Showcasing 42 international galleries and hundreds of artists
Now in its 16th year, Collect brings modern and contemporary craft centre-stage alongside other creative platforms, from fine art to design to architecture and interiors. This year, Collect brings together 42 international galleries from across the globe, each curating their own displays to sell work made in the last five years by the world’s leading contemporary artists and designers.
With artists from over 25 nations, from Sweden to Uganda to Japan, the breadth of exceptional work on show includes ceramics, glass, metal, wood and textiles, as well as makers working in non-traditional materials using experimental techniques.
Collect Open, supported by Sanlam UK, offers a unique opportunity for individual artists or collaborations to exhibit alongside world class galleries.
The Collect Open platform was created for artists to represent themselves with an original body of work made specifically for the fair. It shines a light on individual makers and collaborations, providing them with a platform to break free from the usual constraints of their practice and creatively experiment.
This year, the work featured in Collect Open follows one of four themes – New Materials, New Conversations, New Scales and New Collaborations. The installations will be integrated throughout the three wings of Somerset House, providing you with a ready made tour threaded throughout Collect.
The annual Collect talks programme explores contemporary craft with leading voices from the worlds of craft, design, architecture, fashion and art.
LOEWE FOUNDATION presents the headline talk Where Craft Hides on Sat 29 Feb, with LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize President Sheila Loewe introducing a talk featuring jury president Anatxu Zabalbeascoa and artists Kazuhito Takadoi and Giovanni Corvaja. These two masters will talk about unconventional structures and materials, contemporary craftsmanship, their own practice and how being finalists of the Craft Prize influenced their careers.
There are another eight talks taking place over the course of Collect, and access is included with your ticket. To find out more information on the talks programme, click here.
Hear direct from the gallerists and artists of Collect by joining one of the many booth talks taking place across the four days of the fair.
Highlights include a talk with artist/designers Zeinab Harding and Karlyn Sutherland, moderated by Bullseye Projects curator Michael Endo, touching on their backgrounds and the paths that led them to focus their practice on contemporary craft. Look out too for an interactive talk with renowned designer Mark Brazier-Jones on function versus concept, and how these intertwine in today’s resurgent craft-led design approaches.
It's the perfect opportunity to absorb specialist knowledge from some of the industry’s experts and to ask your own burning questions about the sector.
Artist Daniel Reynolds, represented by participating gallery Cavaliero Finn, will unveil a brand new installation piece for Collect 2020.
Renowned for his ceramic and glass mobiles influenced by organic design, his work explores the relationship between the component parts of his sculptures and the quest to achieve balance, harmony and beauty. The work will be his largest to date, and the intention is that visitors will be able to see the moving sculpture from a distance as you make your way down the corridors of Somerset House’s West Wing.
Drawing inspiration from his home country’s mid-century architecture, such as the Aula Magna in Caracas, Daniel has paired his vision with acoustic ‘clouds’ by Alexander Calder, exploring movement, rhythm and nature.
