Sparrow Mart Supermarket

The Standard, Downtown LA

UPDATE: CLOSING EARLY DUE TO MASS SELL OUTS. the last day of the show is Saturday 25th August 12pm-6pm. 

In August, British artist Lucy Sparrow will make her West Coast debut, opening her fifth fully-felted art installation, Sparrow Mart, at The Standard, Downtown LA.

Sparrow Mart follows Lucy Sparrow’s 8 Till Late, a fully felted bodega at The Standard, High Line in New York’s Meatpacking District during the Summer of 2017. A phenomenal success that captured

the city’s heart, the installation spawned queues around the block and instigated a felt-buying frenzy that meant Lucy had to shut up shop nine days early.

Sparrow Mart will open it’s doors to the public on Wednesday, August 1^st in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. Presented for a second year in a row in partnership with The Standard, Downtown LA and supported by Discover Los Angeles, this site specific, super-sized superstore will be brasher, brighter and four-times bigger than 8 Till Late. Open for business until August 31, this felt fantasyland will be supercharged and serviced by Sparrow Mart shop assistants who will preside over shelves overflowing with everyone’s favourite groceries, each one hand-made in felt and signed by the artist.

8 Till Late, The Standard Highline May 2017

Every single one of Lucy’s 31,000 unique felt artworks is available to buy in store, so Angeleno’s can browse the California rolls at the fully stocked sushi bar and bag up some fresh felt fish, fruit and vegetables, before heading to the 1980’s inspired sound and vision department housing a movie section filled with that decade’s biggest box office hits on VHS and Betamax.

On her latest project; Lucy comments: “As a child, I was obsessed with the exotic, turbo-charged technicolour glow emanating from across the Atlantic. The source of this neon rainbow was Los Angeles – a seemingly mythical place to a child growing up in grey, post-recession Britain – and one that has hugely influenced my artistic practice. Thanks to the amazing team at The Standard, Downtown, the felt is finally coming home to the city of endless possibilities and colour.” 

“We have a long history of helping artists create their visions, and Lucy Sparrow has proven to be a visionary and remarkably incisive partner for us,” said Landis Smithers, Chief Creative Officer for The Standard. “We are really excited to bring Sparrow’s Mart to our DTLA property, and to add another flavour to Los Angeles’ amazing downtown arts scene.”

“In Los Angeles, creativity touches all corners of the city from street art to world-class museums,” said Don Skeoch, chief marking officer at Discover Los Angeles, “What better city for Lucy Sparrow to make her West Coast Sparrow Mart debut? We are honored to welcome her in Los Angeles and know her exhibition will be a smashing success.”

SPARROW MART OPENS WEDNESDAY 1- 31 AUGUST, 2018 (CLOSED MONDAYS)

OPENING HOURS 11am – 9pm

AT THE PADDLE ROOM, THE STANDARD DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES

550 S FLOWER ST, LOS ANGELES, CA 90071

For information, images and to the press first view, please contact:

Lucy Sparrow

JBPR

Clare Croome clare@jb-pr.com +44 7787 495690

Jo Brooks job@jb-pr.com +44 7930 432508

The Standard

Karla Otto Los Angeles

Katie Garrabrant – Katie.Garrabrant@karlaotto.com

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Felt artist Lucy Sparrow is one of the most exciting and original artists working in the UK today. Her practice is quirky yet subversive, luring the audience in with her soft, tactile, colorful felt creations before hitting them hard with her comment on subjects from the demise of the traditional high street to censorship in pornography.

Sparrow took the art world by storm in Summer 2014 with the opening of her acclaimed fully stocked felt Cornershop installation in London’s East End. Warmongery, a controversial sell-out installation followed in May 2015 and in October 2015, Madame Roxy’s Erotic Emporium opened its doors in the back streets of London’s Soho, recreating an entire sex shop in glorious technicolor felt. In 2016, the BBC commissioned Lucy to recreate the Crown Jewels in felt to celebrate HRH The Queen’s official 90^th birthday. Lucy debuted her work in New York in May 2017, with a fully felted bodega entitled 8 Till Late at The Standard, Highline. The installation sold out in two weeks. The artist’s work has been shown in galleries around the world and at international art fairs including Art Basel and Scope Miami.

Lucy Sparrow lives in a felt cave in an undisclosed location with her companion Basil. sewyoursoul.co.uk

Instagram – @sewyoursoul

ABOUT THE STANDARD, DOWNTOWN LA

Originally constructed as the headquarters of Superior Oil, The Standard, Downtown LA is Mid-Century California architecture par excellence. Smack-dab in the center of booming Downtown Los Angeles, the 207-room hotel features massive guest rooms, a rooftop pool and bar with stunning panoramic views of LA, an intimate rooftop beer garden, a stellar 24-hour restaurant, and the full-service Ping-Pong club, the Paddle Room. There is also a quarry’s worth of marble on the façade and covering the lobby, which is, well, very impressive.