Every second year The Design & Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCI) invite Irish-based and Irish-born makers now abroad to apply for their online Portfolio. Selection is made by an international panel of experts, one of whom will also go on to curate a touring exhibition of the best of these, known as the Critical Selection. … More Surface Matters 2019-2020
Image: Detail of The Leperous Hands, 2016, by Karina Thompson. Photo by Douglas Atfield. My touring exhibition on damage and repair, “What Do I Need to Do to Make It OK?”, concludes at Rugby Art Gallery, with five internationally renowned artists, eleven especially commissioned artworks and seven venues since the London launch in August 2015. … More Make It OK Tour Conclusion at Rugby Art Gallery, autumn 2017
Press coverage has been given by these writers and publications, to whom I give sincere thanks. Preview in the September-October 2015 issue of Crafts Preview in the September-October 2015 issue of Embroidery Review by Jessica Hemmings in the November-December 2015 issue of Crafts Profile by Anne Williams in the Winter 2015 issue of The Quilter … More Press Coverage for “Make it OK”
Image: Detail of “First One’s the Best”by Celia Pym. Photo by Douglas Atfield. The exhibition What Do I Need to Do to Make It OK? will be on show in two very different locations in March: first at The Spring Knitting & Stitching Show at London Olympia from 2-5 March; then at The National Centre … More Make It OK in London & at NCCD in March
Image:’Bathing Beauties: Reimagining the Beach Hut for the 21st Century’, installed at 20:21 Visual Arts Centre in Scunthorpe in summer 2013. ‘Bathing Beauties’ was a long running touring exhibition from The National Centre for Craft & Design, that I managed from 2010 onwards. It consisted of over 110 architectural models, a selected response to a … More Bathing Beauties touring exhibition 2008 – 2015
DOROTHY CALDWELL Dorothy Caldwell’s practice is shaped by differing landscapes. “My work is a map of land and memory. I am interested in the landmarks that give a sense of place and how humans mark and visualise the land they were personally drawn to. Identifying my own personal landmarks, through gathering, touching, and recording is … More The Artists in “Make it OK”
I launched a new touring exhibition in 2015 entitled “What Do I Need to Do to Make it OK?” The exhibition includes specially commissioned work, using stitch and other media, to explore damage and repair, disease and medicine, healing and restoration, to landscapes, bodies, minds and objects. The title is taken from a 2013 talk … More What Do I Need to Do to Make it OK? An introduction
One of the larger touring projects I managed for The National Centre for Craft & Design was “Transplantation: a sense of place and culture”, conceived of and curated by jeweller Norman Cherry and focusing on stories of movement and migration. It featured six UK based and six Australian based makers and toured to 15 venues … More Transplantation: touring international jewellery show 2012-2015
This touring exhibition was at Bilston Craft Gallery in Wolverhampton from 7 September to 2nd November 2013. The space is a similar size to the main gallery at NCCD but architecturally it works in a very different way, as internal partitions divide into three zones. The space can be very bright with its integral fillets … More Installing ‘Beauty is the First Test’ at Bilston Craft Gallery
Part of this project involved a new film commission made by Lincoln-based Electric Egg. They took as their starting point my sentence: “In craft we seek to explore the relationship of the process to materials, of hand to form, of eye to object.” The film, conceived of and created by Neil Baker and Steve Hatton, … More Beauty is the First Test – film by Electric Egg
Liz Cooper 