Collect 2022 : International Art Fair for Modern Craft + Design

UK-born Matt Smith is well known for his site-specific work in museums, galleries and historic houses. Using clay, textiles and their associated references, he explores how cultural organisations operate using techniques of institutional critique and artist intervention. He is interested in how history is a constantly selected and refined narrative that presents itself as a fixed and accurate account of the past and how, through taking objects and repurposing them in new situations, this can be brought to light. Of particular interest to him is how museums can be reframed into alternative perspectives.

In June 2020 our long-standing partner Contemporary Art Society has acquired twelve ceramic and tapestry works by artist Matt Smith. This acquisition will become a central focus for the displays at the Hove Museum when it reopens. This exciting project was possible due to the Contemporary Art Society’s Rapid Response Fund in partnership with Frieze London, which is a new initiative supporting artists and museums during the Covid-19 pandemic. The CAS Rapid Response Fund is being used to purchase works by artists to add to collections of museums across the UK – ensuring financial support goes where it is needed most. We are thrilled that Hove Museum will now feature a major installation of Matt Smith's artworks, which is highly illustrative of his style and artistic research. Much of Matt Smith’s work explores and comments on marginalised history and it will form a key inspiration for activity sessions as the museum expands its work with groups with varied critical social needs.

"What museums collect, and what this tells us about what society deems important, is an ongoing fascination to me. Recent events have shown how important objects, and particularly sculpture, are in the national debate about who we are and how we got here. I have worked with the museums in Brighton and Hove many times over the last decade and am delighted that this acquisition leads on from that relationship. I look forward to seeing how the works are interpreted and curated to help the widest possible audience feel welcomed and visible within the museums," – Smith says.

In 2015 / 2016, Matt was Artist in Residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 2009 he received the ARC Award for Craft from Aspex Gallery and was awarded the inaugural Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize in 2014. At Collect 2018, he was awarded "Object of the Show" by Ekow Eshun. For Collect 2020, Cynthia Corbett and Matt Smith co-curated a site-specific installation featuring textiles and black parian works. The curation was extremely well-received, and Matt was awarded the inaugural Brookfield Properties Crafts Council Collection Prize, which allowed the Crafts Council to purchase six artworks for the Council's collection. The V&A Museum's Design and Textiles department also acquired one of Matt's subversive embroideries.

Matt regularly exhibits his work at public collections including Coming Out, Walker Art Gallery 2017, A Place at the Table, Pallant House, 2014; Subversive Design, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, 2013; DIY A Revolution in Handicrafts, Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburg, 2010.

Matt Smith started his career at the V&A before developing exhibitions at the Science Museum and the British Film Institute. After retraining as a ceramicist, his work has often taken the form of hybrid artist/curator. His large scale solo shows have addressed themes including the legacy of colonisation in Losing Venus (Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford) and Flux: Parian Unpacked (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge), LGBT visibility in Queering the Museum (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 2010) and Other Stories (Leeds University Art Collection, 2012). Matt co-directed and curated Unravelling the National Trust which saw over thirty artists working with contemporary craft (including himself) commissioned to respond to the histories of the National Trust properties Nymans House, Uppark House and The Vyne. Matt holds a practice-based PhD from the University of Brighton. The PhD explored the use of craft techniques in contemporary art by artists exploring identities. He is Professor of Ceramics and Glass at Konstfack University of the Arts, Stockholm and Honorary Fellow at the University of Leicester’s School of Museum Studies. His work is held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Walker Art Gallery, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Fitzwilliam Museum as well as numerous private international collections.

Matt Smith is internationally represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

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Crystal Latimer was born in Hollywood, California, and grew up in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. In 2010, Crystal completed her BFA Slippery Rock University and received an MA and MFA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2013 and 2016, respectively. After graduating, Crystal taught several courses at Penn State University and Indiana University and has lectured at Slippery Rock University and Carlow University.

Crystal's work has been shown extensively in both solo and group exhibitions, including at the Pittsburgh International Airport, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Chautauqua Institution, The Mine Factory, George Washington University, and Union Hall among others. She has shown her work internationally in Hong Kong and London, and participated in a residency at the Joaquin Chaverri Fabrica de Carretas in Sarchi, Costa Rica. Crystal's work has been featured in Create!, Pikchur, Local Arts PGH, Art Maze, Ruminate, and Fresh Paint Magazines. Her work is included in both private and public collections nationally and internationally; including Indiana State University of Pennsylvania, PNC Corporate, the Benter Foundation, and Wyndham Tryp Hotel.

