

Mourad Mazouz, owner at Sketch, says: ‘We are so excited about the opening of the Gallery. The beautiful collision of art and design, humour and finesse is exactly what we want to bring to our guests. It’s going to be a magical space.’

Photos © Sketch / Scott & Co.