Virtual COLLECT 2021
International Art Fair for Modern Craft and Design
Open 26 February – 2 March, 2021 online (virtual preview 24-25 February)
The Crafts Council presents COLLECT – returning for its 17th edition. At a time when the global pandemic prevents us from coming together at Somerset House, London, collectors will be able to acquire new work by international living makers from the comfort of their own homes, courtesy of a collaboration with the global online art platform Artsy.net. Just as it would be for a live fair, sales will open to collectors from 24 February and to a wider audience from 26 February 2021 and, for the first time, pieces will be available to purchase for a full month.
COLLECT is one of the world’s leading art fairs for contemporary craft and design having been established in 2004 by the UK Crafts Council. COLLECT brings together international gallerists to showcase and sell work by living contemporary craft artists. Much of the work is made especially for the fair and soon finds new homes in private and public collections around the world.
There are 30 galleries confirmed to date including from the U.S, Thailand, France, Hong Kong, Netherlands, South Korea, Norway, China, Germany and the UK. Margo Selby is honoured to have been selected to exhibit in the Design-Nation virtual ‘booth’ for COLLECT 2021 – a membership portfolio of some of the most acclaimed and innovative designers and craftspeople across the UK.
Margo Selby is exhibiting 2 works with Design-Nation for COLLECT 2021:
Margo Selby: VEXILLUM IV, 2020
Mixed yarns: Tencel; silk; cotton; and wool
170 x 180 cm
Margo Selby: ZOETROPE, 2021
Mixed yarns: Tencel; silk; and cotton
3 panels, each 40 x 120 cm
Zoetrope yarn windings, Whitstable studio
Image credit: Carmel King
Margo Selby is a textile artist making works in weave on a 24 shaft dobby loom. These works are both painterly, in regard to the optical mixing of pure colour – and sculptural, due to the physicality of woven thread as a mode of construction. They are stretched and wall-mounted but operate as objects rather than pictures or decoration – they are non-representational, and their colours are integral rather than applied to a surface. Formal aesthetics are paramount, and in constant intersection – colour, form, shape, orientation, rhythm – the grammar of Margo’s language. The VEXILLUM series, begun in 2019, has been a leap in scale from the intimacy of her artworks to date – the human to the architectural.
Installed last year at Somerset House as a triptych for COLLECT 2020, VEXILLUM (I, II and III) was an imposing secular altarpiece – a sensory chapel. VEXILLUM IV, hitherto unexhibited, is a fourth work of that series – and stands alone as a herald. It is celebratory, but with an element of aggression – a ‘vexillum’ being a portent of battle, as well as a Latin sail, and the delicate fronds of a feathery plume.
ZOETROPE is a more tentative statement – smaller in scale and more fragmented. The difficulties of this past year have provoked some introspection. The panels, each a discrete piece, are framed separately; the air between each is activated – they flicker and animate. They are truly visual, employing optical effect in their off-kilter symmetry and forced perspectives. A zoetrope is a playful nineteenth century device that gives the optical illusion of movement – a spinning cylinder that makes horses gallop. The name comprises the Greek ζωή ‘zoe’ life and τρόπος ‘tropos’ turning – a fitting metaphor. The vertical format of the panels in the work are reminiscent of the narrow slits of the zoetrope through which the sequential images are glimpsed, and the graduating linear forms give the impression of motion and light.
The designs are developed through drawing and yarnwindings, and then executed to an exact plan. There are 18,000 strands in VEXILLUM IV – each one of those hand-threaded, counted and re-counted. Geometric pattern is made macro in the fractal compositions, expanding infinitely – the forms optically project and recede, creating a sensation of dynamism, and almost becoming images – alluding as they do to stairways and steps or pyramid forms – they are a chromatic hall of mirrors.
Zoetrope development, Whitstable studio
Image credit: Carmel King
ART INTO INDUSTRY:
Margo Selby is an artist and designer working with colour and geometric form. Her hand woven artworks are made on dobby looms in silk, tencel, cotton and wool, and exhibited worldwide.
Margo studied at Chelsea College of Art & Design and the Royal College of Art in London, and at Atelier National d’Art in Paris. She established her textiles company in London in 2003 and her Whitstable studio in 2012. Alongside her art practice, Margo oversees the design work of her studio for industrial production, collaborating often with global textiles manufacturers and retailers (including Habitat, John Lewis, Osborne & Little, West Elm and Alternative Flooring) as well as institutions such as Tate, the British Museum, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, London Transport Museum, the National Gallery and the Royal Opera House – and other designers such as Casa Botelho and Simon Lloyd Fish.
Margo has taught at art schools including Central St Martins, the Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths and West Dean College, amongst others – and in her own studio workshops.
DETAILS:
If you would like to receive any press materials or arrange an interview with any of the exhibiting gallerists, artists, sponsors, or the COLLECT team at the Crafts Council please get in touch with COLLECT representation Button Collective:
Sara Jensen: sara.jensen@buttoncollective.com + 44 (0) 7812 339313 Michaela Zamloot: michaela.zamloot@buttoncollective.com +44 (0) 792 218 470 or collect@craftscouncil.org.uk
www.craftscouncil.org.uk/collect-art-fair
