Why you should incorporate textile art into your home

MAY WE SUGGEST: How to decorate with wallhangings and tapestry

Coming up is Collect, the Craft Council’s annual fair, taking place at Somerset House at the end of February – look out for Caron Penney’s latest piece, The Red Line, in the Collect Open rooms; citing Joseph Albers and Agnes Martin as influences, there is also a contemporary political undertone to much of her work, and this one refers to the climate crisis, the refugee crisis, and more. Running over similar dates is the Broderer’s Exhibition at the Bankside Gallery which is organised by the Worshipful Company of Broderers, one of the ancient livery companies of the City of London; among the planned exhibits is a piece by Caren Garfen, whose work has recently begun to examine the uncomfortable rise of anti-Semitism across the world. Finally, a Sheila Hicks retrospective opens at the Hepworth Wakefield in April; the American-born, French-based artist is renowned for her innovative and experimental weavings and sculptures that incorporate colour, natural materials and personal narratives.

There are many other artists to seek out. Richard McVetis records time and space through multiples of meticulously hand-embroidered dots, lines and crosses. Lawrence Calver works within the idiom of modernist painting, sewing, bleaching, stretching and staining fabric while celebrating the beauty of materials that already have a history. Emily Mackey often brings plants, straw and rush into her weaving and embroidery practice, alongside linen and silk brocade. Sergio Roger – who is featured in the February issue of House & Garden, which is on newsstands now – creates ‘soft sculptures’, using remnants of antique linen which he stitches, drapes and quilts into busts, statues and ionic columns that resemble the Greek and Roman stone originals. Last but by no means least is Tom Hickman, who you’ll need to find via Robert Young Antiques rather than on Instagram; he lives and works alone on a croft on the Isle of Lewis with no telephone or Wifi and embroiders charmingly naïve landscape and figurative details onto scrap pieces of locally woven Harris Tweed.

You will have noticed the swerve in focus between aesthetics, story-telling and political cause, which is consistent with the history of textile art. In the mid 16^th century the imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots embroidered her cousin Queen Elizabeth I as a marmalade cat wearing a crown. In the early 20^th century embroidery became revolutionary in the hands of the suffragettes, while at the same time in Russia – where traditionally it was a peasant art – it was taken up by the avant-garde artists Natalia Goncharova and Liubov Popova for ornamental use. The range of subject and level of decoration ensures a broad appeal that is only increased by the tactile nature of these works. “The material lets us feel connected again. Fibre becomes a vessel that allows us to connect to the past, to different countries, to each other’s stories,” remarks Harry Thorne, Director of Alison Jacques Gallery. Which is all any of us want, and to which end it’s worth knowing that, so long as it’s not in direct sunlight, textile art does not have to be glazed.