Bauhaus textile artist and weaver Otti Berger was one of the greatest innovators of her generation, producing a dazzling array of complex and intricate fabrics that have inspired generations since. During her time as a student and later a teacher with the legendary German Bauhaus school she was endlessly inventive, experimenting wildly with weaving methods…
Category Archives: WOMEN IN ART
A self-proclaimed ‘late developer,’ fibre artist Claire Zeisler hit her stride during the early 1960s when she was nearly 60 years old, taking the United States art world by storm. Along with her contemporaries Lenore Tawney and Sheila Hicks, Zeisler became an outspoken, radical pioneer in the Fibre Art movement, taking the historical tradition of…
American textile artist Ethel Stein merged historical weaving techniques with dazzling geometric designs influenced by the Bauhaus School in a career spanning more than six decades. Throughout this time, she demonstrated a remarkable ability to weave simple, elegant designs that balance ordered geometry with off-kilter, destabilized elements of chaos. Little wonder then, that her art…
German textile artist Gunta Stölzl was a remarkable early 20th century weaver with an innate sensibility for the sensuous, tactile qualities of weaving. Her fantastically complex designs are a true feast for the eyes, and even today appear remarkably fresh, with their dizzying geometric patterns, shapes and colours that seem to buzz and hum with…
Known today as the “mother of modern weaving,” Dorothy Liebes had a monumental impact on textile design. She sparked a new wave of fabric production with her unconventional materials, unusual textures and boldly imaginative motifs. During her lifetime she became one of most successful and influential designers of the entire 20th century, with an incredible…
One of India’s most gifted artists, Mrinalini Mukherjee tracked new and unchartered territory with her painstakingly intricate and monumentally scaled woven sculptures, that could each take her up to a year to complete. Working with dyed natural fibres including jute and rope, she created anthropomorphic structures resembling biomorphic forms, each one invested with its own…
American fibre artist Lenore Tawney is world renowned for her ghostly, ephemeral weavings and tapestries, which emulated the ethereal forces of nature, such as water, translucency and light. From the 1960s onwards she was one of a generation of textile artists including Anni Albers and Sheila Hicks who dissolved the boundaries between textile design and…
From canopies made of recycled t-shirts and architectural wall-hangings to vast garments made for multiple wearers, Mexican artist Pia Camil is constantly experimenting with the boundaries of textile art, pushing it in a series of exciting and unexpected directions. She is particularly interested in breaking down the pretensions of the art world, namely the utopian…
There is a sensorial quality to the work of the award-winning, London-based textile artist Alice Burnhope, tapping in to our primal needs for touch, comfort, warmth, and a connection to the natural world. Burnhope creates experimental forms of wearable art and sustainable textiles made from recycled fabrics in soft, ambient tones and hues, coloured with…
The life of American textile artist Judith Scott is a remarkable story – one of struggle, survival, and strength found through the power of creativity. Born with Down’s Syndrome and diagnosed as deaf, Scott spent much of her early life in a care home. Years later, through the encouragement of her sister Joyce, Judith uncovered…
Carrie Mae Weems is one of the most radical photographers to emerge out of contemporary America. In her deeply emotive imagery, she examines how our social relationships define who we are, and give us a sense of belonging in an increasingly uncertain world. Perhaps it’s no surprise then, that Weems became a mother at a…
Contemporary American fibre artist Sarah Zapata reworks the ancient traditions of weaving for the 21st century, playing with how technicoloured yarns, shaggy textures and garish colour clashes can be transformed into larger-than-life sculptures and installations. Her work may appear entirely new and experimental, but she insists it pays homage to the history of Peruvian woven…
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,…
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…
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