HERE & NOW > contemporary tapestry

A touring exhibition of 21 international contemporary artists working with traditional Gobelin tapestry techniques.

What we set out to do

The first exhibition of contemporary tapestry artists in England since 1994. To demonstrate that woven tapestry has a role in telling the narratives of our time, challenging the notion that woven tapestry is no longer relevant in the digital age.

What we achieved

An exhibition that brought together tapestry artists from the UK, Japan, Australia, Canada, the USA, Latvia, Finland and Norway. All the work had not been shown in England previously. The exhibition opened at the National Centre for Craft and Design in October 2016, toured to the Midland Arts Centre in April 2017 and the Holburne Museum Bath June 2017. 2 Japanese exhibitors gave workshops at the National Centre for Art and Design for schools and the Holburne Museum hosted an international conference.

Statistics

Over 300,000 visitors
Catalogue re-printed 4 times

The catalogue has now SOLD OUT after the fourth reprint! … but you can now view it below.

Artists

Joan Baxter (UK)
Working with the Scottish Highland landscape and mythology

Sara Brennan (UK)
Working with the Scottish landscape and in particular a forest outside Edinburgh

Jilly Edwards (UK)
Working with the English landscape and has created a special 52 week woven diary for the exhibition.

Yasuko Fujino (Japan) 
Working with nature, in particular the garden.

Barbara Heller (Canada)
Work reflects current affairs, in this case the terrible effects of landmines.

Fiona Hutchison (UK)
Work based on her experience of the sea

Aino Kajaniemi (Finland)
Mythological and magical figures.

Valerie Kirk (Australia)
Work based in the Australian landscape and fossilised traces

Ieva Krumina (Latvia)
Creates her own mythologies

Rolands Krutovs (Latvia)
Poetic response to loving and letting go

Ai Ito (Japan)
A commentary on her travels through Baltic cities

Ayako Matsumura (Japan)
A response to pressures on women and their body image

Caron Penney (UK)
A forthright response to the financial crash and reprcussions

Erin M. Riley (USA)
Using the Selfie to highlight the immediacy and indescretions of the internet

Fiona Rutherford (UK)
Vibrant abstract work as a response to current events

Kristin Sæterdal (Norway)
Using fantasy imagery to create stories

Philip Sanderson (UK)
Using waste materials to challenge assumptions about tapestry

Saori Sakai (Japan)
Manga imagery, high energy city life

Tonje Høydahl Sørli (Norway)
Works with recognisable cartoon figures and images to comment on contemporary life

Pat Taylor (UK)
Working with ideas about the visible and invisible using the faces of the famous and those who surround us and are unnoticed

Misao Watanabe (Japan)
Huge and beautiful nature-scapes in deep resonant colour, where all is not as it seems.

Images: Electric Egg courtesy of NCCD