Left: Wing Wall Piece, 2019, limited edition of 8 and Rough Split Console, 2018, limited edition of 10, both welded mirror polished stainless steel in gold finish. From Twentieth on Incollect.com. Right: Traxer Pendant Lamps (small, medium and large), 2019, edition of 8 + 4 AP, in welded mirror polished stainless steel, sapphire and onyx finish. Scoop Chair, 2018, limited edition of 8, in welded mirror polished stainless steel. Courtesy of Julian Mayor. From Twentieth on Incollect.com.





by Benjamin Genocchio



Julian Mayor was fascinated with math and computers as a child. He also played bass in a jazz band where reading music was, the British artist and designer explains, “like deciphering a 3-dimensional form, except that it’s in time rather than space.”


Jagged Edge Genius Loci Low Table, 2021. Welded mirror polished stainless steel. Edition of 8 + 4 AP.  Courtesy Genius Loci Experience and Galerie Armel Soyer. Photo: Marion Vignal, Genius Loci Experience


Today, Mayor makes reflective, faceted sculptures and furniture out of flat triangular planes of laser-cut sheet metal in different sizes, welded together with multiple faces, edges, and vertices. They are musical and mathematical, dynamic and original.



King Floor Lamp, 2019. Welded mirror polished stainless steel in sapphire finish. Limited edition of 8 exclusive to Twentieth. From Twentieth on Incollect.com


Mayor started his career as a product designer for corporations before deciding that he wanted to be an artist. He went back to school at the Royal College of Design, London, where under the tutelage of Ron Arad, among others, he began making furniture in wood and fiberglass, sometimes using CNC and sometimes made by hand, before experimenting with metal around 2004.


“My workshop is now metal only,” he says, adding “I find metal suits my way of working now.” He uses mostly stainless steel in a range of colors but occasionally makes custom pieces in copper, and lately has been experimenting with brass and bronze. Everything is welded together in his studio in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, where, with the help of one assistant, he produces between 20–30 pieces a year. 


The artist models his forms on a computer using a mixture of mathematical and visual effects software programs, often dividing the design into as many as 100 different triangular shapes. Then the real fun begins. “The physical making process, the folding and welding of the sheet metal facets adds a profound layer of depth to the design,” he says.


His work has a commanding presence in a room, but also a lightness, stemming from the way his pieces reflect ambient light and the colors of the surroundings. For this reason, he prefers to work in mirror stainless steel, to maximize the reflective quality of his pieces, but has also become more interested in the use of colored metals for his designs.


“I started using colored metal 7 or 8 years ago,” he says, “and it is increasingly popular with clients. I personally prefer the classic stainless steel just because it acts more as a mirror and the pieces have an airy weightlessness, which I like. The bronze color has also been popular recently with collectors and black stainless steel is popular now too — it looks really fantastic and impressive.”



Left:  Metal Organic Loop Chair, 2014. Welded mirror polished stainless steel. Limited edition of 8. From Twentieth on Incollect.com Right:  Fernando Chair, 2012. Welded mirror polished stainless steel in copper finish. Limited edition of 8. From Twentieth on Incollect.com


Half of Mayor’s work is freestanding and wall-mounted sculpture, and the other half functional furniture, both of which he shows via Twentieth Gallery in Los Angeles. His designs include a variety of chairs, lamps, consoles, side tables, dining sets, and a metal couch made of 100 pieces of triangular blue metal.


“I like making chairs because they’re a unique challenge,” the artist says. His website includes examples of 20 chairs which he has produced over 20 years of designing, including the “Fernando Copper Chair” made of welded mirror finish copper, designed in 2012 and developed on computer and with scale models. “Copper is more expensive but it has this luster and warmth,” he says.


“Kelly Wearstler bought one of these,” Mayor says, speaking about the “Fernando Copper Chair”. He also sold one to Galila Barzilai Hollander, a collector with her own museum space called P.O.C. (Passion Obsession Collection) in Brussels that displays a rotating selection of her design and artwork. Her collection includes chairs from Franz West, Ron Arad, Johnny Swing and Kwangho Lee. “Julian Mayor’s ‘Fernando’ chair fits my chair collection by its blend of form and function, evoking a sense of elegance and practicality,” Hollander says.



Left: Cyclops Wall Piece, welded mirror polished stainless steel. Courtesy of Twentieth. Right:  Detail of Cyclops Wall Piece.


The sculptures, wall-mounted and freestanding, and consoles and coffee tables have been selling the best, according to Stefan Lawrence from Twentieth Gallery in Los Angeles. He was instrumental in introducing Mayor’s wall sculptures to the American market and believes there is still growth there for an artist he regards as a unique talent in contemporary design.


