Lucy Sparrow

British artist Lucy Sparrow sewed her first artwork in felt when she was about 6.  Her mum bought her a huge bundle of felt to keep her quiet and she made a star. She works with felt because it comes in such a huge palette of colors, that anything is possible: “When you are producing a show with 30,000 individual items, you need a lot of choices!”

Born in Bath, England in 1986, Lucy made her way into the world of contemporary art with her eccentric innovative artworks that are instantly magnetic and appealing. Her fluffy art is bridging the distance between fine art and craft, playfully creating everyday household objects from wool, thread, felt, and acrylic. By mixing soft materials and bright vivid colors, Lucy is exploring human desire and aspiration, often depicting and tackling consumerism, violence, and sex.

Basically, she recreates parallel universes in felt. A gun store, a sex shop, a supermarket, or a chemist – She takes the concept and produces the whole store in felt. She is a branding obsessive, so much of her work involves research – getting every label just right and ensuring every shelf, shopping basket, and every sign is bang on. The first years of her art career were marked by group exhibitions, recreating famous artworks from felt.

Her first installation, Cornershop held 5,000 items and the one it will open in America in early 2022 will have over 40,000 items. The scale and ambition of her works just keep increasing, as does the size of her studio!Lucy's main goal is to have a fully stocked vintage English supermarket in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern. Her influences include Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Claes Oldenburg, Matthew Barney, Yayoi Kusama. She has three major shows in production, but her immediate focus is on the Bourdon Street Chemist, a fully felted, fully immersive chemist shop at Lyndsey Ingram Gallery in Mayfair, London, and her collaboration with 2B Art & Toys Gallery in Mallorca, Spain. In today’s contemporary art scene, Lucy Sparrow is one of the most innovative and truly exciting artists.