Crafting a Difference at SoShiro Gallery celebrates the opening of the international art fair Collect (26th Feb - 2nd Mar) with a new “COLLECT EDIT” of innovative craftsmanship from around the globe. 

By far the largest collection of craft and design in one space to be exhibited during this period in London, Crafting a Difference features more than 200 works in ceramic, glass, metal, paper, textile, plastic and wood by over 75 artists and designers.

Housed across the four floors of SoShiro, an elegant Georgian townhouse in Marylebone, Crafting a Difference unites five London-based contemporary craft and visual arts galleries in a positively defiant act of coming together at a time when so many have been forced apart. 

For the new “Collect Edit” Curator Brian Kennedy has re-invigorated the exhibition, introducing exciting new and never-before-seen pieces by craftspeople from Kenya to Korea, Italy to Iceland and beyond, offering a truly global and diverse representation. 

Room by room virtual tours have been created where the works are displayed so they interact with the architecture of the beautiful townhouse. Viewers can see first-hand how art and objects can work in a domestic setting - on tables, next to a sofa, and on kitchen counter for example.

A 3D virtual version of the exhibition is available to view online.

Crafting a Difference at SoShiro will run until the 2nd April. 

BACK TO NATURE

The natural world is a recurring theme of the exhibition with many artists inspired by wilderness or using nature as a source of material to incorporate into their work.

Katharine Swailes colourful handwoven tapestries reflect on a childhood spent exploring and walking with her parents in Cumbria observing land traces, flora and fauna.

Denise de Cordova describes falling and tumbling into love with the forest as almost shocking. Through her work, de Cordova considers how the idea of the female figurative sculpture can express landscape narratives, intercultural exchange and blended identities.

Under the studio practice, Forest + Found, Max Bainbridge creates sculptural vessels hewn from wood sourced directly from the landscape, and Abigail Booth works across textiles, drawing and painting, seeking a connection to the psychology of landscape through the reflective nature of organic colour and embodied interactions with the natural. 

Inspired by the rich woodland surrounding his birthplace of Nagoya, Japan, Kazuhito Takadoi grows and hand picks grasses, leaves and twigs from his garden, sowing each blade through paper. As the grasses dry and mature they embark on a subtle colour shift, comparative to seasonal change. 

Rosa Nguyen creates unique objects which involving drawing, ceramic and glass components and preserved and living flora. Her work explores our holistic relationship with nature and draws from ‘discreet’ practises of flower arranging and gardening.

Martha Pachón Rodríguez sculptural “Full Color sea urchin” series, evokes the creatures of the sea floor modified as new animal species.

Glassblower Nina Casson McGarva, who grew up in rural France, says the starting point in her work is nature. "I take a detail of an element I find in nature and use it as a inspirational base to create my own abstraction, that then builds into a complex sculpture.”

Babs Haenen creates expressive and impressionistic ceramics which are embellished in a painterly manner, highlighting the influence of abstract painting and landscape motifs, like rippling water, on her practice.

Crafting A Difference

At

SoShiro

23 Welbeck Street LondonW1G 8DZ

T: +44 20 7618 9890 E: cad@soshiro.co

Crafting a Difference at SoShiro Gallery