There’s been a huge surge of interest in textile and craft-based art in recent years. Art/craft hierarchies have been dismantled, and craft’s ‘promotion’ from the traditionally feminine sphere of the domestic into the historically masculine fine art world appears to be complete. Fibre arts – knitting and crochet, embroidery and tapestry, weaving and felting – are now regularly on show at major museums around the world. Here, I offer my pick of textile pieces to buy in Sussex.
Jessica Wood
Alice Kettle, Blue, 2023. Thread on linen 44x37cm. £3,200 (excluding frame).
Tutored by Terry Frost, Mali Morris and Albert Irvin, Alice Kettle creates colourful works which have a distinctly painterly quality. She mixes hand, machine and digital embroidery, and has established ‘a unique area of practice in stitch, consistently and on an unparalleled scale’, according to the V&A Museum. Her work is held in over 20 major international art collections.
Georgina Maxim, To the Plants Growing Through Concrete, mixed media, textile. 156x151cm.
The Zimbabwean artist was chosen to represent her country at the Venice Biennale in 2019 and her career has been on an upward trajectory ever since. Her politically-charged sculptural work was selected as one of ten highlights at London Art Fair last year, and is included in Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art at Barbican. Maxim is represented by Koop Projects, a Brighton gallery that specialises in contemporary African artists.
Momoka Gomi, Study 10. Denim fabric, 100% cotton, heat transfer foil. 30x30cm framed.
This young artist appeared on the BBC’s Make it at Market last September. She is fascinated by how woven fabric mirrors the ageing process. ‘Like denim and skin, woven cloth can embrace notions of personal expression and lived experiences through the passage of time.’ You can see her work in ‘Cloth and Clay’ at Arundel’s Gallery 57 until April 27.