Collect 2024 at Somerset House
At a time when the automated and the virtual seem to increasingly dominate our lives, the act of making has never been more important. For making reassures us of what is authentic. It is therefore no accident that the word ‘craft’ is increasingly being employed by a wider spectrum to sound discerning to the wider audience.
The role of craft, alongside art and design, is a much debated one, where often the aesthetic is maligned, seen as shallow and inferior to concept. However, to look at a tangible object and its beauty, to know that it has been brought to life by a human hand, is more than just comforting, such skills bewitch, entrance and entice the onlooker. In essence, art and art that is crafted, seduces.
All of the artists presented for the 20th anniversary of Collect, have a shared commitment that goes beyond technique, where the act of creating has transitioned into an unconscious understanding of their material. Such inherent mastery is at the heart of what allures, igniting fascination as to how each of the works on show ever came in to being.
Exhibition artworks
Represented artists;
Amy Cushing | Cathryn Shilling | Claire Malet | Egeværk | Enemark & Thompson | Hanne Enemark | James Devereux | Jon Lewis | Jo Taylor | Karen Browning | Lena Bergström | Louis Thompson | Maarten Vrolijk | Maria Bang Espersen | Monette Larsen | Morten Klitgaard | Nicholas Arroyave-Portela | Nina Casson McGarva | Olivia Walker | Steven Edwards | Tsai & Yoshikawa | Vivienne Foley
Collect 2024
1st - 3rd March 2024 (previews 28th- 29th February)
Room E12, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA