COLLECT, the leading international art fair for contemporary objects, returns to the Saatchi Gallery in May 2014 with an impressive roster of 36 international galleries, alongside seven Project Space artists. This showcase of innovation and excellence will feature contemporary objects for sale from over 400 artists, ranging from ceramics and glassware to jewellery and woodwork, cementing COLLECT 2014 as the place to view and collect museum-quality contemporary craft. The fair appeals to established and new collectors alike and acts as a perfect springboard to start cross-collecting. COLLECT was launched by the Crafts Council in London in 2004 and has since established itself as the leading international art fair for museum-quality contemporary craft, attracting both private and institutional collectors – the V&A, the British Museum, the National Museum of Scotland, the Mint Museum, USA, and the National Museum of Decorative Arts, Norway, to name a few – looking to buy exemplary work from leading artists from around the world. Prices start at £500, rising into the thousands.
The Korean Craft Design Foundation makes its second appearance at the annual fair, held 9-12 May. Also making a return visit is Gallery LVS. And upstairs in the project space, two Korean artists Song Min-jeong and Jung Won-seok (respectively a PhD candidate and MA graduate of the Royal College of Art) will be exhibiting work in kinetic glass, in an installation entitled “Wave”.
The combined texts from the official press releases follow:
Song Min-jeong and Jung Won-seok , ‘Wave’ 2014
Song Min-jeong, and Jung Won-seok: Wave (2014). Collect Project Space
The only collaborative piece in the Project Space sees UK-based Korean artists Min Jeong Song and Wonseok Jung combining their skills in glasswork and product design to create a kinetic piece that explores the idea of movement and perception from various perspectives, by using hand-made and digital processes, as well as interactive kinetic mechanisms.
Korea Craft Design Foundation (KCDF) is a government organisation under the Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism in South Korea, promoting Korean craft and design nationally and internationally.
Park Joo-hyung: Merging 4 (2012) Represented at COLLECT by Korea Craft Design Foundation
Korean craft is known for its long history of excellent craftsmanship, and KCDF has a mission to develop and promote South Korea-based artists, designers and makers translating this rich heritage in modern and contemporary ways. At COLLECT, KCDF presents emerging talents and masters, many new to European contemporary markets, this year focusing on metal artists who are pushing the boundary.
Yoo Eui-Jeong: Prayer I. Represented at COLLECT by Korea Craft Design Foundation
The artists represented by KCDF are
jewellery artists Choi Jeong-sun, Kim Sun-young and Lee Young-im
metal artists Kim Hyun-ju, Park Joo-hyung and Sim Jina
Gallery LVS and LVS CRAFT proudly present 10 contemporary white porcelain artists most of whom are returning artists from previous COLLECT 2013 and 5 modern master ceramicists of Icheon (a city in Gyeonggi Province well-known as a center of South Korean ceramic studios). Since the successful introduction of contemporary Korean ceramics in the previous COLLECT 2013, Gallery LVS and LVS CRAFT hope to push forward with the momentum and continuously present unique aesthetics and techniques from Korea that are also universally comprehensible via the language of contemporary design.
Lee In-hwa: Shadowed Color series (2013). Represented at COLLECT by GALLERY LVS Photo credit Lee In-hwa
The ‘National Craftmasters’ are titles only given to those who have dedicated most of their lives to master and influence certain genre of craft. The 5 masters have succeeded the true aesthetics and techniques of traditional Joseon and Goryeo celadon and Buncheong ceramics (grayish-blue-powdered celadon). They also combine their own patented pigment and glaze with the traditional, showcasing harmonious transfusion of the old and the new.
All the participating artists represent the highest ends of Korea’s contemporary and traditional ceramics. The rare combination of two contrasting styles: contemporary white porcelain and modern translation of traditional Korean celadon, display the most exquisite diversity of Korean ceramics.
LVS’s ceramic artists are Hwang Kap-sun | Kim Deok-ho | Kim Sung-chul | Lee In-hwa | Lee Jae-jun | Lee Jeong-won | Lee Min-soo | Park Jung-hong | Kim Se-yong | Kim Tae-han & Kim Pyung | Lee Eun-gu | Lim Hang-taek | Yu Gwang-yeol.
Every day at 4:30 there will be a talk at the Gallery LVS booth entitled Korean white porcelain: ‘Old and New.’ This booth talk looks at a new generation of young artists that are simultaneously upholding and challenging traditional Korean ceramics through exclusive technique and form.
