Selection and curation of Jerwood Contemporary Makers 2010 with Hans Stofer (Chair) and Richard Slee.

16 June – 25 July 2010
Jerwood Space, 171 Union Street, London
http://jerwoodvisualarts.org/3512/Jerwood-Contemporary-Makers-2010/243

Touring to: Dovecot Studios (with IC: Innovative Craft), Edinburgh and the National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland.

Jerwood Contemporary Makers showcased work by the new generation of UK makers. The exhibition investigated the notion of making by bringing together a broad range of work from across craft and the visual arts. Twenty-nine makers took part, each exhibiting one work and receiving an equal share of the £30,000 prize fund. A catalogue was designed by Turnbull Grey, in the form a newspaper broadsheet with an essay, The Making Game, commissioned from author Jeanette Winterson.

A series of Monday evening events accompanied the exhibition. These included Emmanuel Cooper (ceramicist and craft writer) in conversation with Hans Stofer, Richard Slee and Freddie Robins also a panel discussion exploring the notion of amateur making, chaired by Stephen Knott, with Emma Shercliff. At the National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland Freddie Robins conducted a gallery tour and delivered a lecture and workshop on Curating Contemporary Craft alongside curator and artist David Littler.

The 2010 Jerwood Contemporary Makers were: Laura Ellen Bacon, David Rhys Jones, Laura Potter, Chien-Wei Chang, Kirsty McDougall, Tomoaki Suzuki, David Clarke, Nicola Malkin, Ingrid Tait, Carl Clerkin, Taslim Martin, Marloes ten Bhomer, Julie Cooke, Flora McLean, Maud Traon, Robert Dawson, Rowan Mersh, Richard Wheater, Nora Fok, Gareth Neal, Conor Wilson, David Gates, Karen Nicol, Emma Woffenden, Joseph Harrington, Heather Park, Dawn Youll, Tony Hayward and Lina Peterson

The exhibition, designed and built by Michael Marriott, took visitors on a visual journey through the different approaches to the art of making, highlighting its importance as a visual arts discipline. Jerwood Contemporary Makers is the UK’s only award for the applied arts and is a major strand of the Jerwood Visual Arts programme.

Jerwood Contemporary Makers was launched by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation in 2008 as a three-year exhibition series supporting and showcasing emerging creative talent. Each year, a different panel of selectors has curated the exhibition, inviting a group of makers to respond to a different guiding concept.

Catalogue – Jerwood Contemporary Makers 2010

Selection and curation of BANA (Bath Area Network for Artists) members’ work.

Widcome Studios Gallery,
24 October – 4 November 2006
Comfortable Place, Upper Bristol Road, Bath
www.bana-arts.co.uk

Exhibitors were Anthony Clark, Alison Harper, Amy Houghton, Janine McLellan and Lawrie Quigley.

The work submitted for any open submission exhibition is always eclectic. Looking through the submissions is the opening of a Pandora’s Box. You get what you’re given, like it or not, and you have to make a coherent exhibition from it. There were many routes that I could have taken, simply selected my favourite pieces, selected works from just one medium, selected works by just one artist or looked for common themes within the work. I did find quite a few reoccurring themes. There were numerous images related to domesticity – portraits of passive women (many drinking cups of tea), empty domestic interiors and the transformation of domestic objects into art objects. The natural world was a common theme as was the colour yellow.

Unsurprisingly a lot of textile related pieces were submitted but sadly there was little ceramic or sculptural work. Some of the artists had submitted three exceptionally strong works and I could easily have had a solo or two-person show but I wanted to make the show broader and, dare I say it, stranger than that. In the end I decided that I would use the theme of domestic textile production and try to create a dialogue between works by different artists, using different mediums. So there you have it, an exhibition of 7 works (across a range of scales), by 5 artists (3 female and 2 male) at various stages of their artistic careers, in 4 mediums (animation, hand embroidery, hand knitting and painting). An idiosyncratic exhibition of strange and wonderful works that I am very pleased to have been given the opportunity to select. It is always a privilege to see the work of other artists close at hand, especially when you are entrusted with decisions about it.

Several of the pieces I would like to own, one of them I will own and some frighten me so much that I am very glad not to own them. Which is which, is for you to decide. Rather perversely, I did not select my favourite piece. What that was, and who it was by, I will leave to your imagination.

(Essay by Freddie Robins from Partial View catalogue)

Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, London
17 August – 9 October 2005
http://pumphousegallery.org.uk

Curated by Freddie Robins and Sandra Ross

“ Ceremony was born out of a discussion about the relevance, application and value of craft skills in today’s society and the need to platform contemporary craft in visual arts venues, especially in London. An idea that we kept coming back to was the way that unique crafted objects play an integral role in the execution of traditional rites of passage, from the knitted christening shawl to the gold wedding ring and finally the floral funeral wreath. A period of research ensued and after contacting numerous artists, making many studio visits and having discussions with peers about this concept, we devised an exhibition that brought together an eclectic brew of works, performances and projects that explored the performative relationship between object and ritual. Many of the works and projects were especially commissioned for this exhibition and covered a diverse range of practices including cake decorating, metal work, film, knitting, live art, stone carving, quilting and floristry.

As well as exploring the rituals themselves, this exhibition provided a glimpse of the diverse range of craft practices and techniques used by contemporary practitioners. It gave exposure to under-valued skills such as cake decorating, floristry and knitting, and brought into question the traditional hierarchical domains of fine and applied art.”

(Text taken from the Foreward for Ceremony publication, written by Freddie Robins and Sandra Ross.)

Exhibitors were Barby Asante, Elizabeth Callinicos, Rachael Matthews (Cast Off), Tim Davies, Catherine Hawes, Rozanne Hawksley, Julie Henry, Serena Korda, Laura Potter, Freddie Robins , Chris Stewart, Hans Stofer, Shane Waltener and Welfare State International.

24 February – 15 May 2005

Crafts Council Gallery, London 

www.craftscouncil.org.uk


Touring to: City Gallery, Leicester, Knitting & Stitching Show (Alexandra Palace, London, RDS, Dublin and RDS, Dublin) Oriel Davies Gallery, Powys, Wales

Curated by Freddie Robins and Katy Bevan

Knit 2 Together: Concepts in Knitting is the first knitting exhibition by the Crafts Council since 1986. It takes a close look at contemporary knitting in art practice, especially work that pushes the perceived boundaries within the world of knitting. By focussing on the possibilities that the craft allows, and emphasizing technique, process, structure and material, Knit 2 Together takes an in-depth look at the individual stitch. Once previous associations are recognised and removed, knitting can be rehabilitated as a first class craft.

The exhibitors are representative of different strands in knitting today, from the self-taught art of Marie-Rose Lortet, to the highly technical digital imagery of Kelly Jenkins. The majority of the exhibitors are based in the UK, while the US, Canada, Japan and France are also represented.”

(Taken from the Crafts Council leaflet for Knit 2 Together: Concepts in Knitting, written by Katy Bevan)

Exhibitors were Andy Diaz Hope, Francoise Dupre, Kelly Jenkins, Ruth Lee, Marie-Rose Lortet, Rachael Matthews, Susie McMurray, Janet Morton, Celia Pym, Freddie Robins, Takehiko Sanada, Stephanie Speight, Jemma Sykes, Shane Waltener and Donna Wilson.

Photography: Ed Barber/Crafts Council