ATELIER
Weftfaced.
London Craft Week
Future Icons Select
Katharine Swailes & Caron Penney
Atelier Weftfaced is excited to be showing Katharine Swailes collection of dark Glyphs & Loops, her largest singular colourfield tapestry to date and a selection of tapestries dedicated to the grid by Caron Penney with Future Icons Select this coming Spring during London Craft Week.
The event opens to the public on the 11th - 14th May 2023 from 12 - 6pm with a preview on the 10th May from 6 - 9pm and you can find Atelier Weftfaced on level 3, room 10 of the Bargehouse, OXO Tower Wharf, Bargehouse Street, South Bank, SE1 9PH.
Key Highlights
Katharine Swailes' abstract works Glyphs and Loops deceptively minimal in their construction consider the tactility of the cotton and linen fibres. Volume and density are explored through the woven structure, developed specifically by Swailes’ for these fibres. The cotton paper like creating volume, and the linen creating the canvas that the cotton is woven within. These are works explore the repetition of a woven meditation.
Swailes is also showing for the first time her largest ever singular colourfield tapestry. Measuring 1.3 metres square this piece reflects both the inner self and the geographical place she inhabits. Made during the winter of 2022 - 2023 the colour scheme conjures deep dark earthy tones, with accents of bright, light blends in a mesmerising kaleidoscope of threads.
Cumbrian born Swailes has had a long career in textile construction. Now based in West Sussex she works from the studios of Atelier Weftfaced where she produces her finely woven tapestries. Swailes has recently been part of the ‘Sussex Landscape, Chalk, Wood & Water’ exhibition at the Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. She exhibits regularly at the Collect Art Fair and more widely in the UK and has works held in the Shipley Art Gallery and Guys and St. Thomas’ Art Collection.
Caron Penney’s artworks are gridlocked, a love of pattern, systems, and repetition is central to her textiles. She uses the same limited range of materials traditional to the medium, worsted wool and gilt gold threads. Penney has a deep understanding of weaving technique and her resulting tapestries continue to be embraced by the training she acquired as a professional weaver.
Penney was born in Hampshire, studied Constructed Textiles at Middlesex University, and now lives in West Sussex. After working as a professional weaver for twenty years she opened her own studio in 2013. She is dedicated to increasing the awareness and education of the ancient craft of tapestry weaving. Penney has been featured in House & Garden and Crafts magazine. She exhibits regularly at the Collect Art Fair and has work in the Rumi Foundation and other private collections in the UK and further afield.
About Future Icons Select
This London Craft Week, 11th - 14th May 2023, Future Icons will be exclusively taking over Oxo Tower Wharf’s iconic Bargehouse with its largest exhibition to date and debut of its new show concept, Future Icons Selects, presenting the works of over 70 leading artisans from all over the world.
The acclaimed craft collective, which represents a selection of design and craft-led businesses including Carl Cox, Ikuko Iwamoto and Claire Coles, has been involved with London Craft Week and Oxo Tower Wharf since 2019. In launching Future Icons Selects, Future Icons is able to support a much larger pool of talent and enable as many artisans as possible to present their work to the 100,000 visitors that attend the annual event.
Louisa Pacifico, Founder of Future Icons and Future Icons Selects, comments: “Traditionally, there has been no platform for individual makers to apply to showcase within London Craft Week. Future Icons recognised there was a need to offer these talented makers an affordable platform to showcase their creations and be celebrated by the festival.