Crystal was shortlisted for the Young Masters Art Prize in 2019.

Crystal will be making her debut at Collect 2022 represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

Carry On Creativity: A Series of Interviews with Young Masters' Artists : Crystal Latimer

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Klari Reis uses the tools and techniques of science in her creative process, constantly experimenting with new ways to apply materials and methods. She is driven by curiosity and her desire to explore and document the natural and unnatural with a sense of wonder and joy. Formally trained as an architect, Klari received her MFA in painting from City and Guilds, London in 2004. From her base in San Francisco (in proximity to one of the largest concentrations of life science/technology companies in the world), Klari collaborates with local biomedical companies and is inspired by the cutting edge of biological techniques and discoveries.

The unifying theme of Klari Reis’s art is her mastery of a new media plastic, epoxy polymer, and the fine control she brings to its reactions with a variety of dyes and pigments. Her compositions display brightly coloured smears, bumps and blobs atop aluminum and wood panels. A skilled technician with a studio for a laboratory, Reis uses science in the service of her art.

Klari Reis's work has been exhibited worldwide and public collections include Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK; Next World Capital’s offices in San Francisco, Paris, and Brussels; MEG Diagnostic Centre for Autistic Children in Oxford, UK; Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London; the Stanford University Medical Center Hoover Pavilion in California; and Elan Pharmaceuticals, Genentech, Acetelion and Cytokinetics in South San Francisco.

Klari Reis is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

Klari Reis Viewing Room: Pigments

Watch Cynthia Corbett In Conversation with Klari Reis

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British Amy Hughes’s practice is both fuelled by and symbolic of the highly prestigious Porcelain wares produced at the Royal Sèvres Factory in the late 17th and 18th centuries. Hughes’ works reference and pay homage to the originals, but are created with a freer approach, giving them a new lease of life. After Alhambra pieces take inspiration from the large lustre vases produced during the Nasrid Dynasty (the last Muslim Dynasty in the Iberian peninsula, ruling Granada) in the 14th and 15th centuries which became romantically known as 'Alhambra Vases', and of which only 8 remain in semi-intact existence today.

Amy was nominated to represent the UK in ‘New Talent’ at the European Ceramic Context 2014. In 2015, Hughes was chosen as the first Ceramics & Industry Artist in Residence at the Victoria & Albert Museum and was selected as one of eleven artists for AWARD at the British Ceramics Biennial ‘presenting new works exemplifying the energy and vitality of the best of British contemporary ceramics practice. In 2018 her first solo show Garniture at Croome Court was funded by Arts Council England. Most recently she was selected as one of 5 commissioned Artists to work with The Leach Pottery St Ives on the Leach 100, which is part of centenary celebrations looking at the past, the present and the future of studio pottery. Amy Hughes works and exhibits internationally and made her Miami debut with Cynthia Corbett Gallery in 2021.

Amy Hughes made her Art Miami debut with Cynthia Corbett Gallery in 2021 and is represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery at Collect 2022.

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Freya Bramble-Carter is a London based ceramics artist, known for creating contemporary designs, strongly inspired by the ethos of beauty and nature. Freya combines her lifestyle, work and enjoyment in one and tries to live in the most true and authentic way she can learning and expanding on a personal level as well as professionally in this art form.

Before studying fine art at Chelsea College of Arts Freya learned the craft of clay under her father Chris Bramble's guidance, and then through teaching, but enjoys the process of ‘unlearning’ the rules when it comes to making her own pieces. Having always felt a strong physical connection to the clay she works with, Freya believes in creating pieces with soul, that inspire and become a source of energy in the home.

