Zoe Preece British, b. 1973

Ruup & Form is delighted to be returning to Collect 2024. VIP Preview: 28/ 29 February 2024 Exhibiting works by : Erum Aamir Anne Butler...

Ruup & Form presents In Quest for Harmony at Collect International Art Fair’s 19th Edition 3 rd to 5th March 2023 (Preview 1st - 2nd March) at Somerset House. Ruup & Form, leading contemporary gallery based in London, focussing on material-led artists is delighted to return to Collect International Art Fair with fourteen exceptional artists, all responding to the theme of In Quest for Harmony . The exhibition delves into the many facets of emotional upheavals, political and social turbulences. The artists respond with their personal sense of equilibrium, asking questions through their medium. The theme of harmony is especially relevant in today’s divided world, where perspectives and beliefs often lead to conflict and disharmony. The selected artists are shaping the future of craft and art, by innovation and experimentation, pushing boundaries with material, techniques, and by incorporating new materials to create works that are both alethically striking and conceptually engaging. In Quest of Harmony is showcase of diverse collection of materials bringing together talented artists displaying their unique and innovative pieces exploring the concept of what harmony means to them. Our participating artists are : Anne Butler Katie Spragg Richard McVetis Naomi Mcintosh Zoe Preece Claudia Clare Beatrice Mayfield Ekta Kaul Clare Palmer Shannon Clegg Erum Aamir Archana Pathak Claire Malet Fleur Grenier Visitors will have the opportunity to purchase exclusive and one-of-a-kind works. The fair will take place at Somerset House from 3rd to 5th March 2023 (Previews 1-2 March). We look forward to welcoming art and craft lovers and collectors to this exciting event. About Ruup & Form Ruup & Form is a curatorial led contemporary gallery based in London, working with material-led artists with a focus on suitability. Interjecting art, craft, and design, we present the best in collectible design and craft from across the globe, showcasing unique and limited-edition contemporary works. Founded by Varuna Kollanethu in 2019, the aim of the gallery is to blur lines between art and crafts, build communities by bringing works to a wider audience and promoting our artists through exhibitions, events, fairs, and educational workshops. The gallery currently works with over 40 artists having built a reputation for the support to its artists, building deep rooted relationships with artists and collectors alike. We have taken on large commissions with corporates and individuals and built trust as an innovative gallery. www.ruupandform.com Download selected images here Instagram: @ruup.and.form #ruupandform #inquestforharmony #collect2023 For all enquiries and photographs email hello@ruupandform.com About Collect International Art Fair Collect showcases exceptional work made in the last five years by living artists and designers allowing each gallery to curate their own display and commission new pieces or bodies of work, especially for the fair. Works span many craft disciplines including ceramics, glass, lacquer, art jewellery, precious metalwork, textiles and fibre, wood and paper to works using non-traditional materials including resin and bone. The fair’s aim is to introduce and cultivate purchasing audiences to develop and grow the financial and intellectual value of craft at this level. Organised by the Crafts Council, t he fair provides art consultants, interiors specialists, collectors, museum curators, design practitioners and wider enthusiasts with an unrivalled opportunity to discover and invest in contemporary craft that will surprise, delight and endure. About Crafts Council, UK The Crafts Council is the national charity for craft. We believe craft skills and knowledge enrich and uplift us as individuals and can change our world for the better. Through our activities we inspire making, empower learning and nurture craft businesses. We do this by championing craft and its positive impact on society, increasing levels of craft education and participation, growing the market for craft, and by building a sustainable and inclusive craft sector.

Preview Day: Tuesday, 17 January Open to public: 18-22 January Ruup & Form curated Duality for London Art Fair 2023 presenting artworks by artists who...

We are delighted to be back at Eye of the Collector for 2022. Presenting works by: Anne Butler Kuniko Maeda Claire Malet Naomi Mcintosh Zoe...

