Selected by Make

Coinciding with the start of the holiday season and featuring an exquisite blend of functional and decorative works by Derek Wilson, Jochen Holz, Sue Paraskeva and Liam Lee, ‘Selected by Make’ explores the evolving spirit of contemporary making through utilitarian design and abstract forms. The presentation spotlights each maker’s distinct approach and practice and how it results in forms reflective of their chosen medium, representing the intersection of traditional and contemporary craft.

Each maker’s unique interpretation of form leads to new pathways of perception surrounding the roles of functional and decorative, and emphasizes the importance and value of incorporating the handmade in the home. Derek Wilson’s functional designs for domestic tableware combine a minimalist aesthetic with accomplished craftsmanship and material knowledge, while Jochen Holz’s vibrant, molten glassware and vessels embrace organic, fluid shapes and forms. Sue Paraskeva’s fine, hand-thrown porcelain tableware juxtapose a glossy glazed interior with a smooth unglazed exterior for an organic and inviting aesthetic, and Liam Lee’s dynamic and lively textiles dissolve boundaries between interior and exterior space, man-made objects and the natural environment.

About Make

Make Hauser & Wirth is a dedicated space for contemporary making and the crafted object, committed to showcasing some of the world’s best emerging and established artist makers. Make is a natural extension of the wider Hauser & Wirth gallery ethos—embracing art, craft, gardens, food and architecture. Since launching in 2018 in Somerset, UK, Make has represented work by over eighty artist-makers and provided valuable insights into material-led processes and the rich narratives of their practices.

Works exhibited by Make embrace material truth, provenance, sustainability, and the value of emotional engagement with the handmade. In addition to a varied exhibition program, Make has hosted practical workshops, discussions, and studio visits to expand learning and engagement with makers and global craft organizations.

About the Makers

Jochen Holz

Jochen Holz has explored many different forms with his glass blown objects, from large sculptural pieces and neon installations to tableware and jewelry. His focus is always on the technique and the making process, which is anchored around the possibilities of glass, his craftsmanship and material knowledge. Glassblowing can be a volatile operation, necessitating Holz to improvise and make unexpected decisions. Holz enjoys and encourages shifts based on this relationship with the material, requiring him to be fully present during the making and flexible to accidents that may occur during the process. While functionality and domesticity are important aspects to his practice, Holz strives to give equal importance to the aesthetic and sculptural qualities of his works, giving each piece its own voice. He seeks to emphasize the liquid form of glass and retain the visibility of the frozen-molten state in the finished pieces, which he sees as the pivotal intersection of design, craft and art.

Derek Wilson

Derek Wilson’s work centers on his continuous exploration of the altered vessel, the fluidity and quality of a line, an angle, a plane. He is concerned with the space the form creates and its interior and exterior. For this exhibition, Wilson has produced a continuation of formal compositions and multiple assemblages within his series of constructed vessels, with a development of ceramic surface applications. On view will be a combination of vessels and wall pieces in stoneware and porcelain, together with groupings and collections of new domestic and utilitarian pieces. An unapologetic thrower focused on his approach to making, Wilson consistently challenges his discipline, combining his minimal aesthetic with accomplished craftsmanship, material knowledge and a propensity to propel modern ceramics through the reinterpretation of its form.

Sue Paraskeva

Sue Paraskeva’s multidisciplinary conceptual practice comprises stand-alone pieces, installation, film and tableware which is collectively defined by a distinct language. Her current work is rooted in traditional techniques, thrown forms made on the wheel, firing in real flame kilns and using natural wood ash and the reduction flame to add unpredictable embellishment, allowing the ash deposits to flow around the pieces with the flame to create individual patina during a 14-hour firing. Throwing the finest porcelain forms and dramatically altering them, she responds to these intuitive accidents as a language that she has been refining for many years. Domestic tableware is a separate area of her production whose significance is derived from the enjoyment that the daily use of these beautiful functional wares brings.

Liam Lee

Liam Lee is an American artist and designer based in New York whose work is concerned with the dissolution of the boundary between interior and exterior space, between man-made object and what constitutes the natural environment. His work attempts to collapse space and draws on forms from the natural world that range in scale from the microscopic to the topographic. In his textile work, he is loosely playing with the idea of textiles as representations of the space of the garden—which is itself a microcosm of a well-ordered universe. He is interested in the garden as an assertion of control over nature, in the closing off and shaping a portion of wilderness over time and in so doing, rendering the world comprehensible. The hope is that the textile panels—like the space of the garden—function as a meditative space that viewers can project themselves into.

Photo: Jochen Holz, Clear Borosilicate Glass Standing Light Sculpture, 2022 © Jochen Holz. Photo: Michael Everett