Horatio Junior and Marcelle Joseph Projects are pleased to present Architecture of Enjoyment, an exhibition of contemporary art and design made by an international selection of artists, architects and designers, curated by Marcelle Joseph. This show is a travelling exhibition that was first staged at Fokidos 21, an artist-run space in Athens, in October 2014.

Inspired by French philosopher Henri Lefebvre’s forgotten manuscript entitled Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment written in 1973 and published for the first time in 2014, this exhibition will feature the visual art of six artists displayed alongside chairs and a daybed designed by six designers or architects. In this text, Lefebvre argues for a “concrete utopia” removed from the everyday, the workplace and the market economy as well as all things political and governmental, seeking to conceive of a new space centred around enjoyment. Using the city of Benidorm along Spain’s Mediterranean coastline as a point of departure, Lefebvre sought to extend the notion of architecture to include furniture, gardens, parks and even landscapes and to obliterate the monotony of repetitive elements in twentieth-century architecture co-opted by the powers of capitalism.

In this exhibition, replacing the Costa Blanca high-rises of Benidorm with an artist-run space along the Thames in southeast London, each of the six artists have been paired with a designer or architect to create their own mini- architectural “environment of enjoyment”.

Umberto Bellardi Ricci, a London-based architect, is Studio Master in the Foundation Course at the Architectural Association and Director of the AA Visiting School in Las Pozas, Mexico. He currently also runs his practice in London, which ranges from residential projects to product design. Prior to completing his Diploma at the AA, he holds degrees in Social Anthropology and International Relations from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and has worked in various fields such as human rights and journalism. He currently also co-organises the Architecture Exchange, a platform fostering debate between architecture and philosophy.

Tord Boontje (born 1968, Enschede in the Netherlands) is an award-winning London-based product designer that combines advanced technologies with artisanal techniques to create exquisite lighting, textiles, jewellery, ceramics and furniture. Boontje studied industrial design first at the Design Academy in Eindhoven and then the Royal College of Art in London, where he now teaches. Tord Boontje has worked with a range of international companies such as Swarovski, Moroso, Habitat, Shiseido, Yamaha, Hewlett Packard, Bisazza, Target, Philips, Kvadrat, Alexander McQueen, Perrier-Jouët, Nanimarquina, Artecnica, Authentics and Meta. His work can be found in major collections such as MoMA and Copper-Hewitt Museum in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Council, the Design Museum and Tate Modern in London, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam among many others. Boontje was named Dutch Designer of the Year in 2005 and Designer of the Year by Elle Decoration in 2003. His work was featured in an exhibition at Sotheby’s London earlier this year.

Rachael Champion (born 1982, New York) lives and works in London where she graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art from the Royal Academy Schools in 2010. Champion has been awarded the Arts Foundation Award for sculpture (2013) and the Red Mansion Art Prize (2010). In 2012, she was the Camden Arts Centre 'Artist in Residence'. In 2015, Champion will install a permanent installation on Sarvisalo, the Zabludowicz Collection's outpost in Finland. Champion's work has been exhibited at a number of recognised international spaces including Modern Art Oxford, UK; Zabludowicz Collection, London; Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, US; Bold Tendencies Sculpture Project, London; Enclave Projects, London; Horatio Junior, London. In 2013, Champion's ambitious, site specific work Forced Landscape was installed in Derbyshire as part of the Wirksworth Festival. Champion is represented by Hales Gallery in London.

Bobby Dowler (born 1983, London) lives and works between London and a changing list of European cities that have recently included Athens, Berlin and Paris. His works have been exhibited at Galerie 104 Kléber, Paris; Shoot The Lobster, New York; Bold Tendencies, London; New Art Centre, Roche Court, Wiltshire, UK; Sculpture al Fresco II at Great Fosters, Egham, UK (curated by Marcelle Joseph); Middlemarch, Brussels; Fokidos 21, Athens; Fokidos off-site in St Moritz, Switzerland; and Hannah Barry Gallery in London. He co-founded Fokidos 21, an artist-led project space in Athens, in 2013, and Poetry Readings and a Poetry Press, Friary Road House in London in 2010. Dowler also initiated Lyndhurst Way, an artist run-squat that existed in Peckham in 2006-2007. He is represented by the Hannah Barry Gallery in London.

Thanos Karampatsos and Christina Kotsilelou, or Greece is for Lovers, are Athens-based product designers who comment on Greek habits and customs with equal measures of humour, irony, nonchalance and extravagance. Playing with materials and ideas, they have been producing and exhibiting their products worldwide since 2006, including in Athens, New York, Milan, Berlin, Belgium, London, Hamburg, Gwangju, Korea, Stockholm, Paris, and Los Angeles.

Gabriel Hartley (born 1981, London) lives and works in London. He holds a BA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design, London and a Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art from the Royal Academy Schools, London. Recent solo exhibitions include those at Foxy Production (New York, 2014 and 2012); Brand New Gallery (Milan, 2013); Praz-Delavallade (Paris, 2012); Swallow Street (curated by Sarah McCrory, London, 2009) and a two-man show at Josh Lilley Gallery (London, 2011). Selected group exhibitions include Open Heart Surgery, the Moving Museum, London (2013); Young London, V22, London (2011); Newspeak: British Art Now, Saatchi Gallery, London (2010); Jerwood Contemporary Painting Prize, Jerwood Space, London (2009); Bloomberg New Contemporaries, UK touring exhibition (2008 and 2007); and John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2008). Hartley is represented by Foxy Production in New York.