Ruup & Form at Collect 2022 Ruup & Form is delighted to announce its participation in Collect Art Fair (23-27 February, Somerset House) with ‘Memories Live Here’, an exhibition about past, place and perception. Memory in its literal meaning is an act of recall, although in this exhibition artists explore memory as more complex and layered, interwoven with identity, personal history and culture. The theme of memory has been used to inspire artists to transform objects with new emotional weight through composition, technique, and material. The show includes work inspired by the natural environment; textile artist Isobel Dodd uses intricate floral iconography; metal and silversmith Claire Malet is concerned with how we use the world’s resources; and Annette Marie Townsend uses botany from the collection at the Welsh National Herbarium as a starting point for her work. There are makers who are utilising traditional techniques and materials combined with innovative technologies such as Kuniko Maeda and Eva Martos Fernandez, Melissa Aldrete and Luis Cardenas. A number of artists are concerned with sustainability, directly and indirectly; Bridget Harvey works across a variety of media with repair as her primary process; Hannah Lobley utilises found books; and Archana Pathak reuses old maps, recycling at the heart of their work. Many have recreated and imbued with new meaning objects that have personal significance such as Anne Butlers’ ‘Shift and Stack’ reconstruction of a typewriter which explores individual and cultural memory and Hannah Walters’ series of non-functional urns and vases taking inspiration from Welsh architecture. In contrast interdisciplinary artist, Naomi Macintosh produces abstract work referencing the bodies relationship to geometry and objects. Artists: Melissa Aldrete and Luis Cardenas - Anne Butler - Eva Martos Fernandez - Bridget Harvey Hannah Lobley - Kuniko Maeda - Claire Malet - Naomi McIntosh - Archana Pathak Zoe Preece - Annette Marie Townsend - Hannah Walters - Isabel Dodd For more information contact: Varuna Kollanethu varuna@ruupandform.com +44 (0) 7414747677 www.ruupandform.com Makers Melissa Aldrete and Luis Cardenas - Siniestros, 2021 Siniestros are objects made to absorb emotions, beliefs or perversions. Most objects are vulnerable to user actions, whose clear advantage lies in their power of choice and needs. The studio with this series, seeks to provide the object with the opportunity to respond, the opportunity to resist and possess its own strength, to react many times to the fragility that it resembles, generating astonishment and questioning the user for the simple fact of not breaking it all starts with recognizing who we are. To be received in the world and to receive the world in us, a cognitive mind that is nurtured and learned from experience and not from imagination. We strive to understand the ocean of signs that surround us and we manage to survive by accepting that we are broken. This work explores the accumulation of pieces, cracks and missing pieces that will make us recognize ourselves, not only in what we are, but in what we are finding about ourselves. Melissa Aldrete and Luis Cárdenas founded Popdots in 2012 with the purpose of expressing the memorability of traditional materials in a contemporary context. Their studio seeks to strengthen the creative process and the concept, in order to provoke the development of unique and infinites series that will increase its mastery along with its practice. Anne Butler - Shift and Stack, 2018 Shift and Stack are from the ongoing series by Anne Butler ‘Objects of Time’ that explore associations between individual and cultural memory and the relationship between material, process and time. These associations are explored through the reconstruction of objects which represent 20th century technology and which featured in the artists childhood. Historical and personal references and contextual associations to the object, in this case the typewriter, are evidenced in the sculpture or buried within its layers. Anne trained in ceramics at the University of Ulster and the University of Wales in Cardiff. She works from her studio in Northern Ireland. Her sculptures are inspired by the structure and dissolution of the organic and manmade. Eva Martos Fernandez – Faux Pearl Necklace This work challenges the digital world, highlighting weaknesses and flaws in relation to the perception of ‘reality’ in the virtual realm. Tangibility and illusion are explored through the use of clear acrylic material. Clear acrylic blocks are digitally generated and then carvings are made into the material using digital technology, Computerized Numerical Control machining. Metal finishing elements are then added and the pieces are finally finished and assembled by hand. Eva Fernandez is a mechanical engineer retrained as a jewellery designer living in the UK. With her wearable objects, Eva makes people appreciate the ordinary and our man-made surroundings by stimulating their curiosity and perception. She achieves this by taking inspiration from the manufactured environment, removing ordinary objects out of their usual contexts