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<\/p>\nA new exhibit at FloridaRAMA will feature the work of British artist Lucy Sparrow. It\u2019s a pop-up, interactive art emporium, called Lucy Sparrow\u2019s Quick Shop, and it debuts Friday at that whimsical, walk-through gallery inside The Factory St. Pete.<\/p>\n
Sparrow\u2019s art needs to be seen to be believed. More to the point, it has to be felt.<\/p>\n
Indeed, everything inside the Quick Shop \u2013 approximately 13,000 items, large and small \u2013 is actually made of felt.<\/p>\n
For over a decade, the native of Bath, England has been on the cutting edge of fabric art.<\/p>\n
FloridaRAMA staff has only offered clues as to what\u2019ll be in there, saying only that it will include \u201cSparrow\u2019s interpretation of a uniquely Florida \u2018everything\u2019 store.\u201d And that it\u2019s all for sale.<\/p>\n
Sparrow designs every piece herself, and her five-member staff does the stuffing and stitching.<\/p>\n
She was 4 years old when her mother taught her to sew, and bought her felt to make her own toys. \u201cI was instantly obsessed with making replicas of objects,\u201d Sparrow told an interviewer. \u201cI knew from when I was tiny that I wanted to be an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n
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She debut in 2014 with an exhibit called The Cornershop in London\u2019s East End. All 4,000 items in the shop, all covered in stitched felt, were for sale with prices starting at \u00a31 (about $2) for a lottery ticket, and Sparrow herself handling the cash register. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe there were queues around the block,\u201d she said. \u201cI sold the shop 40 times over.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Soho, she created a felt \u201csex shop\u201d called titled Madame Roxy\u2019s Erotic Emporium (early in her career, Sparrow had briefly danced in a gentleman\u2019s club, and Roxy was her stage name).<\/p>\n
Then there was Lucy\u2019s Delicatessen, at New York\u2019s Rockefeller Center; and a fully-stocked pharmacy, The Bourdon Street Chemist, at a London Gallery.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Sparrow created a pop-up market at Water Street Tampa. With 50,000 handmade felt replicas of real groceries, Tampa Fresh Foods included more than 50,000 items, from canned goods to loaves of Cuban bread. Her 3,000-square-foot pop-up became a viral sensation.<\/p>\n
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Between August and September of this year she operated The Bourdon Street Chippy in a Mayfair gallery. It was a felt reproduction of a classic English fish and chip shop, comprising more than 65,000 pieces, with virtually every detail, from battered cod and chunky chips to curry sauce, pickled eggs and fizzy drinks, entirely handmade from felt.<\/p>\n
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parrow has \u201cfelt\u201d her way through installations in Paris, New York, Miami, Los Angeles and even Bangkok. She created and hosted The Queen\u2019s Platinum Jubilee Lunch, at Buckingham Palace, in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer work thrives on the tension between nostalgia and absurdity,\u201d writes Artlyst, \u201cinviting viewers into a world where the ordinary becomes uncanny.\u201d<\/p>\n
Admission to Lucy Sparrow\u2019s Quick Shop is free with paid admission to FloridaRAMA (find tickets and other information at this link).<\/p>\n
Lucy Sparrow will be in attendance, at FloridaRAMA, Nov. 25, 26 and 28.<\/p>\n
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