IDEA, CONCEPT, FIRE
Enamel, Glass, Pâte de Verre - as Material Thought
5th September - 25th October 2026
5th September - 25th October 2026
Makers Guild Wales is delighted to bring to our audiences this autumn a fascinating insight into professional practice where vitreous materials are being applied for individual expression. Curated by artists Helen Carnac and Beate Gegenwart, the exhibition will include work by: Beate Gegenwart, Helen Carnac, Anthony Amoako-Attah, Joshua Kerley & Guy Marshall Brown, Anne Petters, Tracy Nicholls, Kirsten Haydon, Cóilin Ó Dubhghaill, Cara Murphy, David Rhys Jones, Christine Graf, Liana Pattihis, Jane Short
'The concept for the exhibition grew from a concern about the future of larger scale enamelling in the UK and beyond. Although Heritage Crafts currently classifies the technique as ‘alive’, its use among makers is in decline, and opportunities to learn enamelling are diminishing as it disappears from many educational programmes. The medium’s challenges — its technical complexity, high failure rate, labour-intensive processes, and material costs - have contributed to its gradual marginalisation, placing valuable skills and knowledge at risk. By expanding the scope to vitreous materials more broadly, the exhibition highlights the visual, material, and chemical connections between these practices, revealing shared processes of transformation through heat.
The works presented moves beyond enamel as a purely decorative or precious surface. Instead, vitreous materials are used to engage with political, personal, and environmental themes, where qualities such as fragility, permanence, risk, and transformation become central to meaning. By creating space for innovative and thought-provoking practice, this exhibition aims to challenge perceptions, open dialogue and encourage renewed engagement with vitreous materials as relevant, expressive and conceptually powerful forms of contemporary art.' Beate Gegenwart/Helen Carnac 2025
A programme of workshops and talks will run alongside the exhibition. Join our mailing list to keep up-to-date with our events and/or follow us on @MakersWales
'The concept for the exhibition grew from a concern about the future of larger scale enamelling in the UK and beyond. Although Heritage Crafts currently classifies the technique as ‘alive’, its use among makers is in decline, and opportunities to learn enamelling are diminishing as it disappears from many educational programmes. The medium’s challenges — its technical complexity, high failure rate, labour-intensive processes, and material costs - have contributed to its gradual marginalisation, placing valuable skills and knowledge at risk. By expanding the scope to vitreous materials more broadly, the exhibition highlights the visual, material, and chemical connections between these practices, revealing shared processes of transformation through heat.
The works presented moves beyond enamel as a purely decorative or precious surface. Instead, vitreous materials are used to engage with political, personal, and environmental themes, where qualities such as fragility, permanence, risk, and transformation become central to meaning. By creating space for innovative and thought-provoking practice, this exhibition aims to challenge perceptions, open dialogue and encourage renewed engagement with vitreous materials as relevant, expressive and conceptually powerful forms of contemporary art.' Beate Gegenwart/Helen Carnac 2025
A programme of workshops and talks will run alongside the exhibition. Join our mailing list to keep up-to-date with our events and/or follow us on @MakersWales