Katharine Swailes, Artist-weaver

Katherine Swailes is a renowned artist/weaver who creates handwoven tapestries. She uses a minimal number of techniques and materials, focusing on the core skills used in traditional tapestry weaving and favouring wool, linen, cotton. These materials are the focus of two bodies of work: Colourfield tapestries, using wools she dyes plein air in her garden, and the Glyphs and Loops series, in which she uses cotton and linen to investigate the binary nature of weaving, as well as humanity’s relationship with the craft. Swailes’ works are held in national and private collections worldwide. She has exhibited at Collect with Cavaliero Finn, at Pallant House Gallery and Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset, among others. In 2016 and 2019 she was shortlisted for the Cordis prize, received the Theo Moorman Award in 2016, and was a finalist for the Kate Derum Award in 2017 and 2019.