Contemporary textiles

ARC Painswick is delighted to present the second in their ARC Salon Exhibition Series, ‘Contemporary Textiles’ bringing together the work of notable contemporary artists, Cecilia Charlton, Emily Moore, Eva Dixon, Molly Kent, Selby Hurst Inglefield and Seugwon Jung. The exhibition draws its focus from Painswick’s history as a thriving centre of the Wool and Cloth Trade. The legacy of this industry lives on through many of the buildings still standing in the area, Well Farm dates from 1680 and remains largely unaltered, while the 18th century tower in Kemps Lane was first used to wash and hang wool in preparation for spinning. Including only female artists, the show pays particular homage to women’s role within this once-thriving industry as domestic workers who tirelessly spun the wool in their cottages. United by their chosen medium, each artist offers a fresh perspective on textile art for contemporary audiences, often pushing the medium to new extremes and toying with its potential limits. Taken together, their works can be read as a celebration of the intrinsically sensory nature of fabric, with pieces that embrace tension, texture and tactility.