2 cols.

John Makepeace, “Leaf Table,” 2003, ash, The Devon Guild of Craftsmen, UK.

FOR 12-28 MUST RUN

COLLECT 2008, INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR AT V&A W/1 CUT REQUESTED

ak/lsb set 12/12/07 #722402

LONDON — Collect: The International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects will be staged at the V&A, January 25–29. Organized by the Crafts Council UK, the fair is now in its fifth year and provides an opportunity to view and buy desirable and collectible contemporary craft from around the world.

Collect: 2008 has more than 400 international artists represented by 42 galleries from 16 countries, including 19 from the United Kingdom and 23 from as far as Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands and Scandinavia. Ten new galleries will be exhibiting, including Galleri Montan, Denmark; The Glassery, Sweden; and Guil-Guem Metal Research Centre, Korea.

Masters whose work will be shown include furniture maker John Makepeace, glass artist Wendy Ramshaw, ceramicist Hans Stofer, silversmith Junko Mori, textile artist Audrey Walker and jeweler Dorothea Pruhl. A generation of emerging talent includes Sebastian Buescher, who uses octopuses in alcohol and the arms of toy dolls to create surreal and absurd jewelry, while Daniel Fisher kneads, presses and stretches thrown clay to produce fluid, paperlike ceramics.

Highlights of Collect: 2008 include “Monumental Pots,” a feature organized by Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon Gallery, which will present rarely produced large-scale pots by four of the United Kingdom’s revered potters: Felicity Aylieff, Kate Malone, Rupert Spira and Julian Stair; and a solo display of work by Korean living national treasure Jung Sil Hong presented by Guil-Guem Metal Arts Research Center, Korea.

Collect: 2008 provides the opportunity to enhance and start collections of the most innovative and coveted contemporary craft. A number of significant contributions to public and private collections were made at Collect: 2007, including Mint Museum of Crafts and Design, Charlotte, N.C.; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; and 12 acquisitions were made for the V&A.

The exhibition Courts at the V&A are at Cromwell road, South Kensington. For information, +44 020 7806 2512 or www.craftscouncil.org.uk/collect.