NOW Gallery in London presents, until the end of September, “The Shape of Things,” an emotive exhibition by one of the leading voices in contemporary design: Simone Brewster. The various pieces encompass furniture, paintings, jewelry, and sculptures that explore the hidden linguistics behind design.
Simone Brewster is an artist, designer, educator, and cultural transformer. Highly focused on Arts & Crafts, she uses her creative productions as a voice, celebrating and sharing various narratives and stories of black women. Born and based in London, her work rests on a balance between function and beauty, the fusion of ethnic and Western influences, and a continuous interplay with scale, materiality, and architectural form. Her pieces explore “intimate architectures,” a term Simone uses to describe the relationship that texture, form, and volume have with memory and emotion. As part of the African diaspora, her work exists at the intersections of Western and African visual languages, bridging the gap between these two histories and materials, volumes, and forms inherently imbued with culture, history, and tradition.
“The Shape of Things” is an exploration of the power of objects to communicate social expectations of beauty, representation, and the qualities of objects we use to empower ourselves. The exhibition delves into the concept of “intimate architecture” — the effect that texture and three-dimensional form have on memory and emotion. Therefore, “The Shape of Things,” on display until the end of September, is an exhibition of emotive objects, objects that gain personal meaning through the tension and interaction between the artist and her audience. The exhibition encourages viewers to reconsider their perception of everyday objects and how we interact with them, while celebrating Brewster’s multidisciplinary approach to design and architecture.
As part of the African diaspora, Brewster’s work combines Western and African visual languages, and these dialogues of heritage, memory, race, gender, tradition, and form are incorporated into some of the central pieces of the exhibition. As part of the showcase, Brewster presents a chaise-lounge titled “Negress,” which incorporates a modernist perspective on a deconstructed view of the Black female body, referencing and questioning the primitivist and cubist interpretation of the subject. The piece was acquired by the Smithsonian in 2022 and invites the viewer to reexamine their interaction with the piece’s mysterious lines.
Furthermore, Brewster presents a series of craftworks titled “Tropical Noire,” referencing totemic statues and traditional Greek vessels, as well as sculptures from Sub-Saharan Africa and colonial artifacts. The collection showcases Brewster’s signature bold style of ethnic and architectural elements, echoing in her paintings, drawings, and jewelry displayed as part of the exhibition. Additionally, a series of new comb sculptures inspired by African hairstyles, wearable and celebratory of the designer’s heritage, are also featured. The designs raise significant questions about race, gender, and visibility in design and architectural spaces, while also celebrating British Black design and African heritage.
Brewster’s work has been featured at the British Embassy during the 2012 London Olympics as an example of British design talent, in the 175th-anniversary exhibition of the Royal College of Art, in the Saatchi Gallery collection, among many other national and international exhibitions.
“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase my work in the Summer Design Exhibition. NOW Gallery is the perfect space to display the diversity of my work across various different mediums. While my paintings have been shown at the Royal Academy, the furniture at the Museum of London, and the jewelry at Collect, this is the first time they are displayed together. As such, it’s a great opportunity to illustrate how the themes present in my work — race, femininity, function, beauty — span the different mediums I work with and show that they take many forms, all different, from the architectural nature of Tropical Noir to the fluidity of my painting.”
By Isabel Figueiredo
