08.03.17
Excerpt: Exhibition
Block Shop’s New Woodblock Prints, On View at Rachel Comey, are an Homage to Art Deco
If you follow our Instagram Stories (and you should, if only to keep up with the #doorporn Monica keeps finding on her European travels), you might know that I was in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. And while the nature of the trip was mostly personal, I did make time to visit the studio of one of our favorite duos, Block Shop Textiles, whose offices are located in an Art Deco building downtown. Sisters Lily and Hopie Stockman have an insane amount of projects in the works — not all of which involve textiles! — and the first of those came to fruition last night at the opening of their exhibition of woodblock prints at Rachel Comey‘s Melrose flagship. The five prints were inspired by their own sketchbook patterns documenting the architectural motifs of their homes in India and downtown LA, among other things: Sidewinder was inspired by a snake’s tracks in the sand, while Temple is an homage to the drawings of Sol Le Witt. Each image is printed on paper made by hand from cotton scraps leftover from textile manufacturers in India — hence the rich texture and deckled edge — and then printed with wooden blocks and natural black dye by the same cooperative that makes Block Shop’s textiles. They somehow fit perfectly into the dusty palette of the Rachel Comey store, which is showing highlights from their pillow collection as well, on view through the fall.
PHOTOS BY LAURE JOLIET