Laetitzia Campbell - On Your Way Home, What Did You Find? - David Parr House, Cambridge

Laetitzia Campbell - Yesterday's Light, 2025
Screen print, machine-embroidery, hand-embroidery on linen
Cotton & polyester thread

 

Laetitzia Campbell's On Your Way Home, What Did You Find? is currently showing  at the David Parr House in Gwydir Street, Cambridge until 23 May 2026.  Laetitzia Campbell is a British-French textile artist with Jamaican heritage.  We are told that the works in this exhibition draw on Campbell's father's childhood journey home from school in Jamaica, evoking memories that shape our sense of home.

Laetitzia Campbell - Memories of Calmer Times, 2025
Machine and hand-embroidery on cotton
Cotton & polyester thread

Her works are shown alongside the Richard Hopkins Leach travel journal, which also records a journey...

A Journal with Delineations of Nature Principally of Cornwall; Journal of the Tour, 1814
Richard Hopkins-Leach - Illustrated & Handwritten Journal

My favourite of the Campbell's pieces is Yesterday's Light (top image) which is mostly hand stitched and is a sizeable piece.

Laetitzia Campbell - Sombre Metamorphosis iii, 2025
Machine and hand-embroidery on cotton
Cotton & polyester thread

The pieces that are machine stitched use a zigzag stitch which is unusual in machine stitched textile art as a free-machined straight stitch is more common.

Laetitzia Campbell - Bright Night Sun, 2025
Machine and hand-embroidery on cotton
Cotton & polyester thread

The David Parr House is a typical Cambridge terraced house with an amazing hand-painted interior. It was home to the Victorian working-class artist David Parr and his family for over 125 years. As a rare survival of Arts and Crafts workmanship in a modest domestic setting,  it is well worth a visit. The David Parr House is a short walk from Cambridge main station (15 minutes) and is just off Mill Road on Gwydir Street.  Sustenance is available at the very pleasant Hot Numbers cafe on Gwydir Street or any number of places on Mill Road including Mill Mediterranean Coffee Spot.

Mill Mediterranean Coffee Spot

You can visit the exhibition and the shop anytime from Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm but if you want to visit the house, which is very interesting, you have to book a timed ticket (Thursday to Saturday).

Thread - Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London

Wycliffe Stutchbury - Shore Road (detail), 2025
Salvaged western red cedar shingles on cotton twill

 

At the Sarah Myerscough Gallery in London, we are told that this is an exhibition of contemporary woven work but I think the title "Thread" sums it up better. Nineteen international artists show their work here deriving their "thread" from recycled rubber, roots, flax, feathers, cotton, raffia, reeds and more.  On until the 16 May this exhibition is definitely worth a look.  Here are some of my favourites...

Wycliffe Stutchbury - Shore Road (detail), 2025
Salvaged western red cedar shingles on cotton twill

I loved the variation in colours, shapes and textures of Stutchbury's piece

Diana Scherer - Apical #6, 2025
Plant root textile and jute

Diana Scherer's work is fascinating.  She develops her root textile pieces by growing her plants through specially designed moulds.

Lucy Williams - Where things rest, 2026
Californian pine needles, lapping cane, dried seaweed, mixed leaves, wood, linen, cotton mixed seeds and flax thread

Lucy Williams' small scale forms were quite a contrast to a lot of the large scale work on show.  I wanted to pick them up and examine them.

Patrick Bongoy - In the Wind, 2026
Rubber inner tubing, valves on board

Patrick Bongoy's pieces had a certain amount of drama and looked like creatures about to approach. They are created from strips of recycled inner tubing braided, woven and stitched.

Taylor Kibby -Double Skin 14, 2025 
Terracotta, embroidery thread, steel wire and glass beads

I was amazed to discover that Kibby's pieces, which looked like knitting from a distance, were actually made of terracotta.

Aude Franjou - Forest Nests
Sculpted linen dyed in shades of green

Franjou's linen fibre, wrapped in linen twine, looked like sinuous root forms and were indeed intended to look like plant forms.

