JACKI LANG

I worked closely with the amazing team at Acre Made, custom furniture makers in Ontario, to create a bespoke Art collection that pairs so beautifully with their furniture.

We launched with two directions to begin with:

1) Wall hangings by South African-based Cara Saven Wall Design. Gorgeous, oversized pieces perfect for people looking for a statement wall, or not ready to commit to wallpaper yet. I love these pieces that bring the outdoors in. We hand-picked a few designs but many many more custom options are possible.

2) Permanent Press Editions is a Brooklyn-based workshop that specializes in producing original archival-quality photographic print collections. Founded by Shana Faust & Alexa Mulvihill, who bring their years of experience in art directing, styling & designing to photographs that capture unexpected moments of beauty.

The works can be bought here for linen wall hangings and here for photographic prints.

Reach out to me with any questions at all.

It was such an honour to source original art for HOK architects when they designed and built the incredible new office space in downtown Toronto for their client, INTUIT. Intuit wanted to support local, emerging artists, as well as indigenous artists, and they invested in a collection of nearly 40 new pieces from a host of artists, over 3 floors of their new build. I worked very closely with the design team, and their project sketches, plans, mood-boards and colour systems to build a body of works that their employees would love to see every day. The works were bold, colourful and inspiring and worked so incredibly well with the paint colours and specified furniture. Intuit now own a real moment of time in the Toronto art world, as well as a coveted collection of indigenous artworks. Thank you, HOK and Intuit, for being such incredible clients and trusting me with your vision.

JL Art Sourcing searches the globe for affordable art prints for the interior design trade. A great artwork can transform a space and she loves to work with designers to create collections for home, offices and property developments need of a refresh. Reach out for a catalogue of work that can be fully customised, printed on various papers and delivered ready to hang with really quick turnaround times.

For updates keep an eye on: https://www.instagram.com/jl.art.sourcing/

It was the ultimate honour to work on sourcing artists for the Canadian Women’s Foundation Signal For Help campaign.

The Signal for Help is a single-handed gesture that can be used over a video call or in person by an individual to alert others that they feel threatened and need help.

Step 1: Palm to camera and tuck thumb

Step 2: Trap thumb in a fist

Developed in Toronto, awareness has spread across the globe and has been recognised and adopted globally.

I worked closely with their ad agency, Juniper Park/TBWA, to help spread awareness of the signal through art and artists. This incredible collection consisted of artworks generously donated by 16 artists - illustrating how the signal is made.

Further information can be found here.

Artists who donated their time and artworks to Canadian Women’s Foundation Signal for Help campaign are:

@yawtony

@fatspatrol

@iamstephcheng

@peopleiveloved

@ebrin.bagheri

@carmenjanelew

@mvralldayeveryday

@saffron_francis

@angela.artattack

@lindsaychamberspainting

@danicooperman

@asiaczub, @elainefleckgallery

@inbetweenrinks

@jvel22 @elainefleckgallery

@sarahrotenberg

@alanna_cavanagh

In March 2019, as part of the inaugural launch of the new Stackt container market downtown Toronto at Front & Bathurst, Jacki opened a pop up design gallery in a prime double container unit.

All her refurbished container dreams came true, and the gallery hosted a rotation of local furniture design, sculpture, art and graphic prints, along with a selection student first-time exhibitions. Toronto-based artist, Tahsin, created two large works live in the space one weekend too , while visitors and families walked through the space and experienced her incredible work.

Jacki was back in the Summer with another temporary gallery of graphic prints and furniture. She is honoured to be one of the early supporters of Stackt and to get to know the innovative community that runs it.

Beautiful, unique and inspiring prints can transform a space and are very possible on a tight budget while still supporting artists and designers. We source artwork printed on highest quality paper, and offer framing options from ready to hang budget to highest gallery quality options. Perfect for homes you live in, home you rent out, homes you’re staging, offices and more. All these images are curtesy of The Charlotte properties in Prince Edward County.

A few years ago I worked closely with Sarah and April, the founders of The June motel, for their new opening at Sauble Beach. It was such a great experience sourcing and producing the prints for their King Rooms and the Heydays bar. I absolutely love the June, and Sauble Beach, and you’ll find me there most Summers if I can…

In 2015, two years after the release of Lauren Beukes’s The Shining Girls Art Show, Jacki & Lauren revisited the idea of using her book pages to create artworks and make sizeable charity donations through the sale of those artworks for the launch of her new book, Broken Monsters.

