About Atelier E.B

Atelier E.B (Edinburgh Bruxelles) is the company name under which the designer Beca Lipscombe and the artist Lucy McKenzie sign their collaborative projects. The group was formed in 2007, and since 2011 the pair have operated as a fashion label which uses local production methods and alternatives forms of distribution and display. Lipscombe and McKenzie place art and design on an equal footing, applying methodologies from both spheres (for instance, embedding critique into clothing and utilising the notion of ‘styling’ as an artistic strategy). Their designs are produced, sold and promoted ethically, yet are too stylistically hacked to be marketed as an ‘eco brand’. They are also too inconsistent in price and material to be niche luxury; they defy categorisation.

Art is fascinated with fashion; dazzled by its pace and glamour, jealous of its utility. On the flip side, fashion’s adoption of approaches associated with contemporary art are rarely in ways that challenge the fundamental hierarchies, prejudices and exploitation that exist in the fashion industry. Atelier E.B’s designs do not look avant-garde in the way generally considered, with unusual (or even unwearable) materials and silhouettes. Rather the complex narratives that create each collection are expressed in different ways, leaving the wearer to imprint their own story onto the clothes. The brand is able to develop idiosyncratically because it is facilitated by the networks and opportunities within the contemporary art scene. This creates many advantages for the label; utilising an existing structure keeps overheads to a minimum and brings the product directly to the customer. Selling directly also circumvents the mediating power brokers such as stylists, buyers and editors that come between the designer and the wider public.

Selected Exhibitions

  • 2023

    Paraventi, Folding Screen from the 17th to 21st Centuries, Fondazione Prada, Milan

  • 2022

    Approval of the Committees, Cabinet Gallery, London
    Lucy McKenzie and Atelier E.B curated by Karel Cisar, Meyer Kainer Gallery, Vienna     Dash People fashion collection showrooms, World Lantern, Brussels; Marlene Wetherell Vintage Store, New York
    Buildings of Belgium, Buildings in Oil, Buildings in Silk, La Verriere (Hermes), Brussels
    Lucy McKenzie Survey Show, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool

  • 2021

    Dash People fashion collection showrooms, Cabinet Gallery, London; The Old Guide Hall, Glasgow

  • 2020

    Lucy McKenzie Prime Suspect, Brandhorst Museum (cat)
    Passer-by, Garage, Moscow
    Faux Shop, V&A, Dundee

  • 2019

    Passer-by, Gallerie Lafayette, Paris (cat)

  • 2018

    Passer-by, Serpentine Gallery, London (cat)
    Jasperwear fashion collection
    Boswell collection of Modern and Contemporary Scottish Art, University of St Andrews Archive

     

  • 2017

    MEDUSA – Jewellery and Taboos, The Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Group show

  • 2016

    The Inventors of Tradition II fashion collection, Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna; Thea Westreich, New York; 356 Mission, Los Angeles
    Rik Wouters & the Private Utopia, Mode Museum, Antwerp (cat)
    ‘33 – ‘29 – ‘36, UM Gallery, Academy of Architecture, Art, and Design (AAAD), Prague (cat)

  • 2015

    The Inventors of Tradition II fashion collection and exhibition, The Palace of Art, Glasgow (cat)
    The Inventors of Tradition II fashion collection, Galerie Micheline Szwacjer, Brussels, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin

  • 2014

    Scotland Can Make It!, Commonwealth Games, Glasgow (cat)
    A Machinery For The Living (curated by Walead Beshty), Petzel Gallery, New York

  • 2013

    Hello goodbye thank you, again, and again, and again, curated by Anthony Huberman
    Group show at Castillo / Corrales, Paris
    Ost End Girls, collection showrooms / temporary shops, Magazijn, Amsterdam, World Lantern, Brussels, Cabinet, London, Inverleith House, Edinburgh, Volcano Extravaganza, Stromboli, The Artist’s Institute, New York (cat)

  • 2012

    Critical Alliances, HDLU, Zagreb (group show)
    Work in Progress, Paris, Au 8 Rue Saint-Bon, Paris (solo)
    Scotland Can Make It! (in collaboration with Marc Camille Chaimowicz), exhibition curated by Panel, People’s Palace, Glasgow (cat)
    Studio 58: Women Artists in Glasgow since World War II, Mackintosh Museum, GSA, Glasgow (cat) (group)
    Te Kust en Te Keur, Mu-ZEE, Oostende (group)

  • 2011

    The Inventors of Tradition exhibition with Panel, Glasgow (cat)
    The Inventors of Tradition, collection showrooms, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, GSA, Glasgow, TWAAS, New York, Cabinet, London, Etablissement d’en Face, Brussels, Mehringdamm 72, Berlin (cat)
    Town Gown Conflict, Kunsthalle Zurich, (group) (cat)
    Cologne Kunstverein Annual Editions Exhibition, Cologne (cat)

  • 2009

    Limited edition screenprint for Schweizerische Graphische Gesellschaft, Zurich

  • 2008

    Atelier, The Lighthouse, Glasgow (solo)
    …In the Cherished Company of Others… (curated by Marc Camille Chaimowicz), Mu-Zee, Oostende (group)
    Projects 88, Lucy McKenzie & Atelier E.B, MoMA, New York (solo)

  • 2007

    Atelier, showroom / interior design, Galerie Buchholz, Cologne
    The Flying Duck, interior design, Flying Duck Club, Glasgow