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| New Craftsmen | |
|---|---|
| Name | New Craftsmen |
| Formation | 2015 |
| Type | Arts organization |
| Headquarters | London |
| Region served | United Kingdom, Europe |
| Fields | Craft, Design, Contemporary Art |
| Leader title | Founder |
| Leader name | Hellen van Rees |
New Craftsmen is a London-based organisation and curatorial platform that commissions, produces and exhibits contemporary maker-designed objects and furniture. It operates at the intersection of craft, design and contemporary art, collaborating with international makers, studios, galleries and institutions to present work through exhibitions, publications and limited editions. The organisation functions as a networked nexus linking contemporary practitioners with collectors, museums and commercial partners.
Founded in 2015 by Hellen van Rees, New Craftsmen emerged amid renewed institutional interest in studio craft in the 2010s, following trajectories set by institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Crafts Council, and the Museum of Arts and Design. Early projects connected makers associated with the Royal College of Art, Central Saint Martins, and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten to commercial galleries like Galerie Besson and Friedman Benda, while engaging curatorial voices from the Design Museum and the Barbican. The organisation's commissioning model drew comparisons to historical workshops and ateliers such as the Bauhaus and the Werkstätte, while participating in fairs and platforms including Frieze, 1-54, and Collect. Over subsequent years, New Craftsmen expanded collaborations across cities such as Paris, Milan, Stockholm, Tokyo and New York, aligning with biennials, private collections and institutions like the V&A, the Crafts Council, and Design Miami.
New Craftsmen articulates an aesthetic rooted in material specificity and makerly authorship, resonating with figures and movements like Ettore Sottsass, Charlotte Perriand, and the Studio Alchimia collective. Its philosophy foregrounds artisanal processes and contingency in dialogue with conceptual strands exemplified by artists and designers such as Olafur Eliasson, Ai Weiwei, and Ron Arad. The platform champions a blurred boundary between traditional craft disciplines—woodwork associated with George Nakashima and Sam Maloof, ceramics in the lineage of Lucie Rie and Bernard Leach—and contemporary design practices linked to Patricia Urquiola, Neri Oxman and Tom Dixon. Aesthetically, projects often reference movements and periods including Arts and Crafts, Scandinavian modernism, Postmodernism and Brutalism, while engaging curators and critics tied to publications like Frieze, Artforum, Dezeen and Wallpaper*.
Commissions and exhibitions feature techniques spanning carpentry traditions from Shaker furniture and Scandinavian joinery to Japanese joinery as practised by craftsmen influenced by Tadao Ando and Shiro Kuramata, alongside ceramics referencing Bernard Leach, porcelain techniques linked to Meissen and Derby, and metalwork techniques recalling the practices of Constantin Brâncuși and Alexander Calder. Material palettes emphasize timber species such as oak, walnut and Japanese hinoki, metals including brass, bronze and stainless steel, and experimental materials explored by practitioners converging with institutions like the RCA Materials Library and the Technical University Eindhoven. Processes include hand-tool joinery, wheel-thrown and slab-built ceramics, lost-wax casting, patination, and digital fabrication workflows that reference the CNC practices of designers associated with the MIT Media Lab and the Design Research Studio at RCA.
New Craftsmen has worked with a constellation of makers and studios connected to prominent schools and ateliers. Collaborators and referenced practitioners include makers trained at the Royal College of Art, Central Saint Martins, Städelschule, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, and École des Beaux-Arts, as well as named artists and designers such as Max Lamb, Bethan Laura Wood, Sebastiaan van Nierop, Martino Gamper, Sam Becker and Benji Reid. The organisation engages workshops and studios like Ercol, Linthorpe Ceramics, Tongue & Groove, and international ateliers in Kyoto, Florence and Copenhagen, creating intersections with collectors and museums including the V&A, MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Stedelijk Museum, and the Design Museum.
Critical reception situates New Craftsmen within contemporary debates about the value of making, sustainability and the market for limited-edition objects. Commentators in The Guardian, The Financial Times and The New York Times have situated its work alongside the resurgence of craft led by figures like Grayson Perry, Edmund de Waal and Edmund de Waal's contemporaries, and in relation to market phenomena visible at fairs such as Design Miami, TEFAF and Masterpiece. The platform has been discussed in academic contexts alongside research from Goldsmiths, the Courtauld Institute and the RCA, and featured in policy conversations involving Arts Council England and cultural foundations.
Education and transmission are embedded through partnerships with institutions and apprenticeship schemes reflecting historic models such as the Bauhaus preliminary course and Japanese apprenticeship systems (shokunin) connected to masters linked to studio traditions in Kyoto and Kanazawa. Collaborations with universities, craft schools and residency programmes—Rijksakademie, the V&A/RCA joint programmes, and local craft trusts—support knowledge exchange, technical training and mentorship between established practitioners and emerging makers.
Recent projects have included curated solo presentations, thematic group shows and limited-edition commissions, staged in spaces ranging from Chelsea showrooms to institutional galleries and design fairs. Exhibitions have sat alongside events such as Collect, Design Miami, Frieze Masters and the London Design Biennale, and have produced catalogues, monographs and documentary films co-published with publishers and media outlets. Ongoing commissions continue to link makers with collectors, museums and commercial partners across London, Paris, Milan, Stockholm, Tokyo and New York, sustaining a networked practice at the crossroads of craft, design and contemporary art.
Category:Arts organizations Category:Contemporary art Category:Design institutions Category:Craft organizations