During last years annual Frieze London, The Interiors Almanac was lucky to attend the Pad Luxury design talk Living with Art & Design, where the panelist Libby Sellers passionately described her eponymous gallery. We interviewed Libby to listen to her very own story of how the gallery on Berners street came to fruition.
How did Gallery Libby Sellers begin?
Having left my post as Senior Curator at the Design Museum, I wanted to continue supporting designers. Given my background, exhibitions were always going to be the lynchpin of my business, and I believed the best way I could continue offering support outside of a museum environment was through a gallery. However, the main difference between the exhibitions I did for the museum and those I do for the gallery are that now these are commercial, selling exhibitions in which every piece we show should have the ability to be sold through the gallery.
What excites you about the designers you
collaborate with and promote through Gallery Libby Sellers?
The relationship we have with the designers and
their work changes from one to the next.
It normally takes a couple of collaborations before we really start to
understand each other, and not every relationship continues. However there are
a small handful with whom I work very closely and are in daily communications
with. Helping them develop their work and watching the results of these close collaborations
come together is the exciting part. Having these works accepted into major
public institutions and private collections is the icing on the cake – it’s a
validation on all that effort.
Can you recall the first piece of design that
hooked you?
My mother used to drive an early 1970s Alfa Spyder.
I think I’ve always been drawn to Italian design ever since.
Many of the pieces you display at the gallery
have a functionality to them as well as being works of art, why have you chosen
to display the designs in a gallery setting?
Most people’s assumptions about design is that it
must be mass manufactured and uniform. Through the designers, works and
exhibitions that we present in the gallery, I enjoy challenging this
expectation and highlighting that – like art – design can be a conduit for story-telling and narrative. It
makes little sense to tell the same story over and over – so we celebrate the
unique, the individual, the crafted and poetic through a curated selection of
works. Just like a commercial art gallery, we support the careers and portfolios
of the designers we represent. We are not a furniture show room, but a platform
for the development of these people’s work and careers.
It must be very inspiring to work with makers who
have dedicated their lives to their craft, have you ever considered becoming a
designer?
No. I’m better at contextualising and presenting
works – not making them.
What has been your most favourite collection to
work on?
I couldn’t possibly… it’s like asking me to chose
which is my favourite child.
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