Richard Healy (born 1980, London) is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, who lives and works in London. His work explores the roles of function and materiality through sculpture, installation and video. Often embodied through simulations of design, his work frequently deploys digital landscapes as a means to examine notions of narrative space. Healy has exhibited widely in the UK and throughout Europe. Selected exhibitions include: Outside the Red House, Marian Cramer, Amsterdam (2015); The Best Tailor in Town, Hunt Kastner, Prague (2015); On the Devolution of Culture, Rob Tufnell, London (2014); Last Seen Entering the Biltmore (curated by Anna Gritz), South London Gallery, London, 2014; I love you Me either, Project Native Informant, London, 2014; Prone Positions, Rowing, London, 2013; Vetiver, Marian Cramer Projects, Amsterdam, 2012; But Mr Architect!, Furnished Space, London, 2012; Dumb, The Brno House of Art, Brno, 2012; Strategies for Building, Outpost, Norwich, 2011; Young British Art, Limoncello, London, 2011; Hey Guys!, Fotograf, Prague, 2011. In 2015, Healy was awarded one of the coveted five-year Fire Station Work/Live Residencies in London.

Marcelle Joseph is an independent curator and author based in London. As the director of Marcelle Joseph Projects, a nomadic curatorial platform founded in 2011, she has produced and curated an impressive oeuvre of exhibitions at a variety of locations from the Gallery Café at the Royal Academy of Arts, London to pop-up galleries in the East End of London. Since 2011, Marcelle has also been the in-house curator at Great Fosters Hotel, the former royal hunting lodge of King Henry VIII in Egham, Surrey, where she has curated six shows in the house and grounds of this magnificent, historic Grade I-listed property that dates back to 1550. Marcelle is also the executive editor of Korean Art: The Power of Now (Thames & Hudson, 2013), a survey of Korean contemporary art showcasing 120 artists, museum and gallery directors, curators and collectors from Korea.

Sofia Stevi (born 1982, Athens) is a Greek artist living and working between Athens and London. Her work is currently featured in a two-person show curated by Paddy Butler and Jelena Seng at nach neben in London and was exhibited in a solo show curated by Alma Zevi in Venice at Marignana Arte in 2014 and the following group exhibitions: Mixed Four, Fokidos in St. Moritz, Switzerland (2014); Entrée, Middlemarch, Brussels (2014); The London Project Goes North, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK (2013) and Paint as You Like and Die Happy! Fokidos 21, Athens (2013). In 2003, Sofia graduated from Vakalo School of Art and Design of Athens, while from 2007 to 2009 the artist frequented a Communication Design Masters course at Central St Martins College in London. In 2013, she curated a series of talks at The Wapping Project, London on epicurean philosophy "The Icarus Project: challenging the way we see the world". Stevi also co-founded Fokidos 21, an artist-led project space in Athens. Stevi is represented by Marignana Arte in Italy.

Emma Leslie (born 1971 in Stoke-on-Trent, UK) and Rhiannon Wilkey are Studio LW, a design partnership based in London. Both are recent graduates from the Building Crafts College where they studied Fine Woodwork. Leslie originally studied Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University (BA Hons). She was the winner of the Carpenters Craft Award in 2013 and received the George Pysden Award. Wilkey previously studied Psychology at Bristol University before becoming a furniture designer and maker. She has completed several private commissions alongside her work with Studio LW. Together they have shown in design exhibitions in London, and have been commissioned by institutions in London such as the ICA, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, and Stuart Shave/Modern Art.

Variant Office is a London-based architectural practice founded by Patrick Macdonald, Ashvin de Vos and Daniel Fitzpatrick. With roots in spatial design, they bring together many years’ experience in architecture, design, planning and construction to secure the success of a wide variety of projects focused on the production of highly crafted experiences, objects, buildings and spaces.

David Ben White (born 1965, London) lives and works in London where he studied at Central St Martins and Chelsea College of Art. In 2011, he was selected for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries show, and in 2012, he was the winner of the Clifford Chance/University of the Arts Sculpture Award for which he created the exhibition Temples to the Domestic at the London offices of Clifford Chance in Canary Wharf. White has exhibited his work extensively in the UK as well as internationally, including recent solo shows in Vienna in 2013 at Kerstin Engholm Gallery and in London in 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006 at studio 1.1.

Bethan Laura Wood graduated with an MA in Product Design from the Royal College of Art, where she studied under the tutelage of Jurgen Bey and Martino Gamper. Since 2009, Bethan has undertaken residencies with London's Design Museum and W Hotel Mexico City and worked in collaboration with artisans in Venice and Vicenza in Italy. Bethan's work, often focusing on the pattern, colouration and patination of objects, aims to rediscover, explore and celebrate different attributes and aspects of the "mundane", combined with research into the constituent elements of a modern city. In 2013, Bethan was awarded the Designers of the Future Award (sponsored by W Hotels), UK Ketel One Vodka Modern Craft Legacy Prize and London Design Week's Rising Star Award. Bethan opened her first solo show at the Aram Gallery during the 2013 London Design Week. Her work can be found in the public collections of Musee de design et d'arts appliques contemporains, Lausanne and the Abet Laminati Museum, Milan. Bethan currently teaches design at École cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL) in Switzerland and is represented by Nilufar Gallery in Milan.

For additional information visit www.marcellejoseph.com