Ewan David Eason creates exquisite graphic artworks inspired by his passion for cartography and celebrating social inclusion and diversity. His acclaimed ‘Mappa Mundi’ series (Latin for ‘chart of the world’) is designed, he says, to create nostalgia, aspiration, and wonder, and invites his audience to think about and appreciate their immediate and wider environment in new ways.
Hereford Cathedral’s 13th Century Mappa Mundi was the catalyst for this series. As with all Mappa Mundi, it was centred on a place of significance, in this case Jerusalem, considered by the church to be the centre of the world at the time. These ancient maps were always circular in deference to the Biblical description of the earth as a circle. In his innovative contemporary interpretations, Eason builds his own circular works around places which have personal significance for him: his first ever piece was centred on London’s Oxo Tower where he proposed to his wife, and he has centred Paris around the Louvre and New York around Central Park, both locations which resonate with him as an artist.
Every artwork in this series is unique and handmade. Eason uses a range of metal leaf in copper, silver and gold tones to lay down an opulent reflective surface; onto this, rivers, roads, paths and parks are printed in either black or white. The metals Eason chooses to work with represent the high and equal value of the people living in the chosen cities, a deliberate statement rejecting the use of colours in influential 19th century maps to define social class. His dedication to accuracy and complex detail means that as well as being recognised as artworks, his Mappa Mundi have won numerous awards from the Cartographic Society and the Ordnance Survey.
Eason’s Mappa Mundi have been well received in prestigious institutions including Christie’s and The Barbican; he has exhibited at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition on four occasions, most recently in 2022, and has had a solo exhibition at 45 Park Lane in London. His broad appeal is shown by some of the unusual places in which it has been displayed, from Hereford Cathedral (beside the Original 13th Century Mappa Mundi), to the style pages of the Sunday Times and in the BBC’s drama series The Night Manager. His work is in countless corporate collections such as that of The Dorchester, Core (a 3 Michelin Star Restaurant in Mayfair), 45 Park Lane and Etihad Airways, while a long list of private collectors includes Prince Albert of Monaco, actor Gwyneth Paltrow, explorer Sir Ben Ainslie, Michelin starred chef Care Smyth and Evgeny Lebedev (Owner of The Evening Standard).
Eason has travelled the world extensively and spent many hours looking down at towns and cities from an entirely different perspective. He says: “I am inspired by making art that reflects the world around us - it then has the power to create and shape the viewer's perspective.
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