Personal and collective stories about place and the need for belonging are woven tightly into the textile art of South African contemporary artist Igshaan Adams. His richly layered visual language brings together everyday ephemera from his home town, including shells, nylon rope, strips of fabric, plied cords, and beads. But it is also conceptually bound…
All posts by Rosie Lesso
Egyptian-French artist Ghada Amer has a widely varied practice spanning sculpture, printmaking, video and installation, but she is arguably best known for her alternative embroidered paintings. From a distance, they might look like expressionistic canvases, but peek closer and they are laced with hidden elements of erotica aimed not for the male gaze, but for…
Indulgent shades of crimson and plum like Red Lilac were a recurring feature in the work of French intimiste painter Edouard Vuillard, depicting the lavish interiors and elaborately dressed women that set the stage for his life in late 19th and early 20th century Paris. Predominantly a painter of quiet, intimate indoor scenes brimming with…
With a history spanning five centuries, the Navajo (or Diné) weavers of the Southwest United States are among the greatest and most influential innovators the US has ever produced. Their traditional weavings and garments throughout American history are undoubtedly fascinating artefacts with rich stories to tell about the lives and spiritual beliefs of Native Americans….
Muted, elegant shades of grey and brown like UMBRA were transformed in the hands of Joseph Mallord William Turner into leaden skies and turbulent seas, capturing a raw and brutal side of nature capable of destroying anything in its midst. In Turner’s late paintings, we see the sublime awe and drama of sea storms coming…
Look closely at any traditional bordered garment made by the Navajo Weavers of Arizona, and it is likely that you’ll notice a small, but deliberate imperfection; a line of contrasting thread running from the inner design field into the outer layer. This line of thread is a release point from where the maker’s ch’ihónít’i, or…
Fashion designer and multi-disciplinary artist Adriana Meunié makes work which responds to the traditional materials and crafts of Mallorca, where she grew up and now resides. She works with raw, organic materials such as wool and raffia to create weavings and garments loaded with richly sensorial, tactile properties, asking us to consider their roots as…
The warm, soft hue of CAMEL can be seen throughout the art of daring French realist painter Gustave Courbet, a raw, human, and naturalistic hue that allowed him to convey the humble, truthful elements of nature with great clarity and honesty. While Courbet might have attracted the most controversy and attention for his politicised figurative…
With her remarkable sleight of hand, American Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt was able to capture the breezy, airy effortlessness of daylight falling across the clothing and skin of her subjects. Cool pastel shades like BLUE QUARTZ were one tool in her armoury that she would return to over and over, for its ability to convey…
Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer made art that was imbued with shades of pale gold like HOLLAND, drenching his intimate, ordinary scenes with glowing, radiant light. In comparison with his peers, Vermeer made a comparatively small body of work, producing only around 45 in his lifetime, and of those, only 36 are known today….
Rhiannon Griego’s striking textile art is a fusion of old and new, merging the geometric patterns of modernity with the ancient practices of weaving. While on the one hand she draws on her family’s long history of weaving in New Mexico, she also takes a fresh new approach, responding intuitively to the rhythms, patterns and…
Swedish mid-20th century artist Birgit Skiöld was a pioneer in printmaking, a serial experimenter who skilfully merged traditional printing techniques with playful abstract motifs that hint at the movements and patterns of nature. Much of her work was elemental and ephemeral, made up of wispy, uneven lines and ghostly, barely-there colours, but rich, dark blues…
There is a remarkable symbiosis between Sara Buscaglia’s life and work; she seamlessly blends her charmingly old school textile art – mostly exquisitely handcrafted quilts, but also knitting and clothing – with running a successful and prolific organic farm, where she is currently raising a family of four children alongside her husband. Based in La…
The paintings of Swedish visionary Hilma af Klint are filled with quiet wonder, gateways into their own private spiritual realms where looping floral patterns intersect with floating geometric patterns. Each artwork she made was invested with her own codified language of signs and symbols that pointed to her fascination with abstract, ethereal forces beyond the…
Swiss designer and artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp was one of the most significant and influential voices of the early 20th century, with a multidisciplinary practice that spanned embroidery, beadwork, textiles, painting, sculpture, furniture design and more. She successfully blurred the boundaries between fine art and design, bringing the same inventive, playful and instantly eye-catching brand of…
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