Entertaining

Artists' Editions at Faux: Australia Series launch at Spence & Lyda

Australian artists have launched a limited edition series of bone china dinnerware...

By Maggie Scardifield
Australian artists Belinda Fox, James Gordon, Lucas Grogan and Marc Standing have launched a limited edition series of bone china dinnerware, now available exclusively at the Spence & Lyda showroom in Sydney.
The Artists' Editions Australia Series is a collaboration between the four designers (who are each represented by The Cat Street Gallery in Hong Kong) with Faux, a lifestyle company dedicated to marrying contemporary art with interiors.
"We want artists to gain exposure through other mediums, not normally associated with their art," said Faux co-founder Louis Papachristou, who joined guests from Hong Kong for the launch at Spence & Lyda, last week.
Each artist's collection spans four different china products: dinner plate, oval platter, large salad bowl; and medium-sized bowl. "This is our first Australian series," said Papachristou. "We've chosen four artists that, individually, are very different."
The designs feature everything from delicate lotus flowers and birds by printmaker Belinda Fox to monochrome watercolour illustrations of oysters and crustaceans by multi-medium artist James Gordon. A more traditional blue-and-white geometric design by textile artist Lucas Grogan and a striking red, pink and black garden scene by painter Marc Standing, complete the collection.
"The work is all decaled," Papachristou said. "We take the artists' work, photograph it, and then heat-transfer it onto the fine china. They're an edition of 80 pieces, so once the collection is gone, it's gone."
Fifteen per cent of the sale proceeds will go to launching Faux's new foundation, The Society for Artist Residencies, in Hong Kong.
"We're setting the program up so that established and emerging Australian artists can come to Hong Kong to produce new works in a new environment," said Papachristou.
"If we garner enough interest here with the Australia series, I hope we can repeat this with more artists in other parts of the world, too. The possibilities for cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary dialogue are endless."