For Immediate Release Press Contact: Mark Legere, Founder
info@mlegere.com
212-334-2299
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www.mlegere.com
IT’S OK TO GET FOOD ON THIS ARTWORK:
M. LEGERE - ORIGINALS AT THE TABLE
NY NOW BOOTH # 3307
LAUNCHES EXCLUSIVE, COLLECTIBLE TABLEWARE, DESIGNED BY THE WORLD’S MOST
PROVOCATIVE ARTISTS AND CREATED BY HAVILLAND OF LIMOGES, FRANCE
mlegere.com// instagram.com/mlegere_originals
New York City, January 24, 2018- Some of the world’s most exciting young artists are getting a new venue to display their most intriguing work.
It’s called your table.
M. Legere - Originals at the Table is collaborating with Haviland, the iconic manufacturing house in Limoges, France,to release limited-edition dinnerware sets designed by hand-picked artists renowned for provocative, boundary-breaking work in New York, Berlin, and Paris.
The result is a new frontier for both tableware and the art world - collectible, exclusive edition pieces that bear an artists’ signature-- but are intended to be functional, enjoyable, even joyful expressions of both artists and owners’ personalities.
For its launch collection, M. Legere - Originals at the Table tapped three New York artists: Amy Feldman, Joanne Greenbaum, and Emilie Clark, all painters whose highly personal approaches to art expand and test the limits of the form. Each artist created exclusive works to adorn a four-piece place setting: Bowl, salad plate, entree plate, and dessert plate. Each piece is different, but part of a beautifully connected statement by the artist.
Amy Feldman’s pieces for M. Legere translate her urgent, pulsating, often humorous shapes in a palette of grey, silvery grey and inky blacks. The painting is direct, yet the shapes are ambiguous so it’s free association with these Rorschach tests at a dinner party. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with porcelain,” Feldman said. “I thought the forms in my drawings and paintings would readily translate to clay.”
Joanne Greenbaumagreed. “My designs came from ballpoint pen drawings that I make almost daily. I wanted to pair the blue ink color of the ballpoint pen on white Limoges porcelain,” she said. Greenbaum’s dynamic ball point sketches for M.Legere, culled from the pages of her private sketch books look like moving parts of an electronic device that are ready to spiral into any direction. The porcelain just-about contains the energy of the drawings. It’s the expression of possibility and potential, much like a party with an unexpected mix of guests.
For Emilie Clark, working with porcelain meant exploring “the literal interpretation of the word ecology. I wanted my plate designs to reference the starting point of the meal, and reveal all the parts and the creatures in the environment that might contribute to the meal,” she said. Her work for M. Legere features her signature menageries, rendered with delicacy in luminous watercolors - plants and creatures from the planet brought together on china.
The “canvas” for each artist is exquisite porcelain from Haviland, crafted in Limoges, France. Mark Legere, the art connoisseur and former attorney who founded M. Legere in 2018, selected Havilland to reproduce the art on its legendary tableware after meeting with makers around the world. Each artist has also designed exclusive cocktail plates.
“I was transported on my visits to the Haviland workshop in Limoges,” Legere said. “Haviland has been carefully honing the craft since 1842. It is nothing short of magical to observe the alchemy of transmuting Limoges’ white clay into shining examples of luxury porcelain.” The originals from M. Legere are both exceptional works of art and superb examples of craft for the table.
For collectibles available in such limited quantities, the M. Legere - Originals at the Table works are priced accessibly. A four-piece setting costs $638.41. There is a minimum order of six four-piece settings, for a total of 24 pieces.
Over the next year, M. Legere - Originals at the Table will introduce new work by Berlin artists Gregor Gleiwitz and Mira O’Brien; and Parisian artist Laurence Egloff. Thereafter further works will be released by New York artists Andrew Ross, Jane Fine, and Aaron Krach; and Berlin artists Angelika Trojnarski, Britta Lumer, and Jens Einhorn.
The complete M. Legere - Originals at the Table collection is available exclusively at mlegere.com.
About Haviland
The legacy of generations of Haviland’s master craftsmen lies behind every distinctive piece of porcelain that bears the M. Legere insignia. Skilled artisans take hold of natural elements and precisely trim, smooth, dry, fire, glaze, embellish and fire the porcelain clay into objects of impeccable beauty and craftsmanship. When the curtain is pulled back, it is spellbinding to watch as the proud team of Haviland artisans precisely execute each required production stage. One is dazzled at seeing white clay take shape into recognizable pieces - ultimately becoming that distinctive piece of porcelain bearing the M. Legere insignia. Limoges porcelain made by Haviland is an expression of the exceptional art of living.
About M. Legere - Originals at the Table
Mark Legere founded M. Legere with a spark of artistic creativity interpreted through the eyes of a visionary in a pursuit to move the exciting artwork and ideas of contemporary artists off the wall and onto the dinner-party table. M. Legere has created a portfolio of artist-designed china to be celebrated and enjoyed with friends, guests, and family in modern dinner party and cocktail party settings. The artwork gives excitement to the table and an emotional boost to any cocktail gathering.
The designs are created by some of the most original artists in today's major urban art centers in North America and Europe - in particular New York City and re-energized Berlin. There is a difference between appealing artwork borne up by skill, stories and meaning, and the generic design intended for the widest consumer audience.These artists, instead of following the ordinary are here leading the tastes of tomorrow.