Freya’s work ranges from fine homewares including plates and bowls to sculptural pieces for the home and garden. Applying her talent to artisan glazes and handcrafting unique silhouettes, Freya's limited-edition pieces are designed to elevate and space with their beauty and tactile appeal. Crown the Clown Collection by Freya Bramble-Carter was specially crafted for the Meaning Behind Materiality exhibition with Cynthia Corbett Gallery as part of London Craft Week 2021. Her latest series, Pearl Parade, was created during her 2021-22 studio residency with Florence St George in the Bahamas. This collection of ceramics from Freya Bramble-Carter and Florence St. George was born of their mutual love of the Bahamian land and sea. Using clay that they foraged three years ago from East End Grand Bahama, they patiently waited for the clay to mature so that they could work with it. This year Freya returned to the Islands and the two potters worked night and day for two weeks collaborating on this collection also using a finer clay to complement their new clam formed vases. Their studio space is filled with love, fresh thoughts and a buzz of creative energy as they make together describing by section and play with the clay together. These vases reflect the waves that crash on the sandy shores of the Bahamas, the petals and leaves that grow from the inside of the pots belly are like tongues, the voices echoing their journey. The pots are delicate, feminine yet strong and proud.

A portion of our profits go to the Beacon Sheltered school in the Bahamas – a sow it needs.

Freya Bramble-Carter will be represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery at Collect 2022.

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Albert Montserrat is convinced that ceramics is the most noble, traditional and connected material of all. Historically, this material has allowed humanity to achieve, in all aspects; from improving health to a medium of expression. He shows a very particular interest for the highly technically demanding oriental glazes of the Old Masters and inspires him with extensive research, to give an incredibly strong finish to his work. Glazes are his passion. He has a special interest in the traditional vessels that the history of ceramics has brought to us. From the Egyptian canopic jars, to Roman amphoras and Korean moon jars.

Montserrat has been intensively and continuously making ceramics for over ten years in Spain, Mexico and the UK. His work is held in public collections in Spain and the UK and in private collections in Qatar, USA, UK, Spain, Mexico, Australia, Belgium and France. He won the Barcelona Ceramics Biennial in 2018, and Montserrat holds several internationally acclaimed awards. He is featured in several museum collections, including Museu Ceramica l’Alcora and the Barcelona Design Museum.

Albert Montserrat is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

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Based in Toronto, Amanda McCavour is a Canadian artist who works with stitch to create large-scale embroidered installations. She holds a BFA from York University, where she studied drawing. She completed her MFA in Fibers and Material Studies at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA. Her work has been exhibited in galleries nationally and internationally, with recent solo exhibitions in 2019 Pink Field, Blue Fog at the Art Gallery of Northumberland, Cobourg (ON); Consumed by Clouds at the Kootenay Gallery of Art, History and Science, Castlegar (BC); The Floating Garden at Workhouse Arts Centre, Lorton (VA); and Pink Field, Blue Fog at Washington Pavilion Visual Arts Center, Sioux Falls (SD), Paige Court, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison (WI) and The Delaplaine Arts Center, Frederick (MD). McCavour has received numerous awards and scholarships from the Ontario Crafts Council, The Canada Council for the Arts, The Handweavers and Spinners Guild of America, The Ontario Society of Artists, The Surface Design Association, and The Embroiderers Guild of America.

“Poppies” began as a commission of one-hundred flowers, hanging and photographed to commemorate 100 years from the end of the First World War. This work expanded to hundreds of embroidered poppies hung upside down creating dream-like environment. The poppies are a keepsake, memory and a tender reminder of life, time, and space.

In 2019 Amanda McCavour won the 2nd prize for the Young Masters Art Prize and the Young Masters Emerging Woman Artist Award.

Amanda will be making her debut at Collect 2022 represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

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Emilie Taylor was born in 1980 in Sheffield, where she now lives and works. Her large scale ceramics use heritage craft processes, particularly traditional slipware, to interpret and represent post-industrial landscapes. Emilie is interested in the pot as container and metaphor for how we seek to contain different communities within society.

Beyond the studio she works with the communities represented in her work, and through interdisciplinary projects hopes to apply the alchemical quality of ceramics in a socially engaged context. Emilie has completed residencies in the UK and abroad, and has exhibited at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Ruthin Craft Centre, Gallery Oldham and the Arts & Crafts House Blackwell. Her most recent solo exhibition (May Day, May Day, May Day) at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum took place in 2021. Her work forms part of major public and private collections, including the Contemporary Arts Society.

Emilie Taylor is an alumna of Young Masters Art Prize. Emilie is the winner of the Focus on the Female Young Masters Award 2021.