Future Icons Selects at London Craft Week 2023: The unmissable new exhibition with the largest selection of craft makers.

The new Future Icons Selects exhibition taking place at London Craft Week, 11th - 14th May 2023 is a must see in this year's calendar. Future Icons will be taking over Oxo Tower Wharf’s iconic Bargehouse with its largest exhibition to date.

The new show concept will feature work from over 70 leading artisans from around the world. The work on show spans across multiple craft disciplines, including, ceramics, jewellery, furniture and textiles.

Future Icons was founded by Louisa Pacifico in 2017. As founder of Future Icons, Louisa selects makers and designers to represent and nurture through business consultancy and curated shows.

Future Icons represents and showcases a selection of the world’s most talented design and craft led businesses who produce beautiful artisanal interior accessories, furniture, jewellery, fashion accessories, artwork and objet d’art. Each brand has been selected based on their craftsmanship, originality, heritage and commercial appeal of their collections.

The acclaimed craft collective includes Carl Cox, Ikuko Iwamoto and Claire Coles and has been involved with London Craft Week and Oxo Tower Wharf since 2019. In launching Future Icons Selects, Future Icons is able to support a much larger pool of talent and enable as many artisans as possible to present their work to the 100,000 visitors that attend the annual event.

Traditionally, there has been no platform for individual makers to apply to showcase within London Craft Week. Future Icons recognised there was a need to offer these talented makers an affordable platform to showcase their creations and be celebrated by the festival - Louisa Pacifico

Future Icons Selects will curate each room in the 3000sqm venue with a multitude of craft disciplines including basketry, ceramics, furniture and woodworking, jewellery, leather work, metalwork, paper art, and design and textiles. A series of workshops and demonstrations are also scheduled to take place. The showcase will be the largest assembly of craft makers during London Craft Week 2023.

Since announcing the event at the start of 2023, Future Icons Select has attracted sponsorship and marketing support from the London Art Fair, New Designers, QEST, Cockpit Arts, Craft Central and Decorex. G. F Smith will be sponsoring a ground floor installation featuring new works by Fung + Bedford, B C Joshua, NAT MAKS and Katja Angeli.

“It’s such a privilege to be working once again with London Craft Week and Oxo Tower Wharf and on a bigger scale than ever before. We are gearing up for what will be a really fun, engaging and inspiring showcase of talent from the crafts sector and look forward to opening our doors on May 10th.” - Louisa Pacifico

Here is a taster of some of the craft makers confirmed to exhibit:

Kate Maestri

Kate Maestri is a London based architectural glass artist who works on a wide range of private and public art projects. Her artworks fuse modern technology with traditional, mouth-blown stained glass and screen-printed ceramic enamels to produce the luminous colours that characterise her work.

Jan Waterston

Jan Waterston works independently from his UK based studio and offers a range of speculative works, commission pieces, and furniture collections, all exclusively made to order. Jan founded his studio in 2016 to further develop his traditional woodworking methods in combination with contemporary processes, whilst keeping the material firmly at the centre of his practice.

Jacob Monk

Jacob Monk is a hand-weaver and textile artist based at Cockpit Arts in South East London. Monk is influenced by the ancient technique Ikat - the process of creating a pattern through the binding and dyeing of the warp yarns before being woven. He combines Ikat with different dip dyeing techniques to create something truly original.

Atelier Weftfaced

Weftfaced is a small atelier in the heart of Sussex keeping the craft of hand woven tapestry and hand crafted costume thriving. Established in 2013 by Caron Penney the workshop has been making tapestries to commission for artists from British abstract painter, Gillian Ayres RA to the artist and musician Martin Creed.

Atelier Wolfson

Atelier Wolfson is an interdisciplinary Leather Design Studio based in Amsterdam, founded by British - Chinese artist and designer Elaine Chan-Perryman. Working almost exclusively with leather, using both contemporary and age-old techniques, she often explores curved lines and geometry to create spaces for reflection.

Keeley Traae

Keeley Traae is a British designer and design consultant exploring digital craft through 3D printing in eco PLA which is a biodegradable material made from 100% renewable and natural resources.

Living Object

Living Object is a partnership between Vanessa Hogge and Philip Hughes that re-imagines what a home can be. This concept combines Vanessa Hogge’s love of natural forms and flowers and Philip Hughes’s affinity with tectonic forms, inspired by rugged geology. Living Object offers works for sale and a platform for individual commissioned artworks, homeware and interior design.

To find out more about Future Icons, click here.

Future Icons Selects takes place between 11th - 14th May at the Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, Barge House St, London SE1 9PH.