In partnership with the Estate of Peter Chang and Glasgow Life Museums
As part of London Design Festival and the Mayfair Design District, Lyon & Turnbull is honoured to present More is More: The Magical World of Peter Chang, a major exhibition exploring the work of Peter Chang, a visual artist and colourist whose distinctive practice defied conventional boundaries.
Bringing together prints, jewellery, sculpture, drawings and archival material, the exhibition reveals the extraordinary visual language that connected Chang's work across disciplines. Part storyteller, part inventor, Chang drew inspiration from both the natural and manmade worlds, creating works that are at once sensual, playful and unexpected.
While he became internationally renowned for his radical jewellery, Chang saw himself first and foremost as a visual artist, for whom cross-disciplinary practice was essential. The exhibition traces his creative journey from printmaking and sculpture to the sculptural jewellery works for which he became renowned.
Influenced in part by Surrealism, he often began with familiar references before transforming them through visual puns, unexpected associations and imaginative leaps. Heraldry, sportswear, industrial design, mythology, Taoism, camouflage and mechanical forms all found their way into a body of work that was witty, enigmatic and deeply original.
Printmaking formed the foundation of Chang's understanding of colour. Long before plastics became central to his practice, he was exploring layered colour, abrasion and surface manipulation. Combined with his knowledge of Chinese lacquer-work, these investigations informed the remarkable techniques that later defined his sculpture and jewellery.
Illustrated lead: Printing plate, Circa 1968 - 1970 | © of Barbara Santos-Shaw Chang and Sons. Photography: Alex Robson.
