Lyndsey Ingram is delighted to open their second space, 16 Bourdon Street, a few doors down from their original gallery, with a solo exhibition of fabrics, wallpapers and works on paper by British artist Georgie Hopton (b. 1967).
Installed in the restored interior of this former 19th -century Edwardian stable, Produce.Repeat. is the first exhibition to focus solely on Hopton’s applied art practice. The Repeats, original works on paper, form the foundation for all of her wallpaper and fabric designs to date and are made under the umbrella title Produce, with, as the artist says, ‘the mindset of an upmarket greengrocer who supplies olive oil and pasta’.
Until recently, Hopton had a large vegetable garden in upstate NY. It was here, each season for many years, that she would make unique prints with much of the produce grown and gathered there. Anything that could support the slathering of paint on its insides when sliced would be adopted as vehicle to transfer paint to paper; potatoes, carrots, kohlrabi, squash…the dried stems of Monarda and the sturdy foliage of certain shrubs, harvested and used when a line or a leaf were called for. Eventually, Hopton felt the rudimentary motifs she had been giving solos to would lend themselves perfectly to repetition and the Repeats became part and parcel of her seasonal output. It is in this show that we focus on the result; wallpapers, fabrics and a selection of their handprinted sources, the Repeats.
Primitive and playful, Hopton’s printing and pattern-making celebrate the naive pleasure in their execution and the natural exuberance of the shapes and colours contained in her American kitchen garden. Original and sensitive, they are as much about colour and craft as they are about restraint and purity of design.