Ann Coddington - Constellation, Set 1, 2025
Mixed Fibres

Coddington uses a number of techniques to make her basket-like forms, some of which resemble parts of the body

Annette Mills - Both Sides Now, 2026,
Jute, willow bark, waxed twine & raffia,
Enclosed 3, 2025
Willow, willow bark, daffodil leaf, linen, jute, raffia & cane
 Enclosed 2, 2025
Willow, daffodil leaf and cane

Mills densely layers her plant materials using basketry techniques

Lin Fanglu - She's Hill No 2, 2023
Cotton cloth and cotton thread

Lin Fanglu, winner of the 2021 Loewe prize, has gathered, wrapped and sculpted her cloth into a varied series of forms.  Everytime you look you see something new.

The Sarah Myerscough Gallery is at 18 Balderton Street, London which is not far from Selfridges.  It doesn't have a typical gallery front - you can't see the work from the street.  You have to ring a doorbell and be buzzed in.  Don't let this put you off.

Textile Art Redefined - Saatchi Gallery London

Ian Berry - The Secret Garden, 2026
Denim on denim

 

On until 10 May 2026, Textile Art Redefined is a free, one room, textile art exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London.  It's curated by Helen Adams (@textilecurator), author of Fine Art Textiles: Conversations with Artists Creating by Hand.  Adams is a great advocate for contemporary textile art.

Ian Berry - The Secret Garden, 2026

The exhibition showcases the work of over a dozen international textile artists. Here are some of my favourite pieces.  Most striking when you walk in, is Ian Berry's denim collage, The Secret Garden, which occupies one whole wall.  Up close it's fascinating, with more to see everytime you look.  It makes great use of the tonal variations of denim using both the front and back to give even greater variety. Looking carefully you can see the layers of denim collaged together.

Chiachio & Giannone - Conversacion sobre arte, 2022
Hand embroidered with cotton threads on toile de Jouy, quilt

I particularly liked Conversacion sobre arte, 2022 by Chiachio & Giannone more for the sum of the parts than the overall composition.

Chiachio & Giannone - Conversacion sobre arte (detail), 2022

Jenni Dutton -  Then a Moment Later She Smiled
Dementia Darnings  series, 2017
Fine wools sewn through bobbinet

Jenni Dutton's portrait of her mother during the progression of her dementia is both wonderful - so realistic, and incredibly sad.  I have seen the Dementia Darnings before and find them almost too difficult to look at.

Magda Sayeg - The Machine Gun, 2017
Replica of a Bushmaster XM15-E2S, acrylic mix triple worsted yarn, vintage children's sweaters
& Yoga Balls, 2025
Acrylic yarn , inflated PVC ball

I must include Magda Sayeg who set the world yarnstorming (knitted & crocheted graffiti), including me, after which I embarked on several successful commmunity art yarnstorming projects.

Simone Pheulpin - Lune de Bois ll, Croissance Series, 2025
Cotton folds & pins

I think Simone Pheulpin's piece looks just like a tree trunk cross section and must have taken hours as it is held together with pins.

Deniz Kurdak - Dysregulated, 2026
Polyester thread on duck canvas

This was a beautiful piece of machine embroidery by Deniz Kurdak.

Anne Von Freyburg - In Flight Mode (after Fragonard, The Swing), 2021
Textile wall installation painting: acrylic ink, synthetic fabrics, PVC fabric, tapestry fabric, sequin fabrics, hand embroidery, polyester wadding, and hand dyed tassel fringes on canvas

This enormous, colourful & clever piece would have benefitted from a picture of Fragonard's The Swing for reference.  You can see a picture of it here.

Other work on show included a great text piece by Sara Impey, tulle portraits by Benjamin Shine, colourful pieces by Signe Emdal, Kaffe Fasset & Kenny Nguyen.  Pieces by Caroline Burgess & Jakkai Siributr are also present.

The Saatchi Gallery has a number of exhibitions showing.  Some are free, some not.  There are lots of coffee shops and restaurants close by.  You can find the gallery on the King's Road, a short walk from Sloane Square tube.  You've still time to go see this exhibition and it's well worth going.

On a wall on the King's Road
Fashion is not frivolous it is part of being alive today - Mary Quant