or configurations to portray social and political stories. Bridget Harvey Building on her work rethinking repair as a craft for the anthropocene, for Collect Bridget uses traditional and new repair techniques to remake broken ceramics in to contemporary, collectible objects. This artefact is a hybrid of making, auto/biography and process, materialised to communicate discourses of repair-making, sustainability, and sharing. Bridget Harvey is a maker who investigates process, occupying a fluid space between craft and design, making and remaking. She hand-works discarded objects into one-off or small-batch artefacts, drawing techniques from multiple disciplines such as textiles, print, and conservation methods, to create tactile and desirable objects. Hannah Lobley - Infinity The work Hannah has created for this show is derived from childhood experiences, in particular the memory of her Grandfather documenting family events. A sculpture of a camera made from layered paper brings alive the memory of her Grandfather and explores her own personal journey with photography. Hannah Lobley initially specialised in wood-work then transferred her skills to working with paper. Her process begins by layering pages of unwanted books then traditional woodworking methods are used to cut objects from the material. The unique surface patterns echo the wood grain: wood becomes paper and becomes wood again. Kuniko Maeda - A-Un A-Un’ which is used figuratively in some Japanese expressions as "a-un breathing" (a-un no kokyū) indicates an inherently harmonious relationship or nonverbal communication. To create A-Un Kuniko has selected Kakishibu paint, traditionally used in Japan made from persimmons, a natural coating, and applied the paint to paper, creating a waterproof effect and increasing its durability. Kuniko merges a traditional Japanese process with contemporary laser cutting technologies to add a new value to Kakishibu paper enabling a flat sheet to morph into organic 3D structures. Kuniko Maeda is an artist largely working with textile design using paper and leather. She incorporates Japanese traditional techniques and digital technology to explore materials and their unique properties. A focus towards sustainability largely influences her choice of material and inspiration is found within daily surroundings, everyday objects and nature. Claire Malet – Places in Time Claire Malet has responded to the theme with three sculptures made from recycled sterling silver and found stones titled ‘Places in Time’. Each sculpture has been made in response to a location that Claire has visited. Claire is naturally drawn to remote rural landscapes, when nature takes over and reminds us of the insignificance of human life against the vastness of the universe. Each bowl has been formed and textured by the stone that it rests on. Claire believes that bowls hold ideas about memory, because they are one of the earliest human-made objects, providing universal evidence of our creativity. Claire Malet is a metal and silversmith artist based in Herefordshire. Her work is a response to the relationship between the natural environment and the resources it provides. Inspired by the shapes and textures of natural forms and landscapes: fragments of sea-worn shells, the rock formations of a battered coastline. Naomi McIntosh - Evanescent The work for this show ‘Evanescent- to vanish like vapour’ uses precise geometry to explore the relationship between the body and objects, and how volumes, patterns, planes and forms are seen, soon passing out of sight, memory or existence. By using planes and lines, forms are suggested, capturing volumes, transforming 2D surfaces into 3D objects. Naomi McIntosh is a designer, maker and educator. She creates her jewellery by combining a broad range of skills using digital and hand processes, taking inspiration from movement, patterns, architecture, landscape and the natural world. Archana Pathak - Reimagined Landscapes This work is made from old maps collected by Archana, maps of places that are known, lived, travelled, displaced or longed for. A melange of threads are created out of the maps, slowly stitched, reimagined landscapes become harmonious representations of coexistence, multiplicity and connectedness. Three landscapes represent the cycle of a day - Morning, Day and Night. Archana Pathak is a textile artist who lives and works in Surrey and London. Her practice brings together British and Indian heritage. Collecting and working with found memory artefacts such as old photographs, postcards, letters, diaries and maps Archana contemplates and explores the notion of home and belonging, and also the interplay of memory, place and identity. Zoe Preece - What Are The Words for Earth I & II Carbonised books sit in handcrafted walnut drawers. The books have been fired in saggers within a kiln, the words on the pages are visible but hard to decipher. These works explore kinetic processes and their material effects, in particular the effects of heat within the kiln chamber upon material forms. The familiar nature of the objects and the finecrafting of the drawers, highlight the more primal, elemental