Applications for places at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair (GNCCF), and two complementary online selling events, are open between 1 and 28 February 2023.
The GNCCF is now in its 16th year and takes place at the iconic Victoria Baths in Manchester from 19-22 October 2023. It is complemented by two digital events – GNCCFonline – in May and December.
The organisers are looking for talented makers – including new and established makers, as well as recent graduates – working in glass, ceramics, jewellery, metal, leather, wood, interior textiles, fashion design and accessories, mixed media, basketmaking, product design, furniture, printmaking and more.
The Victoria Baths event opens with a Private View on the evening of 19 October and is then open to the public from 20 to 22 October. Victoria Baths is located at Hathersage Road, Manchester M13 0FE.
The GNCCFonline digital fairs are also selected selling events, which, the organisers say, “offer an affordable and accessible way to present and market your work under the respected GNCCF brand”. The GNCCFonline Spring Edition takes place from 20-21 May 2023 and the GNCCFonline Christmas Edition takes place on 2-3 December 2023.
Applications are invited from diverse and skilled makers from the UK and abroad, whatever their background or professional qualifications, and applicants from groups that are currently under-represented in the craft sector are particularly encouraged.
In 2023, there will be two free stands available at GNCCF Manchester to makers who have not exhibited at the show before and whose contact address is located in one of Arts Council England’s Levelling Up For Culture Places. Check whether your area is included on the list via this link. Any successful first-time applicant to GNCCF Manchester with an address in one of these areas will be contacted after selection with information about this opportunity.
Interested makers can apply by completing the online application form available on the Great Northern Events website (portal open 1-28 February 2023).
All exhibitors are selected for their excellence by a panel of craft experts, based on their submitted images. Successful applicants will benefit from extensive marketing and promotion and a range of affordable stand packages, including subsidised stands and tabletop/display only options for new and graduate makers. In the event the live event cannot go ahead because of COVID-19 restrictions, full refunds will be given.
GNCCF organiser Great Northern Events is a not-for-profit organisation supported by Arts Council England with public funding from the National Lottery.
Image: The2022 Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair at the Victoria Baths, Manchester, UK. Photo: Joel Fildes.
Are you a glass artist working outside the UK? If so, the Contemporary Glass Society (CGS) would like to hear from you. We are hosting an online exhibition in March 2023 on the CGS website featuring glass art from overseas. You don’t even need to be a member to participate.
The CGS is the UK’s foremost organisation supporting both established glass artists and up-and-coming makers. Our mission and passion are to promote contemporary glass among the art world and wider public. For us, 2023 is about expanding horizons – looking beyond our natural boundaries and out into the world.
So this is an open call to all non-UK based glass artists to share your work with us for our ‘Expanding Boundaries’ exhibition. We want to learn and understand what glass art is out there, outside our borders. Join us in an online exhibition exploring and discovering the diversity of the glass world and celebrating our worldwide glass community.
To apply for ‘Expanding Boundaries’ send one image (size not more than 1000 pixels in any direction), labelled with your name and title of work, to cgsweb@hotmail.co.uk and admin@cgs.org.uk . Also write a short description, include any photographer to credit, add the size of the piece and your contact details. All submissions must have been made after 2018.
The deadline to submit your application for consideration is 24 February and the successful entries included in the exhibition will go live on 1 March 2023.
Bristol’s Prior Gallery will be hosting an exhibition of contemporary glass by 25 glass artists, exploring the theme of ‘New Beginnings’ this February.
The exhibitors are based across the UK and have all been mentored by glass artist and business adviser Catherine Dunstan via her professional development online courses. The exhibition offers an opportunity to connect with real stories and experiences of new beginnings through vibrant, modern glass art.
The show features the work of Ros Beattie, Anne Bridgen, Suzanne Bunce, Mandy Capel, Rachel Craig, Catherine Dunstan, Kay Dewey, Rachael Durkan, Angela Eales, Jacquie Erhahon, Mandy Forrester, Claire Fernig, Angela Gunter, Fabio di Gregorio, Carla Harris-Marsh, Rachel Nuttall, Fiona Mclean, Lois Parker, Sue Rossiter, Heather Russell, Imra Shoaib, Katrina Shearlaw, Amy Teasdale, Susanne Werner and Justine Woodley.
New Beginnings takes place at Prior Gallery, in Cabot Circus shopping centre, Bristol, BS1 3BZ, from 25 February to 2 March 2023. It is open 10am-6pm Monday to Saturday and 11am-5pm on Sunday.
Find out more about Catherine Dunstan’s work via her website.
Students and young graduates from the Institute for Ceramic and Glass Art (IKKG) at Koblenz University of Applied Sciences are showing their work in an exhibition at Germany’s European Museum of Modern Glass.
