TRESOR

contemporary craft 2017

The Oliver Sears Gallery are pleased to announce their participation in TRESOR contemporary craft, the new international platform for high-end craft and contemporary applied arts.

TRESOR contemporary craft presents a curated showcase of leading international galleries and artists alongside a series of thematic exhibitions, allowing visitors to experience first-hand the extraordinary range, quality and originality of craft today.

Featuring over forty exhibitors from Switzerland, Europe and beyond, the Fair is set to become a meeting place for international collectors, art professionals and enthusiasts and offer a unique platform to discover the most exciting trends and innovations in the field of contemporary craft today

Oliver Sears Gallery brings to the forum exemplary works by 3 Irish artists. Sasha Sykes, Clare Curneen and Liam Flynn who are internationally recognized for their use of traditional methods and materials which push past the boundaries of innovation.

Sasha Sykes is an artist and creator of highly unusual hand-crafted contemporary furniture and functional artworks. Her work is particularly known for its use of acrylics and hand-cast resins, embedding found objects and collected organic materials, which tell stories of the landscape and social history.

Claire Curneen’s work is distinct for its figurative representation, drawing us into a world of narrative, where the tension between the real and the imagined is played out before us. Her ceramic figures are highly visceral, referencing Catholic imagery from the early Italian Renaissance. Porcelain, terracotta and black stoneware create an exquisite textural finish to these works, with dribbles of glaze and flashes of gold to accentuate their rich qualities. These figures bear bold narratives of human experiences and explore themes around death, rebirth and the sublime, which are both subtle and dramatic.

Liam Flynn worked primarily in Irish oak turning strong, simple and lyrical vessel forms.

He had an exceptional skill for understanding the grain of the wood, compounded with a technical dexterity in predicting how the wood would dry. The result is breathtakingly simple and elegant, while also exceptionally complex in its achievement. The artist once said of his practice, "I relish the challenge of interpreting what the timber will do, how much movement is going to occur as the vessel dries out and what influence that will have on the final line of the piece."