Ian Berry - Drawn threads
Article from Embroidery magazine March 2017
A decade of creating artworks in denim sees ian Berry’s practice soar to new heights.
EVEN UP CLOSE it’s no simple matter to perceive the individual pieces of cloth that make up the staggeringly complex photorealist images that Ian Berry creates from pairs of old jeans.
Whether viewed in print, online or even at arm’s length, the works are often misidentified as bluetoned photographs rather than handmade works of art. In a painstaking process, Berry collages layers of shapes cut from different shades of faded denim that form mosaics of striking, life-like scenes.
Berry, who is originally from huddersfield, already had a successful career as an art director in advertising when he started making his works. Since then he’s had near-sell out shows in Sweden (where he lived at the time), as well as the US and Portugal.
The works on these pages were part of two solo exhibits presented by Catto Gallery at gallery different last November. Berry produced the works after moving back to london. he felt compelled to create a body of work in response to his thoughts on the meaning of home and the changing nature of cultural diversity in the city.
