Fenton Art & Design has a business model I admire. The young company (it launched at Tent in 2012) was started by Cherry Anderson and Steve Chapman, who are passionate about finding and supporting new artistic talent.
Each year the pair, who have a combined background in graphics and film/ TV, scour the art college graduate shows, looking for artists to help create their designs, which include these striking wall murals, below.
Once they've found artists whose work throws up the "interesting themes, shapes or forms" that will work in a collection (which, along with the murals, includes prints and fabrics) the pair get busy adapting it. The aim is always, they explain, to "retain the spirit of the original artwork, but to be distinct, separate creations with an identity of their own". The selected artists, meanwhile, get a cut from each sale to plough back into their own careers – as well, of course, as plenty of exposure outside the world of fine art.
Above, you can see the design produced from work by 30-year-old Goldsmiths MFA graduate,
Haroun Haward. In this case, the original work (which you can see in its original form on the left) is called Exotic Construction With Mangoes. It's an interesting idea, adapting an artist's work in this way – but if it brings new talent to a wider audience, and pays the original creator, why not? Besides, adaptation for product design is hardly new.
In mural form, the works cost £45 per square metre (each installation is bespoke). And you can also buy a A2 giclee prints of the original work for £65.
This mural comes via 2009 Central St Martin's graduate, Charles Robinson, aged 26. The original artwork is called Problem Child and is a five foot square oil painting on canvas.
This mural has adapted the work of Korean American artist,
Eun Young Choi.
Below you can see some of the other artwork-based products Fenton is selling. What do you think?
Lampshades start at £59.
Cushions start at £39.
Fentonartdesign.co.uk
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