Recognised as one of the most distinctive and dynamic sculptural ceramicists in the UK, Halima Cassell MBE, and her representing gallery, Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections, have been announced as the deserving winners of the 2024 Brookfield Properties Craft Award.
It’s the fifth anniversary of the leading contemporary craft award for UK-based artists, created in partnership with the Crafts Council. The winner was selected from the artists participating in the 20th edition of Collect.
Cassell won the award, worth the equivalent of £65,000, in recognition of her significant contribution to the national story of contemporary craft. Part of her winning body of work was especially created for her presentation with Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections at Collect – a gallery which has participated in every edition of the fair and has built an international reputation in ceramics over three decades, often acquired by museums and collectors worldwide.
Born in 1975 in Kashmir, growing up in Manchester and now living in Shropshire, Cassell’s multi-cultural background is tangibly present in her work, which is held in numerous public and private collections, worldwide including the Victoria & Albert Museum and The Hepworth Wakefield among others.
Fusing her Asian roots with a fascination for African pattern work and her deep passion for architectural geometry, Cassell’s work is instantly recognisable due to bold energetic designs and crisp carving. Her intuitive understanding of how to integrate pattern, form, material and scale is inspired by geometry, architecture and nature.
She was awarded an MBE in 2022 for her outstanding achievement for services to the arts and has recently published her book Halima Cassell 25. Marking her twenty-five-year period of carving materials, it documents her journey and development as an artist, up to the present time. Clay is her first love and her work has naturally evolved to include many other materials – marble, bronze, glass, concrete and wood, each offering Cassell different challenges of mutability and scale.
Acquisition for Crafts Council’s Collection and Solo Exhibition
As part of the prize, Cassell’s piece entitled Mariposa Lis (2024) made in hand-carved black clay will become part of the Crafts Council’s Collection, which now comprises over 1,800 objects, as an acquisition gift from Brookfield Properties. Cassell will also receive curatorial and production support to stage a solo exhibition with a more extensive collection of her works at Brookfield Properties’ exhibition space at 30 Fenchurch Street in the heart of the City of London which will open to the public this summer.
‘5&20’ – An Exploration of Exceptional Contemporary Craft
For the first time, Cassell’s solo presentation will be staged alongside ‘5&20’, a group exhibition exploring contemporary craft co-curated by Brookfield Properties and the Crafts Council in celebration of their ongoing collaboration and their combined milestone anniversaries in 2024 – five years of the Brookfield Properties Craft Award and 20 years of Collect.
As part of this one-off show, supported with funding from the London EC BID, ‘5&20’ will showcase multiple artworks from the Crafts Council’s Collection, all with a direct link to artists who have exhibited across the 20 years of Collect, five of which will be a seminal work from each of the previous recipients of the Craft Award including Cassell as the new 2024 winner.
Past winners of the Brookfield Properties Craft Award include Alice Kettle (textiles; 2023 winner represented by Candida Stevens Gallery), Christian Ovonlen (textiles; 2022 winner represented by Intoart), Anna Ray (textiles; 2021 winner represented by House on Mars Gallery), and Matt Smith (textiles and ceramics; 2020 winner represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery).
Cassell was selected as the 2024 winner by the curatorial teams at the Crafts Council and Brookfield Properties and was shortlisted from five nominated artists, included the multi-disciplinary studio Fung + Bedford (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust), ceramicist Steven Edwards (Vessel Gallery), the collaborative work of glass and ceramic artists Joshua Kerley and Guy Marshall-Brown (Bullseye Projects), and interdisciplinary designer Naomi Mcintosh (Ruup & Form).
Both exhibitions will take place from late May to September 2024 across two of Brookfield Properties’ buildings in the heart of the City of London with the group show ‘5&20’ at 99 Bishopsgate and Cassell’s solo exhibition at 30 Fenchurch Street.