The ‘Double Feature II’ show (19 January to 16 April 2023) is the second of two events featuring a broad spectrum of contemporary trends in art while documenting the versatility of glass as a material and the broad choice of training courses available at IKKG.
The IKKG is believed to be one of the few internationally high-ranking fine art schools to offer talented young people comprehensive artistic training with a focus on contemporary glass sculpture.
The facets of this artistic material are diverse and have yet to be fully explored. Glass holds opportunities for widely differing means of artistic expression and students can develop their skills with the medium through the Free Art Glass course, which has been taught at Höhr-Grenzhausen for 22 years.
IKKG students and graduates often show their work at international exhibitions and win globally-recognised awards.
The European Museum of Modern Glass is at Rosenau 10, 96472 Rödental, Germany. Visit the website for more information.
Image: One of the glass pieces created on the Free Art Glass course.
Films selected for this year’s Glass, Meet the Future (GMTF) Film Festival are online to view now.
GMTF is hosted by North Lands Creative in Scotland and is dedicated to presenting a selection of new films pivoting around the medium of glass. The festival showcases a cross-section of international diverse and engaging short films curated and directed by female identified and non-binary filmmakers with glass as the predominant feature.
North Lands Creative states, “GMTF is a microcosm to explore the human relationship with glass and film, exploring dynamics with the physical and environmental context, together with the human and social context.”
It is “the amalgamation of material and ephemeral, glass and video” and dedicated to “exploring the stories of how art is made, how artists survive, how they think and work, and what makes creativity our most important skill”.
The 2023 line-up includes: Adele Fournet and Kazue Taguchi; Catriona Archibald; Jessalyn Mailoa; Kaitlin Santoro; Kayla Cantu; Lise Eggers; Madeline Rile Smith; Meadhbh McIlgorm, Jenny Keogh and Glass Society of Ireland; Rachael Harris; Alina Orlov; Beiwen Zhuang; Cassandra Jasulevicz; Chenyue Yang; Dafna Kaffeman; Erin Hoffman; Eve Boontje; Fionn Duffy; Hannah Gibson; Helen Lee; Inguna Audere; Ivana Rashlich; Jeanne-Sophie Aas; Jiemin Park; Julia Keenan; Lauren Aria; Louise Lang; Mad Conway; Maria Pechstein; Rinoi Imada and Milsbridgewater and Michaela Tkadleček; Simone Fezer; Sukhy Parhar; Vanessa Hafenbraedl; Vendulka Prchalová; Ying Chiun, and Zou Desbiens.
In addition, North Lands Creative has announced the commission of five new art works, exploring new ways of engaging with the materiality of glass in the digital era, as part of the GMTF Film Festival 2023.
The five artists awarded are: Chengyu Li, Estabrak / إستبرق , Rachael Harris, Riikka Haapasaari and Ying Chiun.
Unique in approach, the projects have been selected for their resonance with core human emotions and their relationship with material and expression.
The GMTF Film Festival at North Lands Creative is supported by Creative Scotland and presented in collaboration with Shanghai Museum of Glass.
Sydney’s Sabbia Gallery is hosting ‘Still Alive + Mobile’, a solo exhibition of works by Australian glass master Nick Mount, from 25 January to 18 February 2023.
‘Still Alive + Mobile’ comprises a series of new works that are, his daughter Peta Mount states, “at once energetic and expressive, and intimate and illusive; playful and provocative, and soft and seductive.
“In the long-standing tradition of the Still Life, Nick presents a slice of the everyday. Providing endless opportunity to experiment with the arrangement of elements within a composition, the work tells a story of form and finish, texture and tone, technique and intuition. Functional objects and geometric forms are positioned alongside fruits, both real and imagined. A symbolic reminder of our changing environment, the work is also a reminder that the old can be new again.”
Nick was among the first generation of artists to be introduced to glass in Australia in the early 1970s. He and his partner, Pauline, went on to establish Victoria’s first private hot glass studio and subsequently developed an internationally-renowned arts practice.
Over the years, Nick has participated in countless exhibitions and his work has been acquired by more than 20 public collections internationally, including the National Gallery of Australia, the Corning Museum of Glass and the Palm Springs Art Museum in the US, plus the Toyama Glass Art Museum in Japan.
Working across the fine arts, craft and design, Nick has also worked with an extensive list of clients in the design and production of bespoke commissions, including Rockford Wines, the Park Hyatt in Sydney, and SkyCity Casino in Adelaide. His award-winning Martini Set is in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia and more recently he designed and fabricated the limited edition Penfolds Ampoule.
