9 must-see exhibitions at London Craft Week 2021
As the celebration of making returns to the capital, we pick the highlights
London Craft Week returns on 4 October to shine a light on exceptional craftsmanship and tell stories about how some of the finest works of art came to life. Through a rich roster of exhibitions, immersive exhibitions, talks and workshops, it will show how makers are breathing new life into time-old traditions, reinventing materials with sustainability in mind, and pushing craft into the future.
Founded by Guy Salter in 2015, the festival leads you on a treasure trail across the capital to shops, galleries, restaurants and studios. This year’s programme reveals how craft touches all facets of life, including fashion, art, design and food.
With over 250 established and emerging makers, designers, brands and galleries joining the programme, we’ve whittled down our list of seven must-see exhibitions.
SoShiro gallery will showcase new mosaic works by Cuban artist Alexandre Arrechea. Photo: courtesy of SoShiro gallery Shinichi Sawada will present eccentric ceramic creatures at Tristan Hoare Gallery's Cracked exhibition. Photo: courtesy of Tristan Hoare Gallery
Dharma Taylor at Paul Smith
Fashion veteran Paul Smith has a penchant for spotting up and coming talent. For this year’s London Craft Week, his store in King’s Cross will become an exhibition space for multidisciplinary artist, Dharma Taylor, who combines textiles with woodwork to create pieces inspired by her great grandfather, a self-taught carpenter.
4 to 10 October at Coal Drops Yard, Kings Cross
Mosaic Works at Layers
The director of SoShiro gallery, Shiro Muchiri, and Cuban artist Alexandre Arrechea – once part of the now-disbanded art collective Los Carpinteros – were lucky enough to squeeze in a trip to Italy’s Mosaic School of Friuli before the pandemic hit. Working with third-year students at the school, they developed a modular furniture unit called The Collector, bedecked with colourful mosaics. It will be part of a wider body of work at the gallery exploring the relationship between colour, the human body, and architecture, in a palette of tones that recall Arrechea’s native Havana.
Maker's Eye: Stories of Craft
The first exhibition in the new Crafts Council Gallery, Maker's Eye: Stories of craft celebrates the breadth, diversity and qualities of craft, and includes a rich selection of objects made in the UK over the course of the last 50 years. This exhibition was curated with 13 makers, who were each asked to select up to 15 objects from the Crafts Council Collection in response to the question: 'what does craft look like and mean to you?' Meanwhile, Dr Christine Checinska was invited to consider what was missing. Her selection of works by contemporary makers plays tribute to the founding ethos of the collection – to document innovative practice by emerging makers.
Cracked
Visitors to Tristan Hoare Gallery will be greeted by multi-headed figures by Seni Awa Camara and eccentric creatures by Shinichi Sawada in Cracked, an exhibition devoted to hand-moulded ceramics. Works by emerging makers sit alongside pieces by established names.
5 to 8 October at Tristan Hoare Gallery, Fitzrovia
Outside In
The escalating climate crisis is prompting makers to take an ethical standpoint through the materials they use. In Sarah Myerscough Gallery’s show Outside In, an international group of craftspeople have used organic, sustainable materials such as wood, willow and grasses, reconnecting Londoners to the wild.
Skipping Stone side tables by Christopher Kurtz will be showcased at Sarah Myerscough Gallery's Outside In exhibition. Photo: courtesy of Sarah Myerscough These new works by Jon Lewis feature melted down TV screens and will be on show at Vessel Gallery. Photo: courtesy of Vessel Gallery
Kasama Potters Project
The Japanese city of Kasama has long been a destination for ceramicists – a place where they are encouraged to explore their own styles, unlike in many of the country’s pottery regions, which tend to produce experts in certain techniques. In its biggest presentation outside of Japan, Kasama Potters will bring together the work of 34 ceramicists to show the breadth of creativity and individualism fostered in the area at London Craft Week.
5 to 10 October at South Arcade, Islington
Imagine The 'Im’possibilities: Bamboo
The history and versatility of bamboo as a material is well documented, but it often gets overlooked in terms of contemporary craft. Aiming to reinvigorate interest in the material, Crafts on Peel, a Hong-Kong-based not-for-profit, has brought together a group of traditional and contemporary craftsmen from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, who will each give the material their own spin.
Swirly Chandelier by Lawrence Ting and Tuk Chong Sum Kee is one of the contemporary examples of bamboo craft at the Imagine The 'Im’possibilities: Bamboo exhibition. Photo: courtesy of Crafts on Peel The incredible interiors of the Argentinian Ambassador’s residence will host a series of works responding to the pandemic, in Crafting A Difference. Photo: courtesy of Crafting a Difference
Jon Lewis at Vessel Gallery
Who would have thought that your old TV screen could become a work of art? For his show Distant Electric Vision, glass artist Jon Lewis has melted down old Bang & Olufsen screens, made of optical glass with a high lead content, and blown them into swooping, elongated forms, then showered them with sparks of ore ejected from scrap iron at high temperature. Electronic waste is made new.
4 to 9 October at Vessel Gallery, Notting Hill
Crafting a Difference
The pandemic has sent us all on journeys – mentally and physically – that we could never have predicted. Crafting a Difference, a major collaborative exhibition curated by Andrea Harari and Brian Kennedy, will draw on some of these stories, with over 200 works from 30 artists presented throughout the astonishing interiors of the Argentinian Ambassador’s residence in the heart of Belgravia.
