Photograph: Gareth Gardner
Synopsis
Bristol Quilt is a permanent artwork in ceramic decorating the length of a pedestrian thoroughfare through the old Everard’s Printworks site by the old city walls in central Bristol.
London-based artist and designer Adam Nathaniel Furman is known for his gloriously colourful, unapologetically flamboyant interventions in public space, his studio creates spaces, objects and artworks at all scales.
Set within an undercroft walkway and along the surrounding exterior of a major building, ‘Bristol Quilt’ pays homage to the original Victorian architecture and its redevelopment in the 1970s.
Making a reference to the Art Nouveau façade of the Everard’s Printworks and the 60s modernist heritage visible on the site, Furman set out to celebrate this remarkable historical context through the playful use of ceramic tiles. For the commission, Furman weaves an intuitive pattern akin to the way a family quilt is stitched together from offcuts of fabric, transforming an everyday material into a dramatic new creation.
Bristol Quilt was a part of a larger programme of works commissioned by Artisan Landscape for the development of the new Clayton Hotel on the former Everard’s Printworks site in response to Bristol’s public art planning policy.
Each commission responded to the heritage context of the site to produce a unique contemporary response and included;
Nick Hand and The Letterpress Collective
Repainting of Inkie’s ‘See No Evil’ mural
Young artist (part of Bristol Youth Network) supported to do first public realm commission
Further Reading
Trained in architecture, Furman is an artist and designer based in London whose work creatively fuses traditions, contemporary themes, and beautiful materials to form high quality, crafted and tactile experiences rooted in shared experiences of delight.
Through Furman’s mastery of colour, shape and quality craftsmanship, people are invited into gentle, non-conformist worlds that spark the imagination through a sensual celebration of the human spirit.
Furman works across diverse scales and disciplines, from painting, videos and prints, to large public and architectural artworks, furniture, interiors, and beyond. His vibrant aesthetic combines diverse influences into a distinctive visual language that is singular, but highly adaptive, and very much his own.
Exhibited and collected internationally, Furman’s work delights in the transformational power of spaces and objects that provide joy and inspiration.
Adam Nathaniel’s work has been exhibited all over the world, and is held in the collections of the Design Museum (London), the Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Museum (of Norway), the Abet Museum, and the Architectural Association.
Visit his website here
