About the work

John Mayberry enjoyed a long and successful career designing hotels and private residences across Asia, primarily in Hong Kong. Upon retirement, he began to make art full-time. But he is no dilletante; he brings his designer’s eye and decades of building his own collection to his work. The result? A clean but not-quite-perfectly-ordered image, invariably bold but still interesting and nuanced. If you decorate your home with Restoration Hardware—or simply like that aesthetic—then Mayberry’s work is for you. Indeed, Restoration agrees; they market reproductions of several of Mayberry’s works (albeit at prices that rival the cost of originals). Mayberry’s work is typically made with black and red sumi ink. (Sumi ink is made from a mixture of glue and soot, so it is always black, but colored inks can be made from glue and pigments with similar characteristics.) Mayberry usually frames his work in a manner integral to the work itself; in this case, the work is in a cloth-lined shadow box.