After a sell-out exhibition the first time around, the team set their sights higher and more than tripled their target from the previous launch in Cape Town: hosting exhibitions in both Cape Town and Johannesburg for the new book, and securing funding from Nandos to make it all happen. Over 350 artworks were created and donated on Broken Monsters book pages by coveted South African artists, designers, illustrators, photographers, jewellers and more who had been sent torn out book pages from Broken Monsters and invited to customise them as they wished - all for a good cause.

Lauren’s selected charity for Broken Monsters, was a children’s literacy initiative called Book Dash – an incredible organization that gathers volunteer writers and illustrators to team up on a Book Dash day and write a kids book together in one day that anyone can freely translate and distribute.(http://bookdash.org/)

The Broken Monsters exhibition raised enough funds to print 36 000 children’s books and enable over 300 people to own unique and very affordable art from some of South Africa’s most collectable artists including: Brett Murray, Sanell Aggenbach, Beezy Bailey, Ronald Muchatuta, Roger Ballen, Galia Gluckman, Alex Latimer, Alfred Budaza, Beth Diane Armstrong, Richard Scott, Claudette Schreuders, Paul Senyol, Patrick Bongoy, Justine Mahoney, Anton Kannemeyer and Frank Van Freenen, to name a handful, as well as a whole host of young and talented art stars on the rise.

This kind of creative activation that engages the public and the creative community and gives back in a meaningful way is Jacki’s favourite kind of challenge.

Links:

https://10and5.com/2015/12/11/watch-inside-the-broken-monsters-charity-art-show-brought-to-you-by-nandos/?fbclid=IwAR2jadsJQw2MwL3tUKL1x1OIWAifrwZH2JlECDGLCAAH2EMhaeq35heeeVk

https://mg.co.za/article/2015-11-19-desecrating-books-for-art-and-literacy

http://www.visi.co.za/gallery-broken-monsters-joburg-exhibition/?fbclid=IwAR0MSGsVqi1qj8lW0NqF5LiSKDR2V3c_Qr1gnS3k6OX_WudPKvzjvH1ateo

Jacki was Head of Southern Guild Collectable Design Gallery in Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront Silo District before moving to Canada. Jacki worked closely with the founders, Trevyn and Julian McGowan, to realise exhibitions and be a main point of contact for designers, gallery staff, international partner galleries and clients locally and globally.

Jacki was also an integral team member in building the gallery’s own studio collection of furniture design, liaising directly with designers, suppliers and clients. She represented the company as a judge for Designer of The Year, and took part in studio visits and design meetings, as well as hosted design tours and behind the scenes studio sneak peeks for visiting international clients.

Jacki worked with world renowned Southern African designers in the Southern Guild family and they included:

Porky Hefer, Gregor Jenkin, Andile Dyalvane, Justine Mahoney, Otto Du Plessis, Charles Haupt, Adam Birch, Atang Tshikare, Chuma Maweni, Dokter and Misses and Philippe Bousquet.

https://southernguild.co.za/

http://theguildgroup.co.za/

Jacki worked with British furniture manufacturer, Established & Sons, from the very early days in the design studio in 2006 through to being assistant to the CEO, Alasdhair Willis, and then Gallery Manager of Established & Sons Limited Edition Design Gallery years later.

Jacki worked to build collectible furniture exhibitions, show at art and design fairs internationally, project manage exhibitions and events and develop relationships and systems behind the scenes from client sales to supply chain and logistics for designers and clients alike.

The gallery’s clients were very high profile collectors and celebrities as well as first time collectors and international museum acquisitions teams.

Designers and architects in the Established & Sons stable included revered names in the design world including:

Zaha Hadid, Barber Osgerby, Terence Woodgate, Sebastian Wrong, Maarten Baas, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, and Amanda Levete of Future Systems.

http://establishedandsons.com/

In 2013, when internationally renowned, award-winning, South African novelist, Lauren Beukes, released her new book, The Shining Girls, she approached Jacki to conceptualise an art activation to tie in with the launch. Lauren wanted the event to celebrate local creativity and most importantly: give back to their community and make a substantial donation to a charity connected to themes in the book. 

And so The Shining Girls Charity Art Show was born. Jacki tore pages and pages from Lauren’s new book and sent them to over 60 local (both famous and emerging) South African artists, designers, illustrators, photographers, jewellers etc to customise the pages as they wished. They could respond to themes in the book, or use the page as a blank canvas  to play with. Nearly 100 pieces of unique and exceptional works of art came back to the team and sold out within 20 minutes on opening night in Cape Town. A queue of 200 people snaked around the block and helped to raise nearly ZAR100 000 for Rape Crisis - Lauren’s chosen charity to be the recipient of the donations from art sales.

