We have the pleasure to work with an array of important contemporary designers who are currently active, and have the joy of promoting and engaging with their work. Join us as we take a closer look at some of the contemporary makers who are working right now that we are excited about.
Design
Five Contemporary Designers To Know Now
15 January 2024
Matthew Yeats
Claudia Clare (British 1962-)
Claudia Clare is an important feminist British ceramicist and writer whose works are immediately recognisable for their impressive scale paired with their slip-painted surface. Having first studied painting in the 1980s at the Camberwell School of Art and Craft, she then went on to study ceramics at Winchcombe Pottery in 1990-91, turning to ceramics as she found “the turning surface sympathetic to an unfolding visual narrative”. Clare’s pots narrate the human experience and reveal cultural and historic histories and contemporary lives of women – exploring the impact of major events on our daily lives.
She has exhibited in numerous important exhibitions alongside makers such as Grayson Perry, received her first solo exhibition at the Francis Kyle Gallery in London, and was shortlisted for the British Ceramics Biennial Major Award in 2013. Her work is held in numerous collections such as the Pankhurst Museum in Manchester and the New Hall Art Collection in Cambridge.
Keiko Mukaide (Japanese 1954-)
Considered to be one of the most highly regarded glass artists currently working, Keiko Mukaide’s unique practice implements a variety of glass-making techniques, casting and fusing glass in a kiln, manipulating glass in a blowing studio and affixing shards of dichroic glass to wire nets. Mukaide was born in Tokyo in 1954 where she studied communication design at Musashino Art University before completing her master’s at the Royal College of Art in London. Mukaide’s work in glass ranges from small, personal pieces of jewellery to large site-specific installations that respond to the physical and spiritual environment in which they occupy space, such as her 55 foot sea-facing installation at the Tate St Ives in 2006. She has lived and worked in Scotland for over twenty years.
Mukaide was shortlisted for the 1998 Jerwood Applied Art Prize, won the Creative Scotland Award for site-specific installation in 2001, and was included in the Victoria & Albert Museum 150 Years Anniversary Album exhibition in 2007. Her work was included in the Expanding Horizon exhibition with the International Festival of Glass at Collect Art Fair in 2023, and her plethora of public commissions mean her work can be seen at the Glass Park in Frauenau, Sheaf Square in Sheffield, and the People’s History Galleries at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Jim Partridge (British 1953-)
Born in Leeds in 1953, Partridge’s began his academic formation at John Makepeace’s Parnham House School for Craftsmen in Wood in the 1970s and went on to become one of the most prominent woodworker of the twentieth century in Britain. Since 1986, he has worked with his partner Liz Walmsley creating works of domestic utilitarian production such as toast racks and bowls, through to large-scale site-specific work such as a balcony and bridge at Rozel Fort in Jersey, and a Bute memorial seat in the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. Their work, often in green oak and yew, is scorched or bleached and polished to create a body of monochromatic work that honour their raw materials with an elegance and simplistic aesthetic quality that makes their pieces highly coveted.
Partridge regularly worked in collaboration with other makers and particularly with Ann Sutton, for whom he provided a lot of furniture for her home. Their work is held in numerous important publish collections including The British Council, The Crafts Council, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Kyoto Museum of Modern Art. The couple were shortlisted for the LOEWE Craft Prize in 2019.
Ndidi Ekubia (British 1973-)
Celebrated British silversmith Ndidi Ekubia’s large vessel forms are instantly recognisable for the fluidity of their hand-finished, planished surfaces. Born in Manchester in 1973, Ekubia studied 3D Design in Wolverhampton before obtaining an MA in Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork & Jewellery at the Royal College of Art in 1998. Her practise involves ‘pushing the metal to its limit, emphasising the fluid vitality of each form’ (Glanville, Philippa, Fluid Vitality: the Silver of Ndidi Ekubia, Goldsmiths’ Review 2013-4, pp. 30-33) and she immerses herself in the creative process to produce works that emphasise the inherent quality of the material and permit the viewer to experience its three-dimensional aspects, as with the current work, where each angle offers a different view.
Ekubia is represented in important private and public collections of contemporary craft including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Crafts Council, London; Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen; Winchester Cathedral, Winchester and the Goldsmiths’ Company, London. She was awarded an M.B.E. for services to silversmithing in 2017.
Nao Matsunaga (Japanese 1980-)
In his own words, the ceramicist Nao Matsunaga is “particularly interested in how early man interacted with his surroundings, and the ways in which primitive cultures shared traditions across the world, and how these practices continue to shape our lives. I am attempting to capture this idea of universal similarities and primal elements that resonate with my work.” Matsunaga works with clay, wood, and other materials to create abstract sculptural pieces that evoke a primitive spirit in a distinctly modern manner. Matsunaga studied at the University of Brighton and then the Royal College of Art in London. His first solo exhibition was held at Mojoe in Brighton, and he won the Jerwood Makers Open in 2021.
He was included in a group exhibition at the Nakanojo Biennale in Japan in 2023, and won the Nomura Zaidan grant in the same year. His work is held in various institutions such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, the York Museum and Art Gallery, and the Shipley Art Gallery.
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