Moyra Elliott just informed me of an excellent post on Damian Skinner’s Paua Dreams website that I’d almost missed the last time I was checking out his site. In his post, Skinner addresses the issue of craft artist representation within the contemporary art world. The answers to this problem are definitively buried within the scope of each craft discipline and it does appear, as Skinner points out, that jewellers are currently playing the contemporary ‘art game’ more successfully than ceramists, glass and textiles artists.
As Skinner illustrates, the issue is relatively simple: with the exception of several contemporary art galleries that represent a select few jewellery makers, craft focused dealer galleries – the predominant exhibiting venue for jewellers – in NZ are usually a little out of tune with the workings of the contemporary art system. I won’t be surprised when when a ‘maker’ breaks through to Walters-type acclaim, but in the current climate it’s more than likely that it won’t be someone singled out from a craft gallery exhibition alone.
Sarah Sadd of Masterworks may have had to feel Skinner’s heat in relation to this issue (refer to the post), but Damian is in no way discriminating against the importance of galleries such as Masterworks. I can’t think of a better way to describe the current situation as when he summarises: “Either craft plays the fine art game so it can be eligible for the Walters Prize, or the Walters Prize (and the art world that sustains it) is transformed and old hierarchies are dismantled. To imagine otherwise is naïve, and that just gives fine art another reason not to take craft seriously.”
A Bloc Carpentry Matt Blomeley 
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