Collect announces the 11 artists and makers to discover at Collect Open 2026
Leading international art and design fair Collect has just announced the 11 artists selected for Collect Open 2026, its annual showcase of bold installations exhibited annually at Somerset House.
The show has always aimed to champion work that pushes the boundaries of traditional craft techniques, and this year the work of the chosen artists spans subversive takes on silversmithing to contemporary embroidery.
The fair itself, dedicated to contemporary museum-quality craft and design, will return in February 2026 with a new director, former editor of Wallpaper*, TF Chan. Another new addition comes in the shape of the Collect Open bursaries, launched in May 2025 to support UK-based artists from global majority backgrounds. In response to research by Craft Council regarding how financial barriers can hinder career progression of underrepresented talent working in craft careers, the bursaries provide support for each of its winners. The inaugural recipients are textile artist Kamilah Ahmed, ceramicists Jihyun Kim and Jynsym Ong.
Collect Open is presented in partnership with Spinocchia Freund, the London-based interior architecture and design studio led by Brigitta Spinocchia Freund, a longstanding advocate of British craft and craftspeople.
Here are the 11 talented artists showcasing at Collect Open 2026:
Photo courtesy of the artist1/11Katherine James
Katherine lives in Leeds and creates work that explores the unexpected relationship between silver and charcoal, where the latter is used as a base for soldering. For Collect 2026, silver chainmail will drape from charcoalclay vessels in an exploration of resilience.
Pictured: Katherine James, Lace Armour Pandemic Jewellery Mask, 2021
Justyna Kulam2/11Olly Fathers
London-based Olly Fathers initially created paintings before developing a keen interest in wood. His work for Collect Open will build on his experimentation with wood veneer as he creates an installation using 4,600-year-old bog wood formed from trees long submerged in riverbeds. The central piece will be built from 500 individually handcrafted segments using a traditional marquetry technique.
Matt Hass3/11Kamilah Ahmed
Previously a winner of The New Craftsmen & Cockpit Arts Diversity Award in 2021, London-based textile artist Kamilah Ahmed will be creating a large-scale embroidered textile hanging installation celebrating Dhaka, Bangladesh. Influenced by Jamdani weaving and Ari hook embroidery, heritage techniques practiced in South Asia for centuries, the new work will incorporate hand-wrapped silk warps, both digitally and hand embroidered.
Pictured: Kamilah Ahmed, Midnight Orchid, 2021
Lucy Thorman4/11Jynsym Ong
Jynsum is an Oxford-based potter who trained first in Stoke-on-Trent before undertaking a two-year apprenticeship at Mitoh Gama (Kiln) in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture, Japan, where the famed Karatsu ware has traditionally been produced. At next years Collect Open, she will show a new series of wood-fired pots in an installation that will explore how objects become intrinsic to people’s own stories, identity and memory, influenced by our cultural upbringings.
Pictured: Jynsym Ong, Soul Jar (Clouds and Fish), 2025
Photo courtesy of the artist5/11Jihyun Kim
London-based South Korean ceramicist Jihyun Kim creates vibrant vessels that invites us to see the magic in the ordinary. Korean folk beliefs and rituals taught to her by her grandmother serve as inspiration for her pieces. For Collect Open 2026, she will develop a series of slip-cast ceramic vessels in her signature bold colours which evoke organic forms such as fungi. To create her striking works, with their characteristic sense of fluidity, Jihyun works with a specially formulated glaze that becomes especially gloomy at high temperatures.
Pictured: Jihyun Kim, Salty Fairy Ring, 2023
Photo courtesy of the artist6/11Hanna Salomonsson
Swedish artist Hanna Salomonsson lives and works in London where she takes inspiration from the cultural significance that veteran trees hold as living records of the environment. For next year's fair, she is creating three large-scale ceramic totems that will explore the threats posed to different tree species as a result of disease and climate conditions. Scandinavian folklore and modern interpretations of mythology also inspire her work.
Pictured: Hanna Salomonsson, Inside Your Darkest Everything, 2024
Brennan Bucannan7/11Ella Merriman
Ella Merriman, who lives and works in London, is an artist and designer who works predominantly in the traditional basket weaving material, rush, to create pieces that pay homage to nature and explore the human connection with it.
For Collect Open 2026, Ella will be presenting six sculptural furniture pieces created by combining rush basketry with found wooden furniture sourced from London's streets. The installation will be a celebration of the reclamation and revival of natural materials, bringing together the endangered craft technique of rush basketry and abandoned home objects.
Pictured: Ella Merriman, Daphne, N8, 2025
Photo courtesy of the artist8/11Chloe Lennon,
Irish artist Chloe Lennon will be exploring the systems and ethics of cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in her new work for next year's Collect Open. She will present a dining table and three stools which have been sculpted to represent the rock formations from which cobalt is mined, speaking also to the long history of the use of cobalt in art and ceramics too. Based in London, Chloe often explores the exploitation of the Earth's resources in her work.
Pictured: Chloe Lennon, Transmutation, 2023
Photo courtesy of the artist9/11Oriel Zinaburg
London-based sculptor Oriel Zinaburg was an architect before setting up his ceramic studio in 2019. The training, as well as the inspiration he takes from nature and art history inspire his large-scale sculptural pieces. For next year's fair, Oriel will look to art history for inspiration, creating a collection of ceramic sculptures inspired by the Wally Birds--late 19th century stoneware jars made by pottery manufacturers the Martin Brothers. In addition, Oriel will be creating ceramic tiles to be used as cladding on prefabricated metal structures, a nod to the continuing influence of architecture on his work and an exploration of the place of ceramics in architectural storytelling.
Pictured: Oriel Zinaburg, installation view, 2022.
Photo courtesy of the artist and Paul Takeuchi Photography10/11Amelia Dennigan
Irish embroidery artist Amelia Dennigan lives and works in Lisbon in Portugal, a country with a rich embroidery heritage. Known for her large thread “paintings” rich with colour and symbolism, Amelia has previously shown her work at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. For Collect 20206, she will produce two new large-scale, wall-hung embroidered tapestries as well as a fabric vase, all of which will exploring the emotional complexity of miscarriage. To create these works, Amelia will be employing chiaroscuro and embroidery in her characterstic painterly method.
Pictured: Amelia Dennigan, Nature Morte, 2022
Mood Authors11/11Zofia Sobolewska Ursic
Zofia Sobolewska Ursic is a Polish artist living and working in Krakow. Her deep interest in collectible design will be visible in her Collect 2026 pieces where she will experiment with straw intarsia, wood and woven metal to create a cabinet, a jewellery box, two mirrors and a sculptural piece. These works also demonstrate her continuing exploration of the contrast between folk and bourgeois aesthetics, and organic and geometric forms.
Pictured: Zofia Sobolewska Ursic, Cabinet La nature est un Temple, 2025
Collect 2026, presented by Crafts Council will run from 27 February to 2 March at Somerset House, WC2R. Tickets go on sale mid January 2026
