Whether abstract, figurative, or somewhere in between, the epic, shimmering and painterly fabric installations made by African-born artist Abdoulaye Konaté reflect on Africa’s great history with textiles, and the political implications bound into every single stitched layer. Currently living and working in Bamako, he says, “My works witness and speak of power struggles which have…
Category Archives: TEXTILES
In the hands of contemporary artist Faig Ahmed, traditional Azerbaijani rugs are given a fantastically surreal twist, with elements that seem to warp, melt, and dissolve into puddles on the gallery floor. An intricate fusion of high quality, traditional weaving techniques and digital design, his visually arresting artworks speak of a need to keep ancient…
From vast, cascading curtains of silk to hand-woven fishing nets, contemporary artist Carolina Caycedo has worked with a wide range of fabrics and textiles, deftly interweaving their tactile properties into her conceptual practice. Her most recent art is an examination into the social divisions and oppressions surrounding the privatization of water, working closely with communities…
History and memory are bound into the textile art of contemporary artist Ibrahim Mahama, who works with found, archival fabrics that have associations with Ghanian history, colonialism, and post-colonialism. It is worth noting that fabric is just one strand of his multifarious practice, which involves sourcing and transforming vast collections of similar found objects and…
As a sewist, you’ve probably heard the term “deadstock” circulating in fashion and sewing circles, but it’s not just another buzzword—it’s the coveted material for DIY enthusiasts and eco-conscious designers alike. But what exactly is deadstock fabric, and why is it on the radar of home sewists? Deadstock fabric is like a rare jewel of…
The French Fauvist painter Andre Derain made paintings of France that were charged with electrifyingly bolts of colour, including the blazing shade of ochre seen in YELLOW Linen. Along with Henri Matisse and Maurice de Vlaminck (among others) they spearheaded a new brand of painting that moved beyond the real world into the realms of…
The soft sculptures of Maria A. Guzmán Capron depict larger-than-life curvy, vibrant characters whose joyful effervescence reflects the rich complexity of Capron’s multicultural identity, which spans Europe, South America and the United States. She says, “I need a variety of sources, because that is the only way I will approximate the complexity of a self…
Last fall, my family and I relocated to a small rural town south of Phoenix, Arizona—a stark contrast to our previous urban lifestyle just minutes from downtown LA. One of the things I knew I would miss was the easy access to the Fabric District, where I could find endless bolts of deadstock fabrics. As…
Chilean arpilleras might at first look like playful, whimsical patchworks, featuring brightly coloured houses, scattered children and blazing suns. But closer inspection reveal that they are a potent, emotionally raw form of resistance and rebellion, one that emerged during the brutalist regime of Augusto Pinochet from 1973-1989. While women were forced into submissive silence by…
There is a quiet, understated elegance in the art of French painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, whose dreamlike paintings and murals came to encapsulate the spirit of late 19th century Symbolism. His timeless models, adorned in drapes and gowns, drift through panoramic scenes, where muted shades like PALE GREEN spill out onto the ground or…
French 19th century artist Eugene Boudin captured vast, soaring skies filled with flickering patches of dappled cloud, which flit between soft shades of pale grey, light blue, and the hazy lilac grey of Grey Pearl. His mastery of cloud painting even prompted Barbizon painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot to coin Boudin as the “king of the skies.”…
Scottish artist and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh might be best remembered for his Art Nouveau architecture and furniture, but he was also a highly skilled painter who made distinctive, stylised paintings of flowers and landscapes filled with quiet, understated wonder. Cool, crisp shades of metallic green like Laurel Leaf were a recurring feature of his…
The colossal, tactile artworks of contemporary Ghanaian artist El Anatsui have a ghostly, liminal quality that is impossible to pin down, hovering somewhere between sculpture, woven textile, and installation. Made from salvaged scraps of plastic, wood, and, most recently shiny metal, his suspended structures perform the challenging trick of turning discarded scraps into treasure; whether…
Bands of horizon where sky meets and merges with water were a recurring theme in the art of the Symbolist painter James Abbot McNeill Whistler, flooding his canvases with the atmospheric light of a faraway dream. As much as Whistler is known as the painter of the night with his sombre, subtle ‘Nocturnes’ series, he…
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…
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