Images of some of the items in our May sale:
From the estate of the late John Sparrow and his partner the late Bryan Catley, author of ‘Art Deco and Other Figures’.
STATEMENT from Brian Seifert:
I have spent a large part of my life connected to the Art World. I spent the sixties as an Interior Designer working on banks, hotels and homes.
I moved into the printing industry and spent over 30 years building a reprographics company. This
was followed by ten years during which I founded a company that was sold and serviced photocopiers. We were nominated on several occasions for inclusion in The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 companies. In 2003 I sold the company to Toshiba.
Throughout these 40 years I continued with my art and design work in my spare time. For the past 20 years I have been able to devote more of my time to the arts. Until Lockdown I was a member of a working sculpture studio where I was able to work in stone. This, together with my ceramics (out of Chris and Freya Bramble’s studio in West Hampstead) and drawings has kept me very busy.
I was taken up by The Wychwood Gallery who sold my works from their Oxfordshire gallery and also took my work to the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea for a couple of years, where it sold well.
In 2004 I opened my own gallery in St Johns Wood, London, called Hang:Ups and sold works by many young artists, as well as my own pieces. In 2008 due to the recession, I moved the gallery to Boundary Road NW8. I was still concentrating on sculpture and ceramics but now encompassed picture framing as well as box-frames in Perspex.
When I eventually closed the gallery, I continued designing products in Perspex and now have a successful small business working for artists, designers and collectors, making all sorts of display items from box frames to furniture – even beds! My last ceramic exhibition was at The Ice House in Holland Park, London, which was really successful as almost every item sold. My intention was to exhibit annually at that venue but the pandemic has put paid to that. I have now asked Peter Bainbridge to include a number of my ceramic pieces in his forthcoming auction. I have known Peter for many years and wish him every success in selling some of my work!
