Martin Creed’s illuminating restaurant interiors

London-based artist Martin Creed has been pretty busy lately. But when he’s not been helping to bathe northern cities in | light; creating Olympic posters ; or painting things for indie bands , he’s been designing the interiors for the Gallery restaurant at London bar Sketch.

By December 15, 2011 11:58 am January 29, 2015 5:23 pm

Creed will be the first in a series of artists to design the venue’s Gallery restaurant, each of whom will take over the space for about 18 months, according to Victoria Brooks, who curates the art elements of Sketch.

Brooks says, ‘Martin Creed seemed very interesting as he’s very playful with his take on public realm art. He immediately had some ideas – it was really a conversation rather than a brief. The limitations are that it’s a restaurant, so it has to be a functional space.’

The project will see Creed working with various designers, who are contributing the pieces for the space, as well as Andres Ros, designer at consultancy Maison Baton, which Sketch works with on its interiors.

It is hoped the space will be at once an exhibition, a restaurant, an events space and an artwork in its own right.

some previous work from Martin Creed

One of Creed’s artworks, Work No. 1347, will be a zigzag formation snaking the floor, created from 96 different types of marble and accompanying a series of paintings. Work No. 1343 is a new work, which is really a sort of umbrella term for the restaurant itself, in which no two objects will be the same.

Every glass, chair, table and piece of cutlery is entirely different from the next, with those to feature coming from designers including Ligne Roset, Versace, OMK, Carl Hansen, Ron Arad, Martino Gamper, Carpenters Workshop, Hille and Modus.

There is also the possibility that Creed will create a sculpture for the ceiling made of sound-proofing materials, though this is still a ‘work in progress’, according to Brooks.

Brooks adds, ‘It’s going to be a very eclectic space but the floor plan view looks like a Missoni sweater with all the different colours. There’s a very vibrant basis for it with all the different colours and materials but, of course, we’ll make sure it doesn’t look like a flea-market.’