Craft exhibitions to see in the UK this summer

6 August 2021

Spirit-lifting shows across the country

6 August 2021

Exhibitions

Colin Reid, Colour Saturation: Open Eye, 2021, in the Great Hall at Parham House

Now that the cultural calendar has been rebooted, here’s our bumper pick of craft exhibitions to see on your travels across the UK.

Adrian Sassoon at Parham House

Gallerist Adrian Sassoon has carefully inserted contemporary works around the resplendent interiors and gardens of Parham House in West Sussex, much like a collector might do in their own home. Highlights include a kiln-cast and polished optical glass work by Colin Reid, a sprouting crystalline-glazed stoneware sculpture by ceramic artist Kate Malone, and the steel sculptures of Kazuhiro Toyama, who is showing them outside of Japan for the first time. The display mirrors the rich collecting history of the property, which is home to one of the most important collections of 17th-century embroidery in the UK.

Until 31 August, Parham House & Gardens, West Sussex

Christian Newby. Flower Necklace Cargo Net detail, Collective 2021. Photo: Tom Nolan

Boredom >Mischief > Fantasy >Radicalism >Fantasy

Artist Christian Newby has transformed the largest dome of Edinburgh’s city observatory into a riot of colour and texture with a new large-scale tapestry commission, which responds to the building, originally constructed to house an astronomical telescope. The artist uses a handheld industrial tufting gun to explore how questions of labour, authorship and materiality define the fine and applied arts.

Until 29 August, Collective, Edinburgh

Creative Folkestone Triennial 2021

The fifth edition of the Folkestone Triennial, titled The Plot, will reveal 20 newly commissioned pieces by artists including Morag Myerscough, Jacqueline Poncelet, Rana Begum and Turner Prize-winning collective Assemble. Follow a variety of routes to take yourself on tours through the port town and discover interventions nestled along the way.

Until 2 November, various locations in Folkestone

Cylinders with tapered rims by Paul Wearing. Porcelain and stoneware with multiple slips and glazes. Photo: Dewi Tannatt-Lloyd

Paul Wearing: Flux and Poise

The potter ruminates on a year spent exploring the Ceredigion coast and being at one with the landscape, in a touring exhibition starting at Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre. The artist’s inspiration remains our relationship with nature’s seasons and cycles, but these works reveal developments in his work, including the introduction of asymmetry and the use of new glazes, techniques and materials.

Until 28 August, Llantarnam Grange Art Centre, Cwmbran

Ken Matsuzaki

The Japanese potter has invented a new ceramic process, and will show 50 pieces of this new body of work – Tokaiseki – alongside some Yugen black clay pots at a show at Goldmark Gallery in Rutland. Chunks of clay are carved into rock-like forms, then fired in three kinds of kilns – anagama, gas and electric – to achieve the effect he is after. An accompanying film generously reveals his technique to all.

Until 28 August, Goldmark Gallery, East Midlands

Work by Jimena Pardo for Pandemic Patchwork Stories

All in the Same Storm: Pandemic Patchwork Stories

A moving, community-driven project at De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea captures life in the shadow of the pandemic through hand-stitched patchwork art. Ninety-five patchwork squares from local people, including those seeking refuge, volunteers, and Supported Education students from Hastings College, reveal tales of resistance, change, togetherness, isolation, loss and home.

Until 5 September, De La Warr Pavilion, East Sussex

Scale

Scale, the perspective-bending inaugural exhibition at Derby’s new Museum of Making, explores the big and the small, with works by contemporary artists presented alongside historical objects from the Derby Museums’ collection. The wider museum, formerly the Derby Silk Mill, tells the story of 300 years of design, innovation and manufacturing in the region, while also offering a state-of-the-art workshop to modern makers.

