Colossal | February 2024
Art Production Fund | 2023
The Courier | September 2016
""On the way through the pedestrianised streets of Perth to see Debbie Lawson's Magic Carpet exhibition, I passed an interiors shop with Persian patterned rugs hanging inertly on the wall. Items displayed for sale in this way are a common enough sight on and off the high street. We're also used to seeing them lying flat out in our homes ... but not necessarily in an art gallery. The twist with Lawson's carpets is that she weaves the natural world into them in the shape of goofy-looking grizzly bears, seagulls in perpetual motion, a forest of conifers or a sly little fox emerging from a canopy of ivy. These are all part of the fabric of Lawson's carefully reconstructed world. The carpets she uses might be cheap factory versions of the real Persian deal, but she turns them into beguiling sculptures which I would happily hang on my living-room wall.."
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Jan Patience, January 2014
The Guardian Guide | November 2013
"Debbie Lawson’s magic Persian carpet might be a cheapish factory remake but it fits the enchanting role almost perfectly. These are sculptures in a dream state of metamorphosis in which the tame and domestic comes to life. The 2D rug surface, hung vertically on the gallery wall like a treasure, is inhabited by a half-obscured sculptural menagerie of almost mythical wildlife: a looming hunter’s trophy of a bear, a fox getting up to urban mischief, a flock of seagulls caught in flight like ornamental ducks. The heady incense air of Arabian Nights seeps in as one feels seduced into playful reverie. Anything that infiltrates the safe realms of the family home with hints of unpredictable and uncontrollable spirit is bound to transport us directly back to childhood daydreams."
Cover Magazine | Off The Wall
"For Debbie Lawson rugs are a medium… she creates domestic interiors where even plants and coat stands are made of carpet. Whole gardens, complete with flowers and grassy tendrils grow from rugs. In a recent commission she finally got her hands on some real, knotted Persian rugs to create Persian Moose, a wall-hung carpet from which a fully carpeted moose head protrudes."
Ros Weaver, February 2012
Sublime Magazine | Craft Society, The End of Mass Production
"Persian rugs merge with old tables and dressers to conceive an otherworldly scene, part opulent hall, part creeping, decaying jungle. A single rug will meander and smash into a wall, spraying its fabric like an angry sea onto a craggy coast. Lawson's personal nostalgia and memories of the domestic interiors of suburban life remain an ever-present influence in her work, as does surrealism, although to view it exclusively within the limitations of this movement would be a mistake. She is constantly testing how abnormally striking her pieces can be. Her sculptures and wooden panels continue to be nationally exhibited and acclaimed. 'I'm interested in the idea of hybrids, taking two different objects or materials and combining them to the point where the finished sculpture looks entirely plausible as an object in its own right,' she says."
Laura Santamaria,
The Observer | Funny peculiar or funny ha-ha?
"Giggling in galleries isn't always the done thing, but from Friday art lovers in need of a laugh can head to Quad gallery in Derby without fear of reprisal. A group exhibition is exploring humour in contemporary art, specifically 'the funny side of the everyday', says senior curator Alfredo Cramerotti. 'Debbie Lawson's Sunset Island is amusing because it's a very common object – a bathroom pedestal mat – here represented in an exotic way."
Imogen Carter, August 2011
Sunday Express | Chairway to Heaven
"With City firms laying off thousands of traders, bankers, analysts, brokers and salesmen, there are a heck of a lot of seats in the Square Mile without bums on them. Perhaps artist Debbie Lawson has found the perfect solution to this surfeit – she has turned some of them into an artwork called Chairway to Heaven. Appropriately enough the sculpture can be seen outside The Economist's office in central London. 'The chairs form an orderly queue, but although the neat pile might appear to represent conformity, it hints at an underlying possibility of disorder – a tipping point,' Lawson says. Sounds like the start of a craze for Credit Crunch art."
James Hipwell, November 2008
Further Reading
The Observer newspaper, The 'double jobbers' making a living while working in the arts, 29 July 2012 www.guardian.co.uk/culture
Jaerbladet newspaper (Norway), Erlend Skarsaune, "Der Moblerte hjem gar bersek", 4 September 2009
Dalane Tidende newspaper (Norway), Sylvie A Skadberg, "Mobelkunst", 4 September 2009
Stavanger Aftenblad newspaper (Norway), Sigrun Hodne, "London, Persia, Brusand", 16 September 2009
Wallpaper magazine, Dan Tobin Smith & Nicola Yeoman, "Umbras game", January 2009
Bart Wells Institute (eds. Luke Gottelier and Francis Upritchard), 2009
Juliet magazine, Matilde Martinetti, December 2008
Evening Standard newspaper / In "News", 29 October 2008
The Observer Magazine / In "Fashion", 12 October 2008
Total: Spec magazine, June 2007
Bon magazine, "Sex 2007", Issue 37, June 2007
Visionnaire Uncensored, ed. Mario Testino, 2005Art Monthly magazine / In "Exhibitions", April 2003
Untitled / In "Reviews", Issue 28, Summer 2002
Evening Standard newspaper / In "Hot tickets", Commercial Spaces, 10 May 2002
The Observer newspaper / In "Go See", 10 June 2001