Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Show 2022 - Textile Galleries - Part 2 - The 62 Group & The Fine Art Textiles Award

Ann Goddard - Microcosm

It's 60 years since the 62 Group was established.  Their aims were to promote textile art, to be shown in prestigious venues, to be well publicised and to be taken seriously, on a par with other fine art practices.  In this exhibition - Essence - members were asked to present work that reflected the "essence" of their textile practice.  Each work could be no larger than 30x30x30cm.  

Shuna Rendel - Cycles of Time

It was a great exhibition & here I'm sharing with you some of my favourite pieces from it.  If you head over to the 62 Group website you can watch the Essence film where the artists talk about their work.  It's well worth watching.

Maggie Henton - Kept in Place

Hannah Lamb - The Garden Within

Heather Belcher - Becoming Undone

Caren Garfen - Babes in the Wood

Debbie Lyddon - Sand & Salt Bag

Helen Banzhaf - Three in a Row

The Fine Art Textiles Award supported by the Open College of the Arts recognises the creative talents and skills of exceptional textile artists.  These are the pieces that caught my attention... 

Jane Walkley - Rhythm of the Weave 3 

Jane Walkley's piece used clay impressions of mill artefacts that were then cast in jesmonite together with mill debris. These were then included in her woven piece trying to capture the repetitive rhythm of a mill worker's daily experience.

Judith E Martin - Underfoot the Earth Divine

Judith E Martin's piece was inspired by the vast rural Canadian landscape. Her dyed, machined pieced fabrics were hand quilted, resembling a ploughed field. 

Marian Jazmik - Stems & Stalks

Marian Jazmik's abstract textile art, using a variety of synthetic materials, free machine embroidery and heat treatment, is inspired by the shapes and textures of the natural environment captured through her macro photography.

The exhibitions at the Knitting & Stitching Show are always inspirational you can read my other blog post about the textile galleries here.

Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Show 2022 - Textile Galleries - Part 1

 

Archana Pathak - In Lure of New Worlds

I went to the Knitting & Stitching Show in Harrogate recently.  It's my annual textile treat - a chance to be inspired by some wonderful textile artists, try your hand at a workshop or two if you like, pick up some advice and stock up on materials if you need any.  I love it!

Archana Pathak - Materials

This year I concentrated on the exhibitions in the Textile Galleries.  My favourite was Mapping Transience by Archana Pathak.  Archana grew up in India but now lives in London and her work explores the interplay of memory, place, identity and belonging.  She collects together postcards, letters, diaries and maps, deconstructs them and transforms them into something new.  I particularly liked her use of maps to form the threads she uses to handstitch her work. 

Archana Pathak - Transient Boundaries 

In her work in progress piece - Our World Our Making, Archana uses an old British colonial map to subtly show how allocated boundaries have been shifting in time..

Archana Pathak - Our World Our Making

James Fox in Cycling, Cloth & Conflict had some interesting and humorous work based on the bicycle and the changes it brought particularly for women. Fabulous machine stitching...

James Fox - Nothing To Lose

Aran Illingworth's Portrayal of Poverty was very moving, shining a spotlight on poverty, homelessness and displacement around the world.  Her work is richly handstitched.

Aran Illingworth - When We Were Very Young

Maggie Scott's Five Times More reflects on experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood and highlights that people of colour are at much higher risk in the British healthcare system during pregnancy and childbirth than their white counterparts...

Maggie Scott - One Hundred and Twenty-One

Maggie Scott - One Hundred and Twenty-One (detail)

Maggie uses digital printing, nuno felting and handstitch in her work.

Vivienne Beaumont - Mother & Daughter: The Message

Vivienne Beaumont's printed and machine stitched works of myths and stories were fascinating in her Seeds, Flowers & Flowing Hair exhibition.  Above, the myth of Demeter and Persephone examines the mother daughter relationship and the seasons.

Marcia Bennett-Male - Twenty Twenty Two

Marcia Bennett-Male may be better known in some circles for her stone carving and sculpting.  The Knitting & Stitching Show presented the first solo exhibition - Moments to Myself - of Marcia's textile works. Her vibrant handstitched appliques use chintz to represent England, where Marcia was brought up, and Dutch/African wax prints to represent her Afro-Caribbean background and address a wide spectrum of concerns relating to the depiction of Black women in history and myth to a more personal view on Black female mental health in our society.

So that's my quick taster of some of the exhibiting artists at the Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Show this year - more to come.  There are links to each artist if you want to find out more.  Hope you enjoyed it!