In Conversation: CAA at Collect 2026

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Contemporary Applied Arts (CAA) heads to Collect, the Craft Council’s international art fair for contemporary craft and design at Somerset House, London (26 February - 01 March 2026 – East Wing E20) with a powerhouse of sixteen makers from its highly respected membership organisation.

For Collect 2026, CAA embraces the theme In Conversation as both a curatorial framework and a provocation. This year’s presentation is grounded in dialogue between old and new members, between disciplines and materials, and between object and space. Rather than presenting works as isolated statements, their presence at the show has been conceived as an active exchange, where meaning emerges through proximity, contrast, and shared presence.

Working across generations of CAA members has been central to this approach. Established voices are placed alongside newer practitioners, allowing the stand to function as a living conversation about continuity, evolution, and future direction. The translation of individual practices into a collective spatial narrative has been carefully considered: how pieces speak to one another across mediums, how scale and material negotiate space, and how disciplines overlap rather than remain singular.

Jewellery forms a deliberate focus of CAA’s presentation. At Collect, jewellery is often positioned primarily as sculptural object admired for form and conceptual ambition yet distanced from the body and from everyday use. CAA seeks to challenge this limited voice. They’ll present jewellery as both intellectually rigorous and inherently wearable, asserting its unique capacity to operate simultaneously as art object, design, and intimate personal artefact.

CAA’s selection spans a wide spectrum: from high-end, technically complex works to mid-range pieces and affordable, wearable jewellery. This breadth is intentional. It reflects their belief that jewellery’s power lies in its accessibility as well as its artistry. By showcasing different price points and approaches within the same space, they open a conversation about value not only economic, but cultural, emotional, and material.

Within the stand, jewellery is not isolated but placed in dialogue with other disciplines (ceramics, metal, textiles and furniture), reinforcing its relevance within contemporary craft practice. Wearable scale is considered alongside sculptural presence; precious materials sit beside experimental processes. This curatorial strategy resists hierarchy, instead inviting viewers to move fluidly between objects and perspectives.

Ultimately, CAA’s presentation at Collect 2026 is an invitation: to look closely, to reconsider assumptions, and to engage with craft as a living discipline with a voice that extends beyond display. In Conversation is not only CAA’s theme, but their method, a commitment to exchange, collaborate, and continue the ongoing dialogue that defines contemporary craft today.

The sixteen makers represented at Collect are:
Kate Bajic (jewellery), Hendrike Barz - Meltzer (jewellery), Flora Bhattachary (jewellery), John Creed (metal), Carolyn Genders (ceramics), Barbara Gittings (ceramics), Josef Koppmann (jewellery), Nancy Main (ceramics), Agalis Manessi (ceramics), Marlene McKibbin (jewellery), Laura Ngyou (jewellery), Louise O’Neill (jewellery), Matthew Pare (furniture), Anna Silverton (ceramics), Gizella K Warburton (textiles), Tessa Wolfe-Murray (ceramics)