Until 28 November, Museum of Making, Derby

Sophie Tauber-Arp, embroidery, circa 1920
Sophie Tauber-Arp, stag marionette for 'King Stag', 1918

Sophie Tauber-Arp

Swiss multi-hyphenate Sophie Taeuber-Arp was an artist ahead of her time, counting maker, teacher, architect, interior designer, painter, sculptor, dancer, magazine editor (and today, face of the 50 Swiss franc note) among the many brilliant feathers in her cap. Taeuber-Arp stood apart from her modernist contemporaries, combining a commercially successful crafts practice with boldly experimental painting. The first retrospective of her work in the UK brings together her extraordinarily diverse – and at times, controversial – creative output.

Until 17 October, Tate Modern, London

Epic Iran

The V&A’s major survey spans 5,000 years of Iranian art, design and culture, including ceramics, illumination, book-binding, architecture and contemporary art. The work of illuminator and binder Razi Taliqani, who was at the forefront of developing the art of illumination into an independent artwork outside of manuscript production, will be among the exhibits. The architecture on show will range from tile fragments featuring 3D patterns and lajvardina glaze to largescale replicas of domed ceilings in the historic city of Isfahan. Artist Bita Ghezelayagh’s textile piece Felt Memories III is among the contemporary works in the exhibition.

Until 12 September; Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Potter Adam Buick, who is showing work at Joanna Bird Gallery, photographed in his studio for Crafts by Francesca Jones

The Garden of Earthly Delights

For this show, gallerist Joanna Bird has asked the participating artists to respond to the gallery’s well established garden, designed thirty-five years ago by esteemed landscape architect Simon Irvine. Works by artists including potters Adam Buick and Akiko Hirai, and weaver Jason Collingwood will be on show.

Until 8 September, Joanna Bird Gallery, London

Ray Harryhausen animating a skeleton model for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, 1958

Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema

Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013) was responsible for some of the most recognisable special effects in the history of cinema. Especially celebrated for his innovative stop-motion model animation techniques, he brought life to a myriad of monsters and mythological creatures in films such as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and One Million Years BC (1966). To mark the hundredth anniversary of his birth in 2020 is Titan of Cinema, a major exhibition (postponed from last year and now extended) at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

Until 20 February 2022, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two), Edinburgh

Mr and Mrs Pope Knitted, Shrunk and Hung, 2012, felted mohair, by Nicholas Pope
Mr and Mrs Pope Vased and Flowered, 2016, glass, by Nicholas Pope

Nicholas Pope

The British-Australian artist has enjoyed three concurrent exhibitions in England this summer: Heavenly Space at the New Art Centre, Salisbury (until 30 August); Take Off at The Sunday Painter, London (ended on 19 June) and Portraits of a Marriage at The Holburne Museum in Bath (until 30 August). The latter (reviewed in the July/August 2021 issue of Crafts) is perhaps the most personal, due to its subject matter. It offers a small but well-formed presentation of 10 works spanning Pope’s five decades of making, illustrating his experimentation across materials – from porcelain and wood, to glass and wool.

Various venues

Work by Adi Toch in Women in Silver
Work by Jessica Jue in Women in Silver

Mastery: Women in Silver

This focus on the UK’s contemporary women designer-silversmiths highlight both the diversity of women’s practice and their largely unacknowledged role as innovators in the field. Work by established and mid-career artists sit alongside those of emerging makers. The gallery says that such an exhibition would have been impossible to assemble 50 years ago, as there were so few women working in silversmithing, but that what was once a totally male discipline has been transformed within three generations.

Until 18 September, Ruthin Craft Centre, Denbighshire

The Rock Cycle, by Ilana Halperin, 2021. Courtesy: the artist and Patricia Fleming Gallery, Glasgow. Photo: Keith Hunter

Ilana Halperin: There is a Volcano Behind My House

For a major new commission at Mount Stuart, artist Ilana Halperin turns her focus to the geology of the island of Bute where she now spends much of her time. ‘The first time I visited Mount Stuart, many years ago, I was struck by the deep geologic nature of the house,’ says the artist, ‘from the core samples of marble which travelled up from Sicily – immigrant rocks settled in their new home – to the petrified seas found in the fossil-rich limestone of the vast stairwell in the Great Hall.’ Works in the exhibition include a series of watercolours, textiles woven in collaboration with Bute Fabrics, and laser engraved mica (a mineral also used in the ceiling of Mount Stuart’s drawing room).

