Unmissable craft exhibitions to see in 2023
The year ahead is jam-packed with exciting exhibitions – here’s some highlights for your cultural calendar
Hew Locke: The Procession
Having successfully launched at Tate Britain late last year, Hew Locke’s The Procession will now march on to the BALTIC Centre in Gateshead. The installation comprises 150 handmade, life-sized figures who are draped in patchwork textiles. They depict scenes of violent colonialism and global financial turmoil, alongside memories from Locke’s own childhood spent in Guyana; visitors are invited to stand amongst the “crowd”, and reflect on the cyclical nature of history.
18 February – 11 June at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
British Textile Biennial
The British Textile Biennial returns to Lancashire, Britain’s former cloth capital, this September. This year’s event will explore the human and environmental impacts of fast fashion and, through a series of talks and art commissions, will ask if producing clothes could ever be a regenerative act that helps repair our planet.
29 September – 29 October at various venues across Lancashire
A series of figural jars by Julian Stair. Photo: Matthew Warner
Julian Stair: Art, Death and the Afterlife
A meditative study of the relationship between art, loss and the human body, Julian Stair's upcoming exhibition features a series of monumental clay vessels. Each one incorporates the ashes of people who lost their lives during the coronavirus pandemic. The ceramics will be shown alongside a selection of objects from the Sainsbury Centre Collection that speak to the universality of death, including ancient Cycladic marble figures and drawings by Alberto Giacometti.
18 March – 17 September at the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich
Tartan
For its first major self-curated exhibition, the Scottish outpost of the V&A is focusing on none other than tartan. The show will document the complex – and sometimes troubling – story of this iconic woven textile, told across the spheres of fashion, art, design, film and more. One not to miss, we think.
2 April – 3 September at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Dundee
Lucie Rie: The Adventure of Pottery
This major Lucie Rie exhibition is spending the first few weeks of this year at Middlesbrough’s MIMA, before moving over to Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge and finally to the Holburne Museum, Bath. Showcasing over 100 ceramics, the show spotlights Rie’s artistic output across her six-decade long career: from the modernist tableware she created in pre-war Vienna to the painterly pieces she made after settling in London.
Until 12 February at MIMA in Middlesbrough
4 March – 25 June at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
July 2023 – January 2024 at the Holburne Museum, Bath
Fashion designer Charles Jeffrey's LOVERBOY Spring/Summer 2022 collection, as part of V&A Dundee's Tartan exhibition. Photo: Louie Banks Dress from Hebron, 1900-1915, The Palestinian Heritage Museum/Dar al-Tifel al-Arabi, Jerusalem. Photo: © The Palestinian Museum, Birzeit, Palestine
The Offbeat Sari
This major exhibition – curated by The Design Museum’s Priya Khanchandani – will unravel the multilayered meaning of the Indian sari. Dozens of the swathed garments will be on show, charting how the sari has changed over time to reflect cultural trends. It also highlights the versatility of the sari, which spans everything from occasionwear to a symbol of protest.
19 May – 7 September at the Design Museum, London
Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery
This eclectic exhibition will reveal how the craft of embroidery is enmeshed throughout Palestine’s cultural history. Visitors can expect to see an array of garments from the 20th century, as well as works by contemporary creatives who, through sewing, are exploring themes such as gender, labour, and displacement. Don’t miss the specially commissioned films by artist Maeve Brennan, who interviews Palestinian embroiderers.
8 July – 29 October at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, before moving to The Whitworth, Manchester (dates TBC)
Florian Gadsby's Rinse and Repeat, 2022. Photo: © the artist and courtesy of Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Florian Gadsby: By My Hands
Aptly named By My Hands, this solo exhibition will showcase the range of elegant pottery that Florian Gadsby has handcrafted in his north London studio: from one-off geometric vessels, to pared-back tableware designed for the everyday. The show will also examine Gadsby’s command of glazing and how he creates his now signature palette of whites, blues and greens.
4 November – 25 February 2024 at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
British Ceramics Biennial
Potters and clay enthusiasts, rejoice: this September the British Ceramics Biennal will return to Stoke-on-Trent. The 2021 edition of the event showcased work from leading artists such as Neil Brownsword, Jacqueline Bishop and Paul Scott, and crafty local residents came together to create a staggering installation of 250 plates – we can’t wait to see what this year has in store.
23 September – 5 November at various locations across Stoke-on-Trent
Stone: Ten Bindings by Faith Shannon
This show at the Crafts Council Gallery – guest-curated by the Designer Bookbinders society – celebrates the life and work of the late British bookbinder Faith Shannon. It focuses on Stone, Ten Bindings: a series of photobooks in which Shannon painstakingly imitated the geology of Scotland in every hand-crafted cover. Don’t miss the recreation of a corner of her studio, replete with rock collection.
15 March – 15 April at the Crafts Council Gallery, London
The New Bend
Coming straight from Hauser & Wirth’s balmy LA outpost, this exhibition will unite 13 contemporary textile artists. The New Bend examines how their work both honours and responds to the oeuvre of the Gee’s Bend quilters – a group of African-American women who, for decades, have been creating quilts in the secluded hamlet of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. Visitors can expect a fascinating insight into how quilting, race, class and gender can all be connected.
