Azure – March 2019

MAR/APR 2019_ _ 051

Focus

Wall Treatments

RENOWNED FOR ITS GRAND
INSTALLATIONS, MOSS & LAM
HAS A NEW VENTURE: BRINGING
BIG ART TO A SMALLER AUDIENCE

WORDS _Kendra Jackson
PHOTOGRAPH _Richard Powers

Artistic

Merit

At Avenue Road’s

Vancouver showroom,

Moss & Lam installed 1,200

handmade ceramic pieces

glazed in shades of blue.

Go big or go home is an idiom that
could be applied very aptly to Moss &
Lam. For more than three decades, the
Toronto studio, helmed by co-founder
and creative director Deborah Moss, has
been elevating interiors with large-scale
custom murals and installations, each
unique and perfectly tailored to the space
it occupies.
Moss founded her studio in 1987 with
her late husband Edward Lam, fresh out
of art school and at a time when sponge-
painted effects were the (in retrospect,
unfortunate) must-have finishing touch.
“We didn’t like them, but we could do
them,” Moss recalls. “And of course we
took them seriously; it’s a huge responsi-
bility to be working in someone’s home.”
It’s this respect for the client, com-
bined with an innate artistic ability and
imaginative spirit, that has seen Moss
& Lam move from intimate pieces to
larger-than-life multi-media murals for
the likes of Yabu Pushelberg, Avenue
Road and such leading hotel chains as
Four Seasons and W.

What to hang, install and apply has become a lot more interesting

Over the years, Moss has learned what it takes to forge a successful

partnership: collaboration. “It’s important to listen to the client, to what

they are asking, and then filter that information,” says Moss, whose

team now numbers 25 , nearly all of whom are artists themselves.

While each commission often comes with its own media request –

plaster, resin, clay, even painted velvet – it’s paint on canvas that is

Moss’s true love. “Paint is what I’ve been in love with since the begin-

ning. It’s elemental; there are so many permutations,” she says.

This long-standing affinity has led to the studio’s most recent initia-

tive, one that aims to bring beautiful custom pieces to a wider audience.

Launched last year, the inaugural series of Canvas – hand-painted,

seamless (“I don’t like seeing seams in a room”) wallcoverings –

comprises seven patterns, each of which can cover up to 90 linear

metres of space. But as each is handmade by different artists, the

patterns also have their own “nuances of expression, the accidental

things that happen that are actually beautiful.” mossandlam.com

The new ready-to-order,

hand-painted Canvas series

includes Geo 1 (shown).