Sabbia Gallery is at 609 Elizabeth Street, Redfern, Sydney, NSW, 2016, Australia. It is open Tuesday-Friday 11am to 6pm, and Saturday 11am to 4pm.
Image: Nick Mount’s ‘Ficifolia: A Still Life #080722’ (2022) is made from blown glass, surface worked, assembled, with huon stems on a charred oak base.
Between 28 January and 2 April 2023 visitors to Norway’s S12 Gallery can see Linda Morell’s mixed media exhibition ‘Oil nebula’.
This installation uses the concept of the abyss – the vast, cosmic sea as described in John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), which separates earth from hell – as a metaphor for societal collapse.
The project draws parallels to the jellification of the oceans, where ecosystems are changing and new organisms thrive.
The exhibition, consisting of works in ceramic, glass, wood and aluminium, strives to mythologise the defamiliarised Earth. S12 states, “The works form a visual language which speaks about the future of the oceans and humanity, whilst forming the inhospitable sea of the abyss itself. Like Milton’s abyss, simultaneously described as the world’s cradle and its grave, the exhibition becomes an ouroboros focusing on both the perils and prospects of the future.”
Linda Morell’s sculptures and installations form speculative futures based on myths, science and medicine. She is known for her minimalistic and sterile expression, where the human body is a recurring theme. In ‘Oil nebula’, Morell has moved towards a new and warmer expression, with more figurative and realistic elements.
Several of the works in ‘Oil nebula’ have been created at the S12 Gallery over the last few years.
Linda Morell holds an MA in contemporary art from The Art Academy in Bergen and a BA in contemporary art from Konsthögskolan i Umeå. In 2020 she was awarded the emerging artist award from Norske Kunsthåndverkere. Her work has been acquired by KODE art museum, Sogn and Fjordane art museum.
S12 Gallery is at Bontelabo 2, 5035 Bergen, Norway.
Alison Vincent, an artist in hot glass from South Buckinghamshire, was one of four glass artists featured in the new BBC tv series ‘Make it at Market’, hosted by Dom Chinea.
The programme helps aspiring artists and crafters, including glassblowers, blacksmiths, potters and woodworkers, as they team up with an expert mentor who provides guidance on how to make a successful business from their craft. Dom works alongside the business and craft experts to help the entrepreneurs on their journey.
Alison says, “The filming process and challenges were intense, coinciding with an extremely busy time of 14 concurrent exhibitions including a premium craft market, showing at three locations during Buckinghamshire’s biggest craft maker event, and new gallery openings. During this period, I also visited the GAS Tacoma 2023 global glass conference in the USA.”
Alison’s ‘Waves’ piece was critiqued on the show. Photo: Alison Vincent.
“It was such a fantastic experience and I’m so lucky to have been a part of it. The ability to get specific advice from my mentor, Allister Malcolm, a top professional glass artist, was priceless. The other crafters are all very talented and supportive and Dom and the production team were so helpful and approachable.
“I was very excited to see my episode, but also quite nervous as I had no idea how it would be edited and couldn’t see it until it was on air!”
Alison is a self-taught, relative newcomer to glass. After an experience day in 2012 she was instantly hooked, but had only 100 blowing days under her belt. She’s often told that “it takes glass blowers seven years of daily practice to be considered a master!”
A passion for glassblowing
Alison explains, “My passion for hot glass and glassblowing first came from seeing a hot glass studio in action with the furnace, hot glass, adrenaline and ‘danger’! I knew I had to have a go and when I did, I was instantly addicted!
“I love making beautiful art with hot glass, although it can be difficult and frustrating at times.
“I also have a passion for wild, remote places, such as Antarctica and the Arctic, where I am lucky to have sailed and dived on several occasions.
“I blend my two passions in my glass art, where I recreate my experiences in these remote wildernesses and I hope to raise awareness of their fragile existence, so others care for them as well.”
The ‘Svalbard Icy Mountains’ were created following feedback from mentor Allister Malcolm. Photo: Andy Smith.
Talent scouts for the show initially saw Alison on social media and contacted her about taking part. She had to go through a multiple-step application process. “Then it all went quiet, and I assumed I had been unlucky,” Alison states. However, three months later she was contacted to say that the show was on, and she was in it. She had just three weeks from then until the start of filming.
“I was asked to make and bring specific pieces for the first filming. I didn’t believe it when I got the call because so much time had passed. I was over the moon, but also rather nervous!”
The experience
“The whole experience of being on ‘Make it at Market’ was fantastic. It was very intense and quite stressful for me at the time, mainly because I didn’t have my own studio available and I could only hire a studio – which was four hours’ drive from home – for four days during the whole eight weeks of filming the challenges. Plus I hadn’t blown glass for seven months beforehand, so I felt very out of practice and straight into making on film! It was also happening at a very busy time for me.
