This book by Lucy McKenzie presents her work from a three year period in text and image. Her huge paintings illustrate interiors and reference interior design drafts from the 19th century. In these paintings, which are up to eight metres tall, in this book she explains the motivation behind her complex approach. This is complimented by two more written pieces: a fictional account of her time studying Trompeloeil painting at the Ecole van der Kelen (a traditional painting school in Brussels) and a homage to the fashion designer Beca Lipscombe, one of her collaborators in Atelier EB.

Designed by HIT Studio. Cover design by Torsten Slama.

Atelier E.B: Passer-by is edited Beca Lipscombe & Lucy McKenzie and examines an essential facet of the fashion industry: the world of mannequins and retail display. Since the Surrealists took them up in the early twentieth century, mannequin have been an enduring motif within fine art. Lipscombe and McKenzie un-pack the disciplines of window dressing, look to radical thinkers and makers who dissolved the dividing line between fine art and commercial display, and piece together a compelling narrative that encompasses ethnography, statuary, dolls, the world fairs and our digital future.

This catalogue is published on the occasion of the exhibition Passer-by, by Atelier E.B, at the Serpentine Galleries, London 3 October 2018–6 January 2019; Lafayette Anticipations-Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris, 21 February–28 April 2019; Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow 31 January–10 May 2020.

Brian Eno was the first institutional solo exhibition by Scottish artist Lucy McKenzie at the Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, February 23 – April 27, 2003.

The installation of trompe l’oeil murals and screen-printed posters as well as drawings, sound and light took the symbolic figure Brian Eno as its starting point. As an extraordinary musician, educator, visual artist and “communications advisor” to British New Labor, Eno is emblematic of common debates about avant-garde and quality. Lucy McKenzie used this discourse as a background for her own interpretations of such questions, especially questions that concern functionalism.