Celebrating its 20th edition this year, Collect Art Fair is a momentous, international gathering of contemporary craft and design in the home-like rooms of Somerset House. With prices ranging from £500 to over £50,000 across a wide variety of materials and disciplines, it is a treasure hunt within the world of interior design.
This is my first time at the fair, so I found the experience a little disorienting from traditional art fairs. To put it another way, this fair is not just a meeting of artistic visionaries; it is a consortium of specialised craftspeople who have nurtured their technical skills into elevating applied and decorative arts into something more. One can’t help but consider the philosophical boundaries between craft and sculpture, whether any such distinction exists at all.
As I walked through the three wings of Collect, I found myself drawn to quite minimalist designs. Perhaps this stems from my Chinese heritage, where porcelain featuring little to no decoration often elicited the greatest charm and beauty.
Here are my top 10 highlights for you to uncover:
Anne Athena (@anneathena), Nervous System Magic, 2024, handbuilt vessel with hand-painted ceramic pigments and real gold lustre (Alveston Fine Arts, stand W4)
Cara Murphy (@silverlandscape), Ice Spectrum, 2023, silver and vitreous enamel (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, stand W5)
If I had to pick one thing to buy, it would be these!
Katrin Moye (@katrinmoye) menopause maiolica (Collect Open, stand S1)
Jessica Jue (@jessicajue_jewellery), White Rose Sculpture, silver (FIVE, stand W14)
Andrea Spencer (@aspencerglass), We The Drowned, 2024, flameworked glass, silk, and steel (Collect Open, stand E20)
I truly appreciate Andrea’s technical skill in being able to make the glass so thin.
Maria Bang Espersen (@maria.bang.espersen), Community, 2023, handblown and sculpted glass (Vessel Gallery, stand E12)
Inhwa Lee (@deokho_inhwa), Memory of Emotions_126, 2023, wheel thrown reduction fired polished porcelain (The Stratford Gallery, stand S10)
Ebony Russell (@ebonyrussell.art), Siren Grotto Urn, 2023, porcelain and stain (Cynthia Corbett Gallery, stand W6)
This looks like icing sugar…not porcelain.
Jaejun Lee (@jaejunlee_ceramics), Celadon-glazed Moon Jar, 2022, porcelain and celadon glaze (Cavaliero Finn, stand W17)
Steve Buck (@stevebuckstudio) ceramics (155A Gallery, stand S2)
Collect 2024 runs from 1 to 3 March 2024 at Somerset House, London, https://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/collect-fair
Nigel Ip 
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