The exhibition enabled art lovers to purchase new works from some of their favourite and most coveted artists, and for artists to create new pieces outside of the framework of their usual portfolios – giving them the opportunity to respond to a brief with freedom and create anything from absent-minded doodlings to carefully constructed masterpieces, at the same time as raising much-needed funding and awareness for Rape Crisis.

Jacki curated and project managed all aspects of the show from drawing up a list of artists, bringing them on board, securing funding, sourcing venues, collaborators and creators to managing sales. This kind of creative activation that engages the public and the creative community and gives back in a meaningful way is her favourite kind of challenge.

A few years ago, when a sought-after shop front on one of Cape Town’s busiest retail streets, Wale Street, came available for rent in a heritage building with a private courtyard, Jacki and her life-long friend and design partner in crime, Daley Muller, jumped at the opportunity and opened The Cabinet.

The Cabinet became a design gallery space for solo and group shows of limited edition graphic design and illustration prints from some of South Africa’s best contemporary design talent, as well as being an ever-evolving space to rent for brands to host their own activations, exhibitions and events.

They opened with a group exhibition of prints entitled, Paper Cuts, and then followed with a solo exhibition, CONSTRUCT, by Justin Plunkett.

They then changed the model of the gallery, took the print sales online, and adapted to the spirit of the pop-up shop times and started sub-letting the space to other creative teams.

The first slot was taken up by Spier, who created a magnificent pop up shop in the space, entitled Spier’s Secret Courtyard. The team then closed the doors of the Cabinet after building changes and renovations were planned for the heritage building it was housed in.

Images on view are prints available from CONSTRUCT, Justin Plunkett’s solo show at The Cabinet, as well as individual designs from South African designers created for PAPER CUTS, The Cabinet’s inaugural show of limited edition prints, and lastly of the Spier Secret Courtyard Pop Up shop.

While living in London and freelancing as a curator, Jacki had the privilege of working with Daniel Charny, the curator of the Aram Gallery in London, on the top floor of the iconic brand’s flagship store in London’s Covent Garden. She was the assistant curator: working on curatorial research and exhibition preparation for the gallery’s programme of experimental and independent exhibitions.

https://www.thearamgallery.org/about

Over 10 years ago, while living in London, Jacki started a personal blog called Jacki Curates, which documented and captured her meanderings and explorations in the worlds of art, interiors, travel, design and architecture wherever she was in the world.

All the photography was hers and it became a showcase for bringing together all that she would discover, collect (and wish she collected) and everything in between.

http://jackicurates.tumblr.com/

Intrigued by the idea of a paper napkin as a keepsake of a shared meal, or to document the start of an idea that needs to be jotted down on the nearest available surface, Jacki wondered how these mementoes would look as an art collection, or how the napkin would fare as the canvas, and how artworks would look on such a throw-away material. Alan Fletcher, one of Jacki’s design heroes at the time, and his private collection of napkins from friends all over the world, was a significant inspiration for this exhibition idea.

So she approached over 30 UK creative professionals at the top of their respective games and asked them to create something they never normally would, on something they never normally would, and showcase this collection of experiments as an exhibition in a gallery in Soho, London in 2007.

Jacki drew up her wishlist and invited them all, and was honoured to receive artworks and responses from the most collectible talents in the UK including Quentin Blake, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Jasper Morrison, Daniel Eatock, Mark Pawson, Anthony Burrill, Rob Ryan and Donna Wilson. 

Drawing on the connections between napkins and food and feeding, 100 percent of the profits from sales were donated to charities aiming to alleviate food crises in developing countries: Concern Worldwide’s FoodAid campaign (www.concern.net) & The Peninsula School Feeding Association (www.psfa.co.za).

link:

https://www.dezeen.com/2007/05/26/charity-sale-of-designer-napkins/

Jacki has alway loved researching, exploring and writing about design and the world of creators of brilliant things. From academic critiques, to exhibition reviews and trend reports, she has written for various publications in the UK and South Africa that include:

Conde Nast House & Garden

Blueprint Magazine

Wallpaper’s Tank Magazine online

Oprah Magazine

Ogojji

BusinessDay’s Wanted Magazine

Passport Magazine