“Nobody is doing anything like what Julian is doing,” Lawrence says. “I am amazed every day at his ingenuity and it is such a privilege to be a part of his creative journey. He just keeps getting better.” Lawrence also encouraged Mayor to begin to create more organic forms, pushing geometry into the realm of biology. “This was an important new step for me,” Mayor says.


A recent custom commission, the spectacularly sculptural Steppe Bar Cabinet in a Park Avenue residence by New York interior design firm Moos & Co. Courtesy Twentieth Gallery.


In addition to doing gallery exhibitions, a fair amount of what the artist makes are commissions generated through these same galleries. “Collectors feel confident commissioning me now. I have been making mirror metal work since 2009, so people trust that I am going to be around and so are more willing to take risks in what they commission and what they see from my output.” 


“Collaborating with Julian on a large commission for a private residence on Park Avenue in Manhattan was a real pleasure,” says interior designer Sophie Moos, Founder and Creative Director of Moos & Co. in New York. “The custom bar integration was a unique touch that truly elevated the interior. The mirrored stainless steel created a striking and sophisticated effect by beautifully reflecting the ambiance of the curated living room,” she says.


Julian Mayor in his workshop with Steppe Custom Bar Cabinet, 2022. Welded mirror finish stainless steel, edition of 3. Courtesy of Julian Mayor.


Other interior designers are equally in admiration of Mayor’s work. Jamie Bush, principal of Jamie Bush + Co. in Los Angeles, says he has always been captivated by what he calls “an interesting duality of the reflective triangular shapes against the imperfect welded connections, which give his pieces an otherworldly, humanistic touch.” Bush commissioned him to create a wall sculpture in a dark corridor for a modern home in Lake Tahoe. “The resulting effect was incredible because his piece captured hidden light sources and gave a dynamism to an otherwise lifeless space.”


Recently, Mayor’s sculptures and furniture have come to take on the appearance of complex cell-like structures or organisms. “I change it around all the time. I try to push what’s possible. Some of the new work has a greater substructure, it has bulkheads inside, which allow me to build in three dimensions to make bigger and more complicated things.”


Left: Wing Wall Piece, 2019. Welded mirror polished stainless steel in gold finish. From Twentieth on Incollect.com  Top Center: Double Wing Wall Piece, 2019. Welded mirror polished stainless steel in copper finish. Edition of 5 exclusive to Twentieth. From Twentieth on Incollect.com  Right: Glenda Settee, 2019. Welded mirror polished stainless steel in sapphire finish. Edition of 8+4AP. Courtesy of Julian Mayor.



Julian Mayor in his workshop.




The handmade feeling is critical to the designs. While the welds are as neat as the artist can make them, he says, there are invariably some natural irregularities that occur as two pieces of metal are heated and then joined together. “The process I use is called TIG welding — it’s an electric arc process with a torch and then a filler rod is inserted into the joint between the surfaces,” he explains. “It’s quite tricky to begin with because there are many variables to keep in mind, but once you’ve been doing it for a while it becomes natural, a little bit like drawing or perhaps sewing fabric together.”


Mayor cites as among his influences the American atmospheric sculptor Lee Bontecou, especially for his sculptural wall pieces, as well as the furniture of Paul Evans. “These two artists show their process in the final work,” he explains. “With Evans the welding is a part of the texture of a piece, and with Bontecou the frame is as important as what is in between.” He is also a big fan of the raw and punk sensibility of Austrian artist Franz West, a pioneer of welded metal sculpture and furniture. “His sensibility was a bit more chaotic and he didn’t value craft per se, but he inspired me to see the possibilities of welding.”


An outdoor seating group where the gardens, sky and shifting light are reflected in mesmerizing swirls of color and pattern. Organic Loop Chair, limited edition of 5, 2014; Scoop Chair, limited edition of 8+ 4 AP, 2016; and Bezier Sculptural Chair, limited edition of 8+ 4 AP, 2023; all in welded mirror polished stainless steel. Courtesy Twentieth Gallery.


Bird Sculpture. Courtesy Twentieth Gallery and Gallery Elle. Photo: Atossa Kacerovsky, Gallery Elle.


Studying at the Royal College helped make Mayor aware of the creative process and the idea of trying to find a way to document the process of making an object within the work itself. “To me that is important in order to understand the piece,” he says. “When you emphasize the process, the actual craft involved in making, welding a piece, showing how it was made, it takes on another, deeper dimension.”


Functionality is never sacrificed in pursuit of the concept he says. “Ultimately, I need people to be able to live with my work comfortably every day. I am a maker, so I want to make things people enjoy and that hopefully make people pause and maybe even be a focal point in a room. But it has to be something that is livable — that is the bottom line.”