HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU, CARA

a serendipitous debut with london fashion week, artists aaron r. thomas x yannick hamon place cara delevingne and agness deyn on their rightful thrones

As London Fashion Week gets underway, two artists debut a limited edition collection of Pop Art fine furniture commemorating Brit models Cara Delevingne and Agness Deyn. We’ve got the exclusive interview!

Meeting a mutually talented creative with complementary perfectionistic tendencies is a rare occurrence for designer and master craftsman Aaron R. Thomas. “People come to me wanting to collaborate, but as our conversation evolves I realize they just have an idea and want me to do all the work,” Thomas explains with a chuckle. Until three-months ago a game changer showed up on Thomas’ radar, or front door to be exact—French-expat and Pop artist, Yannick Hamon. Acquaintances via Facebook, Hamon discovered Thomas in 2010 while searching ‘modern acrylic furniture’ online and was immediately “floored by his creativity, vision and quality,” says Hamon. 

In the world of modern acrylic furniture Thomas has paved a reputation as the pioneer of Lucite—his innovative designs and mastery in manipulating the clear medium has kept a lack of competition in the interior design industry. Trained as an architect and albeit being accustom to fine furniture making, Thomas’ creative process exemplifies a true fine artist—one mixed media chair sets the stage for his performance in engineering, carving, forming and graffiti art. Hamon’s no stranger to crafting a multidisciplinary technique, either—the Scriptorium de Toulouse graduate injects his graphic design and classical calligraphy training on canvas, creating modern paintings with hand-cut stencils, spray paint, gel resin and acrylic. The Photoshop-mimicking compositions render billboard-sized magazine-esque collages—think sexy models superimposed over bold text and sensuous lips. Hamon’s shock-factor is that his photorealistic paintings are created entirely by hand-cut stencils—negative space takes form and layers create depth. “I thought he was just ripping apart magazines and spray painting over them,” Thomas foolishly reminisces. “Then he pulled out a stencil and I was like, ‘Oh sh*t, you’ve got talent!’” That marked the point of departure for their collaboration on a limited edition series of hand painted deconstructed Louis chairs. Cont’d…

Thomas’ iconic clear acrylic Louis chair (featuring a silkscreen ‘ ghost’ of a traditional French Louis chair) posed the ideal canvas to synthesize the American and French artist’s respective disciplines. On the chair’s upholstery a dot matrix stencil of 12,240 razor-cut squares reveals a cross stitch embroidery-like portrait of model-of-the-moment, Cara Delevingne. Another version features Agness Deyn rendered from eight-layers of stencils on the back of the chair with a decidedly street art vibe; graffiti splashed across the background. 

Thomas’ slogan, “Perfection = The perfectly imperfect,” sums up the duo’s parallel in executing meticulous finesse to render seemingly simple results. Hamon’s hand-cut stencils channeling computer generated graphics and Thomas’ minimalistic furniture being the closest thing to machined manufacturing in a material that bears no place to hide mistakes. “But, it’s still handmade—every piece is unique and that’s the beauty of what we do,” Thomas says of the pair’s unified reverence for artisanal excellence. 

Limited edition series of three Aaron R. Thomas X Yannick Hamon Louis chairs hand signed by both artists: 1/2”-thick Cara Delevingne Louis chair and 1/2”-thick hand-painted Agness Deyn graffiti art Louis chair. 1”-thick Cara Delevingne Louis chair. Prices upon request. For sales inquiries email: info@aaronrthomas.com.