Solo exhibition for the 2024 Brookfield Properties Craft Award prize winner to be staged alongside a one-off show celebrating five years of the Award and 20 Years of Collect – the international fair for contemporary craft & design
London, 24 January 2024 – Celebrating the ongoing partnership and milestone anniversaries – the fifth consecutive year of the Brookfield Properties Craft Award, and 20 years of the Collect, the leading international fair for contemporary craft and design, owned and presented by the Crafts Council – Brookfield Properties and the Crafts Council today announce their co-curation of ‘5&20’ – which will open this summer in London and supported with funding from the London EC BID, a business improvement district working to promote and enhance a unique part of the City of London known as the Eastern City.
A solo exhibition of the winner of the 2024 Brookfield Properties Craft Award will be staged alongside ‘5&20’, selected from a shortlist of five artists and their galleries also announced today. These include Fung + Bedford, the multi-disciplinary studio of Angela Fung and Ashley Bedford (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, England), British ceramicist Steven Edwards (Vessel Gallery, England), the collaborative work of glass and ceramic artists Joshua Kerley and Guy Marshall-Brown (Bullseye Projects, USA), Naomi Mcintosh, an interdisciplinary designer working with wood (Ruup and Form, England) and ceramic sculptor Halima Cassell (Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections, England).
2024 Brookfield Properties Craft Award
Now in its fifth year, the Brookfield Properties Craft Award, created in partnership with the Crafts Council, is considered the leading contemporary craft prizes in the UK, recognising an artist and their gallery who have demonstrated vision, talent, achievement and contributed to craft practice in the UK.
Each year, the shortlisted artists and their representing galleries are selected from the line-up at Collect, the Crafts Council-produced annual art fair which showcases the very best works in today’s contemporary craft and design market. Marking its 20th edition, this year Collect brings together 40 exhibiting galleries representing more than 400 of the most exciting international artists presenting works across a range of disciplines and materials.
The 2024 winner will be announced during a private ceremony at the fair on 28th February at London’s Somerset House, where Collect takes place.
Worth the equivalent value of more than £65,000, the prize package awarded to the winning artist and their representing gallery, includes an awards ceremony, a solo exhibition at a Brookfield Properties’ site in London this summer and the acquisition of their artwork, by Brookfield Properties, which is gifted to the Crafts Council’s Collection. The Collection comprises over 1,800 objects, built over the past 50 years and includes works from luminary craft makers including Grayson Perry, Magdalene Odundo, Alice Kettle, all the way through to exciting contemporary craft voices including Bisila Noha, Christian Ovonlen and Liaqat Rasul.
5&20 – An Exploration of Exceptional Contemporary Craft
For the first time, in celebration of the ongoing collaboration between Brookfield Properties and the Crafts Council and their combined milestone anniversaries in 2024 – five years of the Brookfield Properties Craft Award and 20 years of Collect – ‘5&20’ will be staged in a special group exhibition exploring contemporary craft alongside a solo exhibition of the 2024 winner.
In the one-off show, supported with funding from the London EC BID, 20 artworks from the Crafts Council’s Collection, with a direct link to Collect, will be shown, five of which will be a seminal work from each of the previous recipients of the Craft Award including the new 2024 winner.
Past winners include Matt Smith (textiles and ceramics; 2020 winner represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery), Anna Ray (textiles; 2021 winner represented by House on Mars Gallery), Christian Ovonlen (textiles; 2022 winner represented by Intoart), and Alice Kettle (textiles; 2023 winner represented by Candida Stevens Gallery).
Both exhibitions will take place this summer across two of Brookfield Properties’ buildings in the heart of the City of London with the group show ‘5&20’ at 99 Bishopsgate and the 2024 winner’s solo exhibition at 30 Fenchurch Street.
Natalie Melton, Crafts Council’s Executive Director, said: “This year’s shortlist of artists is once again testament to the originality and range of craft practice on show at Collect, which continues to raise the profile of exceptional, new contemporary craft to a collectors’ market.
The Award has made an invaluable contribution to the development of our Collection over the last five years, and I am delighted that our milestone anniversaries will be marked with a free exhibition to bring the Collection to life for the public.”
Saff Williams, Brookfield Properties’ Curatorial Director, Europe, said: “We are proud to have entered our 5th year of collaborating with the Crafts Council and Collect in 2024. We are delighted to extend this partnership with the valuable support of EC BID to further celebrate 20 years of artistry at Collect 2024. We are committed to showcasing the best in British craft, through free and accessible exhibitions for the public, and supporting makers in their creative process and the arts professionals who support them.”
Kate Hart, CEO of the Eastern City Business Improvement District, said “I am delighted that EC BID is able to partner with the Crafts Council and Brookfield Properties to deliver this incredibly special one-off show, which will target new audiences and showcase incredible artistic talent which is accessible to all.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Press Enquiries
Please reach out to Button Collective on behalf of Brookfield Properties and the Crafts Council for all enquiries and interview requests:
Louise Oram – Louise.Oram@ButtonCollective.com
Press Assets
All assets including images and detailed bios available HERE