Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles

Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles illuminated the diverse roles textiles play in artistic practice.

The exhibition brought together artists who take the intimate and domestic quality of textiles and transform them into theatrical, bold, unsettling and humorous artworks that inspire, challenge and offer new ways of thinking.

Featuring work created predominantly over the last decade by 15 UK-based artists, Material Worlds highlighted their deep awareness of textiles’ cultural history and a shared desire to challenge its traditional associations, testing the material’s expansive and subversive potential.

The exhibition saw the familiar fabric of everyday life reimagined into the unexpected – the ordinary made extraordinary – to reflect on ideas of gender, identity, community, race, technology, and myth; demonstrating the medium’s potential to transform in the hands of different artists.

Featured artists

Among the artists featured in the exhibition were Caroline Achaintre, Jonathan Baldock, Phyllida Barlow, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Alexandre da Cunha, Holly Hendry, Tonico Lemos Auad, Paul Maheke, Anna Perach, Yelena Popova, Paloma Proudfoot, Yinka Shonibare, Rae-Yen Song, Tenant of Culture and Zadie Xa.

Partners

Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles was curated by Caroline Achaintre with Hayward Gallery Touring, in partnership with Mead Gallery, Djanogly Gallery and The Wilson Gallery.