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Shrewsbury Arts Trail presents ‘Memento Mori’ by Halima Cassell - the beautiful sculptures in front of Shrewsbury Castle are a powerful testament to friendship. Pictures: Phil Langstaff, Chris Warrender, Vicky Polak and the artist's own collection. Words by Katy Rink. 

We are thrilled to be in the position to loan some monumental sculptures to the Shrewsbury Arts Trail during 2024!

Halima Cassell has won the 2024 Brookfield Properties Craft Award. 

 

Halima Cassell MBE, the dynamic sculptural ceramicist, has won the 2024 Brookfield Properties Craft Award, announced at a ceremony during the previews of Collect 2024. Cassell is represented by Joanna Bird Contemporary Collections, a gallery with a long focus on ceramics that has participated in all twenty editions of Crafts Council’s annual fair, dedicated to craft and design.

 

The Brookfield Properties Craft Award celebrates its fifth edition in 2024. The leading contemporary craft prize in the UK, it was created by Brookfield Properties in partnership with Crafts Council to celebrate a distinguished maker for their expert craftsmanship and significant contribution to contemporary design and making.

 

Based in Shropshire, UK, Cassell practices predominantly in clay – her first love – but also works across other media including bronze, glass, concrete and wood. Cassell was awarded an MBE in 2022 for outstanding achievement for services to the arts; several of her pieces are held in numerous public and private collections worldwide.

The judges of the 2024 Brookfield Properties Craft Award selected Cassell from the shortlisted artists in recognition of her distinctive geometric style and boundary-pushing approach to materials. The shortlisted artists included the multi-disciplinary studio Fung + Bedford (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, England), ceramicist Steven Edwards (Vessel Gallery, England), the collaborative work of glass and ceramic artists Joshua Kerley and Guy Marshall-Brown (Bullseye Projects, USA), and interdisciplinary designer Naomi Mcintosh (Ruup & Form, England).

 

'The day I stop learning is probably the day I give up,’ says Halima Cassell. It’s a sentiment many artists might express, but for the UK-based sculptor it seems particularly true – while she is best known for working with clay, she has also tackled stone, concrete, jesmonite, marble, wood, iron and bronze over the course of her career, learning from experts in each material, and producing highly acclaimed works across the spectrum.

 

Regardless of medium, these curves are instantly recognisable: simple in form and colour, Cassell’s weighty sculptures are adorned with complex, hypnotic shapes that lure the eye towards them. 

 

Cassell will receive support for her work worth £65, 000, which includes the acquisition of Cassell’s work, generously purchased by Brookfield Properties and donated to the Crafts Council Collection. Cassell’s monumental sculpture, Mariposa Lis, will join over 1,800 objects in the Collection, acquired by Crafts Council over a fifty-year period. Also included in the prize is a solo show of Cassell’s award-winning body of work, which will be presented for public exhibition at one of Brookfield Properties' sites in the heart of London.

 

Past winners of the Brookfield Properties Craft Award include machine-embroidered specialist Alice Kettle (2023, Candida Stevens Gallery), hand-printed silk designer Christian Ovonlen (2022, Intoart), multidisciplinary maker Anna Ray (2021, House on Mars Gallery) and found-object and textile artist Matt Smith (2020, Cynthia Corbett Gallery)

 

Cassell’s solo show will be staged alongside ‘5&20’, a group exhibition exploring exceptional contemporary craft, co-curated by Brookfield Properties and Crafts Council. The group presentation will celebrate the combined milestone anniversaries marked in 2024 by both organisations – five years of the Brookfield Properties Craft Award, and 20 years of Collect.

 

Supported by the EC BID, a Business Improvement District working to promote and enhance a unique part of the City of London known as the Eastern City, this unique anniversary project will see twenty works from the Crafts Council Collection showcased, all with a direct link to Collect. Five of these will be a seminal work from previous Brookfield Properties Craft Award winners, including Cassell as the 2024 winner.

 

Both exhibitions will take place this summer at Brookfield Properties’ central London locations, with the group show ‘5&20’ at 99 Bishopsgate and the 2024 winner’s solo exhibition at 30 Fenchurch Street.

 

 

 

‘Portrait of Mother’ is an intimate portrait of Endre Roder’s mother, painted by the artist in the year 1976. It is an oil on board piece with an impressive scale, measuring at 119 x 88cm. Distinctively different from the artist’s current style, it is a fine example of figuration that follows the rules of realism.

Abstract art is often a misunderstood concept and, at times, it can be difficult to analyse successfully. Despite sometimes sharing similar visual elements, abstraction is undoubtedly diverse in its intent.