nature of the processes the books have undergone. Zoe takes the domestic realm as the site of her inquiry. Through focused attention on everyday objects and ordinary scenes, she endeavours to engage with the intangible, disquieting and emotive aspects of life through material processes and form. Material frailties and capabilities become metaphors for our own human experience. Annette Marie Townsend - Aliens Annette has developed work in collaboration with Sally Whyman, the curator of vascular plants at the Welsh National Herbarium, National Museum Cardiff in response to the theme of Memories Live Here. The historic scientific work and personal stories of Botanists whose pressed collections of non-native alien plants represented in the Welsh National Herbarium have been brought to life in these works. Townsend and Whyman aim for historic collections to be brought to life for a modern audience with digital access, research, the sharing of expert knowledge, storytelling, material experimentation and the collaboration of Science and Art. Annette Marie Townsend is a Welsh interdisciplinary artist specialising in the field of Natural History. After graduating with a BA (Hons) Design in 1995, she was employed by Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales as a Scientific Artist. Her career at the museum extended over 20 years, during which time she produced illustrations for academic publications and three dimensional models and dioramas for gallery display. Hannah Walters - The Forgotten Locke The Forgotten Locke is a series of non-functional urns and vases that have been created by Hannah to reference traditional Welsh porcelain. Lips of vases and lids on urns hint at the idea of function despite being filled with sprigs and flowers. The work sits on a series of crank and porcelain pedestals, elevating them to resemble the social status objects they were inspired by. Hannah has been examining the façades that are hidden in plain sight above our heads in the high streets; focusing on the ornate leaves and flowers that decorate the edges of now high street brands and fast-food venues. These vessels are an acknowledgement to those overlooked corners of this city. Hannah is a Welsh ceramic artist based in Cardiff who is inspired by her built environment. She is currently looking at the clash of the old next to new such as carved stone next to plastic neon signs. These contrasts and conflicts within the forgotten pieces of architecture are at the root of her work. Isabel Dodd - Forever sabel creates a live installation with foliage and textile flowers , an ode to a memory from her childhood. She remembers all the children lying in the cemetery next to where she lived growing up. As a child she decorated their abandoned graves with wild grasses and flowers with a growing aware of the fragility of life. The greenery and foliage in this installation represents the ending of life. The white flowers are symbols of the memories and souls of these children forever lasting and treasured. Made from a light composite fabric, each form is individually stitched and moulded with acute dedication to the flower it represents. Isabel is passionate about flowers. Inspired by their complex forms, she recreates their individual structures using a fabric manipulation technique. Each flower is stitched individually, every one unique. Made with composite fabric and balancing on wires, every flower stands elegant and gently swaying as they would in every garden. About Ruup and Form Ruup & Form is a carefully curated collection of effortless aesthetics and unique contemporary crafted objects. Since its inception in 2019, we have worked with emerging, mid-career and established contemporary makers - nationally and internationally. Every work is handmade, unique and personal. Specialising in contemporary textile, ceramics, glass, wood, paper and interdisciplinary. We believe craft and design in all its forms demonstrates creativity, ingenuity, and practical intelligence. It contributes to the economic and social wellbeing of communities, connects us to our cultural histories, and is integral to building a sustainable future. Our mission is to grow on this principle and do it with makers that we love. https://ruupandform.com About Collect 2022 Collect will return to its beautiful neoclassical home at Somerset House from 25-27 February 2022 with previews 23-24 February. The event will be open from 11-6pm and live on Artsy.net for all to enjoy until 6 March 2022. Now in its 18th year, Collect is the leading authority on collectable contemporary craft and design. The fair showcases exceptional work made in the last five years by living artists and designers allowing each gallery to curate their own display and commission new pieces or bodies of work, especially for the fair. The works at Collect represent the best of global contemporary craft and covers a wide range of disciplines, materials, and processes. Come along to discover lacquerware, neon, jewellery, furniture, tapestry, ceramics, metalwork, fibre art, glass and more. https://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/collect-art-fair