Collect: The International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects closed the doors on a very successful 14th edition on Sunday 25 February, with 13,000 visits over its four-day run, and sales estimated at £1.4 million.
This year’s show brought together 40 galleries from 13 countries, filling the Saatchi Gallery with the work of more than 450 of the most talented international craft artists working today. The pieces exhibited spanned every area of modern craft practice, ranging from hand-woven textiles and art jewellery to ornate cabinetry and glassware.
In tune with the global surge of interest in ceramic arts, this year’s Collect presented a significant number of exceptional works in stoneware and porcelain. This included the dedicated showcase Masters of British Studio Pottery, which gave visitors a striking insight into a century of ceramics in Britain, as told by 27 works, ranging from a 1930s tea set by Lucie Rie to a modern-day sculpture by the artist James Rigler. Presented in collaboration with The Fitzwilliam Museum, the galleries Erskine, Hall & Coe, Marsden Woo Gallery and Oxford Ceramics Gallery, this one-off display proved one of the highlights of the fair, receiving an overwhelmingly positive response from Collect visitors.