Fabric of Life: GROUP EXHIBITION
Paul Smith Space
The Fabric of Life was an exhibition that explored how contemporary artists used textiles to express personal, social and cultural narratives. Bringing together an international and intergenerational group of practitioners, the exhibition presented work made through weaving, embroidery, sewing, dyeing, tufting, collage, digital processes and painting. The versatility of textile materials allowed for pieces ranging from figuration to abstraction, and from wall-based works to three-dimensional forms.
Textiles have long held a central place in global cultural traditions, preserving histories, acting as forms of communication and resistance, and serving as sources of identity and empowerment. The exhibition highlighted this continuity through both historic reference points and contemporary practice. Quilting traditions rooted in African American history, for example, informed the work of artists such as Tina Williams Brewer, Ferren Gipson and Basil Kinkaid, who addressed themes including racial injustice, resilience and generational memory.
The artists featured in the exhibition employed textiles in ways that were both traditional and experimental, challenging the historical marginalisation of textile practices within the Western art canon. Their work reflected conversations around identity, origin, race, gender and the shifting boundaries between art and craft. Anne von Freyburg reinterpreted Rococo aesthetics through brightly coloured silks; Anya Paintsil drew on her Welsh and Ghanaian heritage through family rug-hooking techniques; Sarah Zapata referenced Peruvian textile traditions while examining her hybrid identity; Delphine Dénéreaz adapted Mediterranean Lirette weaving for contemporary narratives; Allison Reimus and Erin Riley used fabric to examine domesticity, motherhood and the impact of contemporary image culture.
The exhibition also acknowledged the deep symbolic histories associated with textiles, including mythology, psychology and ideas of repair. Several artists reflected these themes in their work. Bea Bonafini’s soft, shifting forms suggested transitional states; Alice Kettle’s embroidered threads emerged from a personal process of remembering and healing; Tiffanie Delune combined dream imagery and memory; Emma Talbot used sewn surfaces to explore the duality of fragility and strength; Camilla Emson’s practice connected body and mind through tactile processes; and Carolina Mazzolari’s stitched, hand-dyed textiles mapped emotional landscapes.
Collectively, the artists in The Fabric of Life demonstrated the continuing relevance and expressive potential of textiles, expanding and redefining the possibilities of this historically resonant medium.
