Vessel Gallery is proud to participate in the 33rd Edition of the London Art Fair. 

Presenting works from five international applied-art artists working with traditional glass and ceramic techniques, each have produced works that push the boundaries of their chosen materials, expressing them in new directions but also in direct reference to their personal heritage and cultural tradition.

Each year LAF:Platform focuses on a single distinct theme, the section includes galleries presenting well-known, overlooked and emerging artists that align to the theme.

At a time when the world is ever-changing, curator Candida Stevens presents Folk Art, a view to our cultural heritage, our communities and our identity and how artists who are working in the Folk tradition have chosen to pass on this cultural heritage of knowledge and inspiration.

Cultural heritage is unique and irreplaceable, it is an expression of the ways of living, developed over time by a community and passed on from generation to generation. It can include customs, practices, places, objects, artistic expressions and values. The cultural heritage of a community reflects and shapes values, beliefs, and aspirations helping to define people’s national identity.

With global industrialisation, machines replacing the handmade, cultures all over the world are at risk of losing knowledge, skills and cultural heritage. Artists now working in the folk tradition are expressing the importance of their heritage. Platform explores artists who have revived lost knowledge, developed inherited skills and sharing inherited legacies. Whilst today's objects may be decorative, once they would have been utilitarian but the passing on of knowledge remains the same.