The city of Westminster’s Soho district has a gritty backstory. Shrouded by harlequin murals and subdued cafés, ’50s beatniks smoked and droned in this area of London’s West End. Karl Marx took up residence on Dean Street, and the Goth pub The Intrepid Fox, once the favored haunt of the world’s biggest rock stars, cemented Wardour Street’s name. Though gentrification has long since changed the brio, Asheville’s up-and-coming London Design District shares the same counter-cultural tenor, and London District Studios is the cornerstone.
Framed by Biltmore Village and Sweeten Creek Road, the industrial area is less defined by funkiness and more so by fine art. There is a laid-back Bohemian feel, says Leslie Rowland. A lifelong multimedia artist, she and fiancé Wade Oppliger, a home-furnishings designer, were first attracted by the neighborhood’s likeness to Austin’s grittier west side. In this “catacomb of creativity,” she says, low rent allowed painters and artisans to thrive.
Set on offering Ashevilleans a similar experience, the duo snatched a parcel lining the half-mile commercial district. In early March, their studio and homewares store, fondly shortened to just “The London,” hosted its grand opening. “Sawdust was probably everywhere,” says Rowland, explaining how the 1920s garage once served as a woodworking shop.
Now, an airplane-emergency-door coffee table — a novelty custom-built by Savannah’s 24e Design Co. — and swivel chairs doused in suede Union Jacks are paired together in vignettes. Oppliger’s rock-themed upholstery projects mesh well with Rowland’s mixed-media pieces – a metallic loveseat complements “Tic Tac Toe,” a slate-gray, archaically sophisticated but youthful piece.
“There is an art to combining home furnishings and art,” acknowledges Rowland. “There’s this unconscious, innate sense: ‘That’s right and that’s not.’”
Eclectic tact shows itself in carefully curated knickknacks. Film projectors and Simon and Garfunkel vinyl, complete with pops and crackles, give the 4,000-square-foot space its audible ambience. A curious poster advertises “The Lobster Lady.” Terrariums house cacti and bare-chested figurines (a nonpareil addition to home or office).
Resident artist Kehren Barbour’s sculptural works, affordable collages of defunct and decommissioned piano parts, also line the walls. Stripped-down keys positioned in Victorian-esque frames carry feminine inflections when paired with muted tobacco gliders. Others, mounted on reclaimed birch wood, stand alone. Thus far, her #postpianoproject, an attempt at fostering a conversation on sustainability, has involved breaking down 11 tons of clavier material.
“It’s about use and reuse,” explains Barbour, noting her graduate degree in Sustainable Development. “Patterns of manufacture, deconstruction, and, ultimately, reconstruction can be tracked through this rewarding medium.”
Other local, edgy vanguards of expressionism, including Ursula Gullow and Ian M Cage, will be featured at monthly art openings and solo exhibits. Gullow’s Confetti series, launched in June, is a visceral nod to the materiality of acrylics that she describes as “horrifyingly beautiful.”
Positioned alongside various motorcycle shops and the adjacent Burial Beer Co., the studio and Soho-inspired ward will be a stomping ground for art savants and novices alike, hopes Rowland. “Community oriented,” she projects.
“I’ve always been fascinated to see areas in Asheville’s peripheral —areas where few people tread — become activated,” Gullow adds, seconding Rowland’s sentiments.
London District Studios is located at 8 London Road in Asheville. A painting exhibit, Thrust, by acclaimed local abstractionist Ian M Cage, opens July 8 with a reception from 5-10pm. For more information, visit londondistrictstudios.com or call 828-620-6838.