LONDON — Burberry’s chief creative officer Daniel Lee is spreading his wings far and beyond for British art as of late.
The luxury British brand will be the headline sponsor of the British Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale for a second consecutive year.
The international contemporary art exhibition will run from April 20 to Nov. 24.
John Akomfrah, the British artist and writer, has been commissioned by the British Council to represent Great Britain at the fair and will showcase his work “Listening All Night to the Rain.” Memory, migration, racial injustice and climate change will be the core focus of the artist’s work.
Backstage at Burberry fall 2024 during London Fashion Week.
Kasia Bobula/WWD
“‘Listening All Night to the Rain’ promises to be aesthetically brilliant, contextually rich and provocative. Akomfrah’s immersive style has a mesmerizing quality, reaching and touching the hearts and consciousness of audiences often unseen or unheard, which is fitting for this body of work that encourages the idea of listening as activism,” Skinder Hundal, director of arts at the British Council, said in a statement.
Lee had an artful year with Burberry in 2023.
The brand supported the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, during which it handed out The Thomas Burberry Prize for Print to Christine Wilkinson.
Daniel Lee and Sarah Lucas
Dave Benett/Courtesy of Burberry
During Frieze London, Lee hosted a dinner celebration for artist Sarah Lucas at St. John in Clerkenwell for the opening of her exhibition “Happy Gas,” at Tate Britain, which Burberry supported.
The designer is a longtime fan of Lucas’ work, and the sponsorship is part of Burberry’s ongoing strategy to amplify British art.
Art seems to be pouring into the brand’s retail makeover too.
Burberry’s new store on Avenue Montaigne in Paris features fixtures inspired by British abstract art from the ‘60s and the ‘80s anti-establishment design movement, Creative Salvage.
Meanwhile, at the brand’s store at The Domain, a high-end shopping mall in Austin, British artist Tom Atton Moore, famed for his rugs, has been commissioned to produce pieces for the new space.