9 craft exhibitions to see in the UK this September
Banish those post-summer blues by heading to an exhibition this month
Kagoshima: Stories in Craft from South Japan
Rare treasures from Japan’s Kagoshima prefecture have made their way to London for a showcase at the craft and design store, Wagumi. Part of the capital’s design festival, the display includes ceramics made in the Kuro-mon tradition, crafts that nod to the area’s abundance of bamboo, and charming papier-mâché folk toys. Drop in to taste some tea from the region and see live window illustrations being created by artist Motohiro Waki.
14-15 & 17-22 September 2024 at Oxo Tower Wharf, London
Jean-Nicolas Gérard
Functionality takes focus in this showcase of ceramicist Jean-Nicolas Gérard’s earthenware pots, all of which are intended to be used in the preparation and presentation of food. Daubed with spots of purple, yellow and other bold hues, the pieces in the show reflect Gérard’s affinity for colour, and his respect for the French tradition of terre vernissée (terracotta-clay slipware).
From 28 September at Goldmark Gallery, Rutland
Stitching Souls: Threads of Silence
British-Trinadadian artist Karen McLean worked with a community of sewers to create this installation using African fabrics and traditional quilting techniques. The work is inspired by the Walker Art Gallery’s collection of merchant portraits and is a reflection on Liverpool’s historic association with the transatlantic slave trade. ‘Through the act of stitching and sewing, McLean creates a platform for healing through dialogue, reflection and recovery,’ the gallery describes.
28 September 2024 – 2 March 2025 at Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Painted terracotta jar by an unknown artist in the Shipibo-Konibo community, Peru. Photo: courtesy of private collection Pina lamp by Jacob Marks, who's showing as part of The Abney Effect. Photo: courtesy of the artist
The Abney Effect
Part of London Design Festival, this exhibition by Wax Atelier explores tree-derived materials in array of projects to do with oils, waxes, resins and dyes. The setting of Abney Park is particularly apt, it was once being a Victorian arboretum and now a local nature reserve. Alongside the studio’s own investigations into the flowers, leaves and fruit of orange trees, are works by Jacob Marks and CQ Studio – both feature in previous issues of Crafts (Spring/Summer 2023 and Autumn/Winter 2023).
16-22 September 2024 at Abney Park, London
Ayahuasca & Art of the Amazon
We’re tripping out over this new exhibition at Norwich’s Sainsbury Centre, which explores how the psychoactive beverage ayahuasca has influenced the lives of indigenous societies in the Amazon, and their creative output. The show will home in on the rainforest’s Shipibo-Konibo community, displaying historic and contemporary examples of ceramics, textiles, sculptures, paintings and photographs that they’ve made under the influence of the drug. With the help of a shaman-guided VR experience, visitors will also be able to experience the effects of ayahuasca for themselves.
14 September – 2 February 2025 at Sainsbury Centre, Norwich
Lyndie Wright: The Curious Art of Puppetry
Master puppeteer Lyndie Wright is celebrated in this exhibition at Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset, which charts her extraordinary 65-year career. The show will display a wide array of what Wright has crafted through the decades – from carved marionettes, to glove puppets – and there’ll even be a recreation of her north London workshop, complete with tools, materials, mood boards, and puppets-in-progress.
Watch out for our upcoming issue, where we’ll be spotlighting more makers involved in the world of performance…
Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights
This major free exhibition brings together 150 objects from across the world to look at the effect of physical work on our health and bodies. Divided into The Plantation, The Street and The Home, the exhibition’s focus is on unseen and underrepresented forms of labour. Look out for an embroidered mosquito net by Brazilian artist Vivian Cacurri’, and a new commission by artist Lindsey Mendick featuring a scene of stained-glass windows and ceramic objects.
19 September 2024 – 27 April 2025 at the Wellcome Collection, London
Grayson Perry: A Temple for Everyone
The humble abode comes under question in Grayson Perry’s latest exhibition, which seeks to interrogate the concept of home and how it affects our sense of identity. More than 30 pieces will be on display, including textiles, tiles, woodcuts and of course pots, some of which have been drawn from Perry’s artwork-cum-holiday home A House for Essex.
25 September 2024–2 March 2025 at Charleston in Lewes, Lewes
Tales of Boseong – Seong-Il Hong & Hye-Jin Lee
This exhibition at London’s Flow gallery sees ceramic artists Seong-Il Hong and Hye-Jin Lee (the founders of Nosan Claystudio) display their range of teaware, crafted to complement the rich tea-drinking culture of South Korea’s Boseong region. Refined in style, each vessel made by the duo is designed to ‘neither overflow nor exclude its functional or aesthetic elements’; a must-see show for connoisseurs of the cuppa.
