5 February 2021
Pamela Buxton
Joy awaits at the end of lockdown with MK Gallery’s celebration of the Memphis postmodern design movement bursting with exuberant life
Gallery view of Memphis: Plastic Field, at MK Gallery, Milton Keynes. Credit: Rob Harris
Memphis is very much a Marmite design movement. Love it or loathe it, it’s impossible to remain unmoved by the colours, patterns and sheer joyfulness of this most 1980s of design groups, which offered a vibrant break from the functionalist approach of modernism.
What a shame then that a new survey of the work of Memphis at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes was only open briefly before closing due to Covid-19. While the gallery has plenty of material about the show available online, this is inevitably no substitution for what head of exhibitions Fay Blanchard describes as a ‘sensory overload’ of an exhibition. Hopefully, Memphis: Plastic Field will be able to re-open in the not-too-distant future.