“But at the same time, it was very enjoyable. I can definitely see progress from where I started. The ability to gain targeted advice from my mentor, Allister Malcolm, was priceless and I received not just one, but two, fabulous business boosts, which was amazing!
“Dom was lovely, and the whole production team was so helpful and approachable. The other makers and artists are so talented and very supportive, and I think I’ve made some friends for life.
“I feel very grateful and privileged to be part of this programme and this amazing journey.”
What doors have been opened by the show?
“It’s very early days – I’m writing this just a week after my episode was aired – but already the response has been tremendous!
“I am exhibiting in Pyramid Gallery York and Artifex Gallery, Sutton Coldfield as a result of the business boosts, and I also secured listings in two other galleries. Since the TV show, other galleries have approached me too.
“I also had the opportunity to exhibit at Olympia, London, and to have a photo shoot in the offices of a large corporate, as well as to create a short-run book in the future about my expeditions and glass blowing.
“The exposure has been amazing and I am grateful for everything!”
The series was filmed in the grounds of Stoneywell, Leicestershire, an Arts and Crafts home designed by Ernest Gimson, now owned by the National Trust.
Alison is now busy setting up a glass studio in South Buckinghamshire, which should be operational in early 2023. Before turning to glass, Alison owned and ran a consumer packaging design, development and project management consultancy for almost 20 years.
All four glassblowers from the series will be at Stourbridge Glass Museum, where Allister Malcolm Glass is based, for an event on 4 February 2023. It will start with a meet and greet, then an unveiling of Belinda King’s work which is being given a place in the permanent collection at the Museum. After that there will be demonstrations by each glass maker.
For anyone wanting to go along, the event is included with the usual Stourbridge Glass Museum entry fee. The meet-and-greet is at 10.30am. At 12pm is the unveiling of the work by Belinda King, and between 1pm and 4pm will be the glassblowing demonstrations.
Find out more about Stourbridge Glass Museum here.
Reserve you space to meet the artists via this link.
Main image: Alison creating her glass on location at Stoneywell, with Allister Malcolm (centre) looking on. Photo: KT Yun.
Norway’s S12 Gallery is inviting artists who have graduated within the last five years to apply for the ‘Young & Loving!’ exhibition.
The show has been held annually since the gallery opened in 2007, up to 2019, but had to be suspended in the last few years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Relaunching in 2023, the exhibition will present the work of artists who have graduated in the last five years, of any age, from all over the world.
‘Young & Loving!’ is a tongue-in-cheek translation of ‘ung og lovende/young and promising’, where the gallery’s definition of being young and promising is anyone who has graduated from a university programme within the last five years and who shows their love for the material by exploring the many ways of working with glass. The show aims to shed new light on how people perceive the medium of glass. This exploratory approach to glass as an artistic expression is an important feature of the exhibition concept.
Artists working with glass alone, or in combination with other materials, can apply.
Proposals must be submitted by 15 February 2023.
The show will take place between May and August 2023.
The annual Collect art fair takes place at the beginning of March 2023 at Somerset House in London, with over 400 artist makers represented. Tickets are available now.
Collect showcases exceptional work made in the last five years by living artists and designers. The work is presented by participating galleries, which curate their own displays and commission new pieces or bodies of work especially for the fair.
Works span many craft disciplines, including ceramics, glass, lacquer, art jewellery, precious metalwork, textiles and fibre, wood and paper, as well as pieces made using non-traditional materials, including resin and bone.
The fair’s aim is to introduce and cultivate purchasing audiences to develop and grow the financial and intellectual value of craft at this level.
Organised by the Crafts Council, Collect is well-regarded for its credibility, sector authority and leadership with a warm-hearted openness and shared experience that the Crafts Council prides itself in delivering.
The fair provides art consultants, interiors specialists, collectors, museum curators, design practitioners and wider enthusiasts with an unrivalled opportunity to discover and invest in contemporary craft that is designed to surprise, delight and endure.
Browse and buy artworks from almost 40 specialist galleries, representing hundreds of artist makers from around the globe.
Collect also offers the chance to hear from leading experts in contemporary craft, art and design in a three-day talks programme, held at Somerset House, and also streamed online.
To make a booking, please visit the Somerset House website. Book before 31 January 2023 to get early bird rates.
Following exclusive preview days, Collect opens to the public from Friday 3 to Sunday 5 March (11.00-18.00 daily). It is also live on Artsy.net for all to view from 1-12 March 2023.
Somerset House is at the Strand, London WC2R 1LA.
Image: Somerset House hosts the annual Collect fair.
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