Photo © Mark Westall
Walking into the Plaster Store in Soho, Gathering Dust doesn’t feel like a typical summer art show—it’s more like a sensory stress test hijacked by artist Gary Card. The space has been completely transformed, filled with clutter, found objects, surreal sculptures, and a deliberately confusing layout. It feels like stepping inside a restless, overactive mind. And that seems to be Card’s intention: to blur the lines between exhibition, shop, and art, creating a world entirely his own.
Gary Card is no newcomer to the world of visual creativity. He has worked with brands like Comme des Garçons, Vivienne Westwood, and Nike, building imaginative environments and characters. But Gathering Dust is something more personal—less about presentation, more about expression. It brings together past projects, unfinished ideas, and forgotten materials, reshaping them into a chaotic yet oddly compelling mental landscape.
The show is divided into two levels. Downstairs feels like a physical version of Card’s brain—part artist’s studio, part 1990s curiosity shop. As you enter, you’ll find an old TV playing blurry videos, books scattered across the floor, and shelves packed with vintage toys, strange sculptures, and print ephemera. Some objects feel random, others carefully placed, but none of it is polished or easy to define. As Card himself puts it, the space pays tribute to those passionate shopkeepers of the past, who filled their stores to the brim with things they loved. It’s a celebration of scraps, and of world-building through leftovers.
Upstairs, twelve busts continue the fiction. At first glance, they look like heavy ceramic sculptures—but pick one up, and you’ll realize they’re surprisingly light. Made using Card’s signature masking tape method, they are rough, exaggerated, and full of personality. Their oversized teeth, distorted features, and wild expressions challenge our idea of what sculpture should be. Though still, they seem to speak—to mock, to grin, maybe even to warn.
One of the most interesting aspects of the show is that it’s also a shop. Visitors can buy reworked vintage T-shirts, hand-printed cardigans, pendants, and second-hand trinkets. It’s a mix of charity shop charm and high-concept design—nothing too clean, nothing made to please, but that’s exactly what makes it feel genuine and inviting.In Gathering Dust, Gary Card doesn’t try to polish the past or offer a clear vision for the future. Instead, he presents forgotten things, misunderstood ideas, and overlooked fragments as they are, letting them shine in the chaos. This messy celebration of creative leftovers feels strangely freeing.
Gary Card, Gathering Dust – 9th August,
Plaster store, 20 Great Chapel Street
About the artist
Gary Card is a Bournemouth born artist, set designer and illustrator based in London. Best known for his work within the fashion industry, Gary has created works for the likes of Comme Des Garçons, Dover Street Market, Nike, LN-CC, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Vivienne Westwood and Charles Jeffrey Loverboy.
His works have also been featured in The New York Times, Another Man, AnOther Magazine, Dazed & Confused, i-D, Vogue, V Man, Pop, Paradis and more.
Card’s whimsical wonderlands have been featured internationally with recent works at Oi! Gallery Hong Kong, Nanzuka Underground, Tokyo at Art Basel and Tokyo Gendai, Aishonanzuka Tokyo, London as well as Dover Street Market, London and Mima, Brussels.
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Author
A Chinese artist and writer based in London, graduated from the Royal College of Art. Her practice is deeply rooted in spiritual discipline, spanning painting and writing. Each piece is a quiet voice from the soul — a way of living in the present moment, and an act of inner cultivation. She believes that every artist’s work is a manifestation of present energy, and that art is a bridge to the deepest parts of the soul.