Jerwood Contemporary Makers

The X- Factor for knitters, interactive wallpaper and objects transformed by mutating marine organisms will fill the Jerwood Space in the next Jerwood Contemporary Makers exhibition. Seven makers whose practices are transforming the ways we think about craft have been selected for the 2009 show.

Responding to the theme of Impact, these emerging makers will be presenting work that explores the unknown, the virtual, the risk and desire of making.

This exhibition will acknowledge how today's craft operates in society - connecting through social interaction and collaboration between people and disciplines, as well as inhabiting the spaces of consumer society: the factory, the retail environment, the home and the garbage tip.

The seven makers have been selected by award winning designer and environmental researcher Rebecca Earley, product and furniture designer Tomoko Azumi and exhibitions manager at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Andy Horn. They will be awarded an equal share of a GBP 30,000 prize to take part in the exhibition. They are:

Committee - product design, Linda Florence - surface textiles, Julia Lohmann - design object installation, Geoffrey Mann - glass, Rachael Matthews - knitting, Claire Norcross - lighting, Ismini Samanidou - weaving.