Gary, what have you done to our office?

Gary Card doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘minimalism’ – and thank god for that! This is Plaster HQ, not Cos. For our latest Plaster Store takeover, the maximalist maverick has cracked open the doors to his candy-coloured mind palace and invited us in for a full-throttle trip through his surrealist odyssey. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like inside the brain of the artist/set designer/professional magpie behind collabs with FKA Twigs, Lady Gaga, Tim Walker, and JW Anderson, step inside 20 Great Chapel Street tonight, and watch Soho transform into a technicolour grotto that feels like Alice in Wonderland took a detour through a goblin rave. See it for yourself!

Gary was the latest guest on Give me a break, Plaster‘s podcast for dissolving art world BS. Here is an extract from the upcoming episode in which Gary gives Harriet Lloyd-Smith a sneak preview of the takeover…

Harriet Lloyd-Smith: Gary, I want to know what exactly you’re doing to our office. For context, you’ve been invited to transform this building, Plaster HQ, into… well, how would you describe it in a few words?

Gary Card: A claustrophobic charity shop, curiosity store, workshop, mad man’s living room. Just, basically, a heightened version of how I live and work. Okay, so my studio has mad stuff everywhere. My living room has mad colours and creatures. In my house, my poor partner, long suffering Jason, is surrounded by all of my mad shit over the years. Jason is very minimal. And I am not.

HL-S: I heard that works best, so long as he’s got his own space. Or have you also encroached on that?

GC: Because I like him, everywhere that he is, I follow with my stuff. So no, sadly. 

So the show – we have two floors: you’ve got downstairs, which is the workshop where this guy’s living and making and selling. 

HL-S: So the character is essentially a version of you? 

GC: It’s a heightened Gary. So that’s his curiosity shop downstairs. And then upstairs, we have the things that heightened Gary has created. It’s “come and have a look at what he’s made”. 

HL-S: What are the origins of all this? Is it something you’ve been thinking about for a while, and then the opportunity came up, or did it come naturally when you saw the space? 

GC: I’ve known Milo for many years…

HL-S: Milo Astaire, Plaster’s co-founder. 

GC: Yes, many years ago, me and Milo… you should have this full story. 

HL-S: I do have the full story. I just need you to tell it. 

GC: Okay, a few years ago, I hired Milo as my art advisor. I wanted to pursue my art career, and I was green and needed advice, and so my amazing agent, Gabriella, who knew Milo, said, “This whiz kid, he’s incredible. We should get him on board. He’s going to do exciting things with you.” So we did a show called ‘Hysterical’, which was with Phillips [auction house]. We made a mad carnival around some of my favorite contemporary artists, from Paul McCarthy to Cindy Sherman and everybody in between. 

HL-S: Kenny Scharf…

GC: Condo… It was fantastic. The great thing about it, it was a mad idea. I’d never seen it done. The idea of making a mad, really immersive set around contemporary art, yeah, and it was at the time 2017 when we were thinking about it. It was quite a radical idea. Now you see set [design] in art quite a lot. The latest show at Sadie Coles HQ [Ugo Rondinone] is a perfect example of that. We were a bit ahead of the curve there, I think. Anyway, so we made that show, and we became friends. I’ve followed Plaster’s success and Milo invited me recently to do a store [takeover] downstairs. 

HL-S: Carte blanche! 

GC: Yes. And he said: one condition, you’re not allowed to take away James Jessiman’s floor. And that was the nucleus for me. I was like, “Well, if we can’t change that floor, we have to make something as vivid as that floor. So instead of fighting that, let’s make something.” So that was the first idea. And, okay, so if it’s a mad space and it’s a store, then it’s a mad Curiosity Shop. If it’s a shop and it’s a workshop, then the idea of layering all of this stuff came to us, then through the process, I’m not sure I’m allowed to say this, but Milo said, “Would you like upstairs as well to exhibit some of your work?” And, of course I did, so I’ve made a series of insane busts. 

HL-S: So it’ll be quite a different vibe up there. 

GC: It’s a more traditional show upstairs.

HL-S: You can rub your eyes on the way up. 

GC: Exactly, a palette cleanser. The ‘mad’ is condensed into the sculptures in a calmer space. I would say, “Oh, we might change that.” We might decide, no, fuck it, let’s paint the whole place with polka dots and go nuts in there. But I think for now, it’s a calm, more traditional space.

HL-S: How’s the prep going?

GC: It’s great. It’s full on. We are working from nine in the morning to one in the morning. I’m constantly sculpting for it. So it is very energetic work, I think. We’ve got a lot of good ideas, a lot of great ideas, and a lot of brilliant people involved with us. It’s going to be wicked.