FINE ART TEXTILES

The Artist

John Laurence was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1983. In his work as a textile artist, he playfully borrows elements from wallpaper and fabric design to create indulgent and grandiose collages. Seeking to manipulate and deconstruct pattern in innovative and colourful ways, he brings together preexisting fabric designs and embellishes pieces indulgently with beads, buttons, sequins, diamantes, and other materials.

/ˌɛmpɪˈriːən /

EMPYREAN

“Because the medieval universe is finite, it has a shape, the perfect spherical shape, containing within itself an ordered variety.”

— C. S. Lewis

A work-in-progress, Empyrean takes its name from superseded theories of medieval cosmology, which understood the stars as fixed entities embedded in rotating celestial spheres, like jewels set in an orb. These colourful and highly embellished pieces fuse together lace doilies, embroidery circles, and contemporary fabric swatches to imagine glittering, spherical celestial bodies.

  • The Star in the Sword

  • Three Hearthstones

  • Kronos

  • At the Tail of the Sea-Goat

  • Little Fox

  • A Resting Place for the Moon

  • Between the Summer Stars

  • Mallard Flock

  • In the Hand of the Serpent-Bearer

  • Lagoon Nebula

  • The Coiling of Serpens

  • The Stars in the Brooded Swan

  • Joy & Little Star

  • β Aquarii

  • The Crab Pulsar

DOILIES FOR THE DAUPHIN

Doilies for the Dauphin

The series Doilies for the Dauphin continues the aesthetic exploration of embellishment started in Posies for a Prince, this time with lace doilies taking a more material role. A nod to the legacies of European lacemaking, these works take from a bold colour palette and are adorned lavishly with diamantes, pearls, and intricate beadwork.

  • Blue Doily on Yellow Flowers

  • Cornflower

  • The Mill

  • Thorndale

  • Élysées

  • Parlour Maple

  • The Queen's Nest

  • Plume d'Or

  • Before Art & Money

  • Nightfall

  • Toile d'Azur

  • Lavaliere

  • Redbud Winter

  • Citron Star

POSIES FOR A PRINCE

Posies for a Prince

The series Posies for a Prince is a tactile and aesthetic exploration of fabric swatches and embellishment. Upholstery fabric swatches are juxtaposed with pre-existing and original patterns and design motifs ranging from the floral to the animalic. Various combinations and sequences of beads, buttons, and sequins frame a familiar porthole– a window into the image. White pearls and gold buttons lend an air of opulence, whilst zippers and office clips bring a taste of the mundane. Patterns meet with one another in a dazzling, prismatic dialogue.

  • Orange Flock on Southwestern

  • Embroidered Blue

  • The Hanging Garden

  • Emerald Blossoms

  • Peacock in Pearls

  • Hibiscus Crown

  • Blue Print Royale

  • Stars of a Roman Candle

  • Eastern Teaberry

  • Blue Dahlia

  • Circus Rose

  • Midnight in the Emperor's Garden

  • Coup de Grâce

  • The Majarani's Headpiece

  • Lady Mallow