Alice Kettle wins 2023 Brookfield Properties Craft Award
The textile artist’s extraordinary tapestries took the prize during a ceremony at Collect art fair.
Established in 2020 with the Crafts Council, the Brookfield Properties Craft Award annually honours a maker who has pushed the boundaries and achieved excellence in the contemporary craft sphere.
Selected from an artist taking part in Collect art fair, this award has forged the path to champion outstanding contemporary craft and the annual accolade is presented to a maker, who has demonstrated vision, talent, achievement and contributed to craft practice in the UK.
In its fourth edition, internationally renowned maker Alice Kettle, represented by Candida Stevens Gallery, became the 2023 recipient of the Brookfield Properties Craft Award. Selected for her bold, introspective free-stitched technique Kettle blends traditional and experimental methods to produce her skilled textile works. Kettle accepted the award during a private ceremony at Collect art fair at Somerset House on Wednesday 1 March.
As part of the prize, three new handcrafted pieces by Kettle will be acquired by Brookfield Properties and gifted to the Crafts Council Collection. They will join over 1,700 objects acquired from the 1970s onwards including a mix media piece from 1988 by Kettle, entitled Stretching Figure.
Kettle will also stage a solo exhibition featuring further works across two of Brookfield Properties’ locations. Located in the heart of the City of London, Kettle’s exhibition will be open to the public in the summer months of 2023.
The exhibition will join a host of Kettle’s past exhibitions, with her work being displayed internationally across several significant collections including the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, the Museo Internationale delle Arti Applicate Oggi in Turin, Italy, Southampton City Art Gallery, Hove Museum and Art Gallery and Hanshan Art Museum, Suzhou China among others.
“It is special to celebrate Alice Kettle with the 2023 Award, an artist whose career has spanned four decades, who has continuously pushed the boundaries of textile art with her thoughtful embroidered works which use medium of thread and action of tension, to embody notions of the human condition and connection to nature”
- Saff Williams – Brookfield Properties’ Curatorial Director, Europe
Alice Kettle. Photo: Alun Callender Detail of work by Alice Kettle. Photo: Alun Callender
Kettle’s practice is rooted in craft, with her pieces maintaining a conceptual focus on figuration, materiality, and narrative. She works across textile and fibres, often dedicating many months to a single stitched piece. Her pieces acquired by Brookfield Properties, for donation to the Crafts Council Collection are Three Girls (2022), Little Bird (2022) and The Swimmers (2023).
“Craft is so important, it is about the deep understanding of the material that captivates, provokes, and conveys experience, and inherently connects and transforms lives. Working in craft is life changing and I am proud to champion all forms of making”
- Alice Kettle
Alice Kettle. Photo: Alun Callender
Kettle was one of the five makers shortlisted for the Brookfield Properties Craft Award, meticulously selected from over 400 artists displaying at the upcoming 19th edition of Collect, the leading international fair for contemporary craft. The other shortlisted artists were material-led artist Anne-Laure Cano (represented by 155A Gallery), ceramic sculptor Noa Chernichovsky (represented by Charles Burnand Gallery), ceramicist Amy Hughes (represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery) and multi-disciplinary artist Samuel Nnorom (represented by Gallerie REVEL).
Kettle also follows three previous prize winners, including Matt Smith (represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery, 2020), Anna Ray (represented by House on Mars Gallery, 2021) and last year’s award winner Christian Ovonlen (represented by Intoart, 2022).
The Brookfield Properties Craft Award is worth the equivalent value of £60,000, the prize executes Brookfield Properties’ core belief in the unique ability of arts and culture to transform spaces and bring people together.
Kettle’s work can be seen at Collect on Artsy.net until 12 March.