Until 15 August, Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute

Anya or Anum, Anya Paintsil, 2020. Courtesy the artist and Ed Cross Fine Art

Maker’s Eye: Stories of Craft

It's here at last: the long-awaited opening of the Crafts Council's new gallery (originally due to open in March 2020 and postponed thanks to you-know-what). For its debut exhibition Maker’s Eye: Stories of Craft, 13 makers were tasked with choosing up to 15 objects from the Crafts Council Collections in response to the question: 'What does craft look like and mean to you?'. Meanwhile, the V&A curator Dr Christine Checinska was invited to answer the same question from a different perspective, looking beyond the collection.

Until 9 October, Crafts Council Gallery, London. To visit, book your free ticket

Acapella, by Halima Cassell, bronze. Photo: Jonathan Keenan
Coffee Cart no.1, by Hugh Miller, British elm and Japanese bamboo. Ceramics, by Saiko Fukuoka. Bamboo weaving, by Sagawa Takehiko. Photo: Robert Holmes

Past Present Future: Celebrating Craft

The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool is celebrating makers with links to the north-west of England, including Halima Cassell, Jacob Chan and Hugh Miller. Drawing on the gallery’s collection of late 20th-century craft, the exhibition includes studio ceramics, glass, metal work and furniture.

The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

Textile artist Anna Ray with her award-winning work Capture, 2020. Photo: Allun Callender

On Tenterhooks: Anna Ray

Textile artist Anna Ray, this year’s winner of the Brookfield Properties Crafts Council Collection Award, is showcasing her prize-winning pieces Capture and Weave alongside other colourful works from her practice. On Tenterhooks will take over public spaces at Brookfield Properties’ offices at 99 Bishopsgate and Aldgate Tower, both occupying spaces where – rather serendipitously – London’s textile industry was previously based.

Until 1 October, 99 Bishopsgate and Aldgate Tower, London

Detail of You complete me, by Niamh Wimperis, inspired by Morris & Co’s original sunflower wall paper hanging in the Drawing Room at Standen. Courtesy: National Trust
Keith Brymer Jones’ ceramics installation at Standen. Courtesy: National Trust

The Joy is in the Making

Well-known makers demonstrate their creative chops at National Trust property Standen, in West Sussex. The eclectic line-up includes The Great Pottery Throw Down judge and ceramicist Keith Brymer Jones, knitting, needlepoint and patchwork expert Kaffe Fassett; embroidery artist Niamh Wimperis; textile artist Mr X Stitch; and presenter-turned-photographer Edith Bowman.

Until 31 October, Standen House and Garden, West Sussex

Bay Leaf frieze by Herbert P. Horne used in the Century Guild room shown at the International Inventions Exhibition, 1885. Courtesy: William Morris Gallery

Within The Reach Of All: The Century Guild

Open at London’s William Morris Gallery, Within The Reach of All: The Century Guild is the first exhibition in 20 years to explore the pioneering aesthetics and lasting legacy of this influential association of artists, designers and craftspeople. The Century Guild aspired to elevate crafts to the status of art, integrate both art and crafts in domestic interiors, and democratise good design.

Until 31 August, William Morris Gallery, London

Charlotte Perriand on the Chaise Longue Basculante B306, 1929. © AChP/ © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2021

Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life

The Design Museum’s in-depth look at the pioneering 20th-century designer includes models, photographs and sketches that give an insight into her creative process. Immerse yourself in recreations of her most well-known interiors – such as the apartment designed for Salon d’Automne in 1929 – and explore works by her friends and peers including Le Corbusier and Pablo Picasso.

19 June – 5 September, Design Museum, London

Craft exhibitions to see in the UK this summer

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