Pioneering Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz was a true force of nature, whose daring, provocative sculptures pushed textiles and fibre art in bold and unexpected new directions. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s she worked exclusively with weaving, producing vast and all-encompassing sculptures, called Abakans (a nod towards her surname) that were 5 or 6 metres high,…
Category Archives: PIONEERS
Award-winning textile artist Ekta Kaul has a deep-rooted connection to her Indian heritage, which she brings to her London-based practice today. In her hands, India’s Kantha stitching is a deeply tactile means of telling stories, weaving together references to history, place and belonging with tightly bound, intricate passages of thread on indulgent fabrics such as…
American fashion designer, textile, and performance artist Nick Cave has an uncanny ability to weave ordinary detritus, from sticks to stuffed-sock monkey dolls, crocheted doilies, repurposed sweaters, and dyed hair into the most fantastical, transformative costumes. The artist is best-known for his intricate, elaborate ‘Soundsuits’, which are designed to be both seen and heard, giving…
American artist Sheila Hicks creates whirlwinds of technicoloured thread, knotting, weaving, twisting and spinning dyed, natural yarns such as wool, linen and silk into richly tactile, all-consuming installations. Since the 1950s, Hicks has been producing woven sculptures of all shapes and sizes, pushing and pulling at the boundaries between art and textiles in order to…
Icelandic textile designer and artist Ýr Jóhannsdóttir has recently been making waves in the realms of fashion and textiles for her whimsical, colourful and fabulously eccentric garments, all produced under the label Yrurari. Knitting is the backbone of her practice, but her response to the craft is far from traditional, ranging from upcycling old jumpers…
London based artist Daisy May Collingridge’s eccentric, intricately layered ‘squishy sculptures’ break down the boundaries between fashion, costume and art in the most playful and humorous ways. She works with soft jersey, hand-dyed into delicate flesh tones to mime the delicate, shifting hues of human skin. These are stitched together in layer upon layer…
The quilters of Gee’s Bend have achieved worldwide recognition for transforming the act of quilting into an artform, one which they have passed from generation to generation over the past 200 years. Their work is now held in museums worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum and the Smithsonian. But it is only in recent years, thanks…
Hungarian-Indian painter Amrita Sher-Gil lived a short but immensely prolific life. Despite her untimely death at the age of 28, she had already produced hundreds of daring, Realist paintings that documented ordinary Indian women in a way like never before, portraying them preparing for weddings, at home, or in moments of private solitude and melancholy….
Since the late 1970s, British artist Rachel Scott has found remarkable ways of merging art and life into one. A weaver, sewer, mender and patchwork-maker, her legacy of creating is closely intertwined into her family life, as a mother to two now grown-up daughters, and the wife of the abstract expressionist painter Frank Bowling. Endlessly…
Dazzling patches of colour move through Alma Thomas’s art, forming concentric circles or cascading patterns of shimmering light and invoking the ethereal luminosity of spiritual realms. An African American artist based in Washington, Thomas found her voice in the 1960s, cementing her place in history as a pioneer of the Washington Colour School. As an…
Sustainability and zero waste might be buzz words in the world of fashion today, but legendary Belgian designer Martin Margiela was one of the first to experiment with the genre. From 1988 to 2008 he produced some of the most bizarre and eccentric garments the fashion world had seen, making necklaces from champagne corks or…
British-Iraqi designer Walid al Damirji is obsessed with fabric. His London studio is bursting to the brim with a fascinating treasure trove of historical textiles, from embroidered Chinese silk to Victorian taffeta, Edwardian linen and 19th century religious robes. This rich archive of collected fabrics is the backbone of his eponymous fashion brand By Walid,…
Swirling lines move through Georgiana Houghton’s art like loose threads or tangled masses of unruly hair. Now and again eyes or faces peep through their midst, meeting ours with a deep, penetrating gaze. A visionary artist and medium with remarkable foresight, Houghton pioneered an expressive language of abstraction that was well before her time. So…
Great towering spires of rock point towards the heavens, while clouds form dreamy, billowing puffs that drift out into endless space. This is the mystical, magical world of Russian-born, 20th century master Nicholas Roerich, a daydreamer who explored art as a pathway towards spiritual awakening. Throughout his long and incredibly prolific career Roerich sought various…
Swedish artist Hilma af Klint is one of the 20th century art world’s best-kept secrets. An abstract painter of extraordinary talent and foresight, she pioneered a deeply spiritual strand of abstraction centering around Theosophy, spirits, seances, and the occult long before her male counterparts like Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, and Kasimir Malevich. Yet she kept…
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