MOVERS & SHAKERS
Graphic artist Adam Ellis reveals his maximalist vision
Maximalism’s love affair with colour, pattern and whimsy owes much to the art of Adam Ellis. In his collaborations with designers such as Martin Brudnizki and Olga Polizzi, Adam creates dramatic scenes that seductively traverse walls, ceilings and doors, from the romantic trail of songbirds and wisteria enveloping the Brown’s Hotel lobby in Mayfair to the gilded scenes of flora and fauna found in many of The Ivy’s collection of brasseries.
‘There’s no space that can’t be enhanced or warmed up by the right picture,’ enthuses Adam. Here in his two-storey industrial space in west London, Adam has combined a light-drenched design studio with a gallery space for clients, both commercial and residential, to see his work in action, as well as peruse the archive of over 10,000 images Adam has collected since a student at the Slade School of Fine Art over two decades ago.
From natural history and botanical prints to antique maps, art-deco advertising posters and contemporary abstract illustrations, Adam uses these as inspiration to imaginatively rework by hand – through drawing, painting or digitally with pen and tablet – to custom fit designs to any room. For a recent project with Suzy Hoodless, Adam wrapped an apartment bedroom ‘with a wallpaper that goes from floor to ceiling, then across the ceiling and up into a little stairwell,’ he explains.
It was Adam’s grandmother who first fired his enthusiasm for art, with Sunday mornings spent around her dining table ‘drawing dragons and all sorts of wonderful things,’ he recalls. Today, he much prefers creating site-specific art installations for a restaurant or helping someone to curate a collection of prints for their living room wall than the ‘loneliness of being on my own in a studio,’ he says.
Applying print across wallpapers, fabrics and rugs is a much more ‘interesting and satisfying way of thinking about artistic processes outside galleries and painting canvases,’ he says. And if people are too nervous about living with that much colour, ‘an interesting arrangement of pictures always works, even in the smallest, most intimate spaces.’ It is important to be bold, Adam affirms. ‘I like helping to create spaces with a bit of surprise, that maybe show something new.’ →