Leading designers feature in latest crafts exhibition at Clitheroe gallery
Designers who have worked with leading fashion houses and High Street names are featured in the latest exhibition at the Platform Gallery, Clitheroe.
The exhibition, Platform & Function, will run until April and showcases work by seven national and international crafts designers who explore their field in innovative and imaginative ways.
The artists on display
Antonello Figlia: Antonello grew up in Sicily before moving to Rome and then Milan where he worked as a freelancer in the fashion and entertainment industry, collaborating with companies such as Donna Karan and the Italian Fashion Council, giving him access to fashion shows of the major luxury brands including Roberto Cavalli, Ferragamo, and Dolce & Gabbana. He subsequently moved to London to work for the Prada flagship store in Bond Street before moving into designing his own jewellery.
Qi Fang Colbert: Based in Northumberland, Qi is an internationally awarded and exhibited artist, ceramicist, illustrator and researcher, as well as a creative and innovative ceramist creating original surrealist narrative works. Qi works primarily with hand-built and thrown high-fire (1220°C) white stoneware with free-hand carved and inlaid original designs. Her work celebrates different carving techniques (Huahua technique in Chinese, or Mishima, and sgraffito) on ceramics and are decorated using decorative slips and underglazes.
Paul Islip: After gaining a master’s degree in furniture design, Paul established his own working making bespoke pieces which led to designing work for major UK furniture retailers such as Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, and Next. He branched out on his own and is now based at his workshop in North Wales with an abundant supply of sustainable and natural raw materials.
Sofia Barbe: A Uruguayan mixed-media textile artist and maker based in London. Sofia’s practice explores visual expression and craft through soft pieces, sculptures and wall hangings, drawing her inspiration from nature, childhood memories, and daily life and play. Techniques include needle felting wool onto mycelium, blending soft and hard textures to create unique creatures, and felting wool on coconut coir to make wall hanging panels.
Vic Wright of Cast Designs: A sculptor based in studios in Greater Manchester, Vic’s work takes the form of casts, using a base of sustainable casting cement to which different materials such as metal powders and pigments are added. When drying this results in different textures, colours and surfaces.
Su France: Exploring the idea of “what is precious?”, Su uses linens and paper and applies earth pigments, oxidised silver, stitching with Japanese gold thread, and gold leaf, contrasting humble substrates with valuable materials. Inspired by arable farms' rhythms and patterns, she paints and prints earth marks, seed drills, and crop patterns, highlighting the beauty and importance of land and soil.
Liz Samways of Inkylinky: A Yorkshire-based jeweller, enameller and printmaker, working in etched, engraved & enamelled silver and copper and other metals. Her work is inspired by the English landscape, my printmaking practice, and training as a garden designer. Etching, collagraph, lithograph and monoprint are used in layers, with collaged ink drawings, rubbings and sometimes metal elements added.
‘Wonderfully received’
Gallery supervisor Jack Shackleton said: “The exhibition features work by artists that have never displayed with us before and it’s already been wonderfully received by visitors.
“It showcases work by some of the leading crafts people in the country and gives visitors an opportunity to see unique and exciting pieces of work they wouldn’t normally find outside large galleries in the big cities.”
The Platform & Function exhibition is open until 19th April and the Platform Gallery is open Monday to Friday 10am-4.30pm, and Saturday 10am-4pm (closed Bank Holidays).