Rhys Coren to create statement artwork for One Exchange Square

CAS *Consultancy has been appointed by Development Managers, M3 Consulting (on behalf of LaSalle IM and PNB) to manage the artist commissioning process for a new statement artwork at One Exchange Square near Liverpool Street Station. 

The existing 1980s building will be retrofitted and transformed into a dynamic workspace, with Fletcher Priest Architects leading on the re-design. Approximately 90% of the existing structure will remain (minimising the carbon impact of construction), and the building will have 50% less embodied carbon than a typical office building of a comparable size, exceeding Greater London Authority’s carbon targets.

London-based artist Rhys Coren has been selected to undertake the public art commission, which will be composed of reused materials from the site. Coren’s artwork will span the length of the arcade passage between Exchange Square and Bishopsgate, connecting the East and West side of the building, enhancing the pedestrian experience and improving permeability of the space.

This project follows two major public art commissions for the artist - Everyone I’ve Ever Known, a nine metre long terrazzo mural displayed behind Bond Street Crossrail station; and the animation Love Motion, created for Lumiere Festival and projected across the facade of the Royal Academy of Arts’ building. 

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reimagine the One Exchange Square walkway, and create a welcoming and inspiring space which aids wayfinding for pedestrians by incorporating a sprawling 60 metre artwork into the existing York stone paving” - Rhys Coren

Work on One Exchange Square began earlier this year, with the retrofit and public artwork due for completion in 2025.

Left to right: Rhys Coren, You Give me Cold Hands; Sssssssshussssssh; Wrapped in One Memory.

About the artist

Rhys Coren was born in Plymouth, UK (1983) and graduated from the University of West England, Bristol, in 2006 before completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art at the Royal Academy Schools in London. Coren works across animation, writing, performance and painted marquetry. He explores rhythm, colour and texture in work that is characterised by cartoon-like clouds, grids of colour, shadows and the interplay of lines. Inspired by music, Coren credits the structures found in electronic dance music, jazz and disco as central to his work.