July Exhibitions Round-up

We're so pleased to be able to visit our favourite museums and galleries once again. With the long wait finally over, it seems that there is an endless list of exhibitions to visit. We've decided to take some of the guesswork out of your weekend plans with our round-up of just some of the textile and fashion exhibitions that are available to view until July. 

TUSSEN WAL EN SCHIP
The Temporary Art Centre, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Until 27 June, weekends

As a South African immigrant in The Netherlands, Pascale Theron is a modern nomad, in the search for ‘home’. Tussen Wal en Schip (Between Shore and Ship) is a solo-exhibition that mirrors her position in the world. It narrates, using illustrations, textile artworks, handmade crafts, and videos, depicting the identity crisis of a modern white South African trying to settle overseas. It captures the familiar notions of ‘home’ and brings awareness to the effect that European colonialism had on South Africa.

Acadian Brown Cotton: The Fabric of Acadiana
Hilliard Art Museum, Louisiana
Until June 30 2021. Also available to view virtually online (see video below)

This exhibition is the most comprehensive project to date dedicated to the cultural traditions associated with the farming and weaving of brown cotton in Acadiana. Much like Acadian brown cotton blankets — taken for granted by past generations but now admired for the cultural importance and artistic merit — the exhibition is composed of many threads. Six sections, taken as a whole, represent an ambitious synthesis of folklore, anthropology, economics and art history.

Head and Hair: The Art of Adornment
Tribal Gathering London
Until 10 July 2021

Bringing together a varied selection of African headwear and hair adornments, Head and Hair explores the African art of dressing the head. The chosen pieces on display demonstrate the astonishing energy, time and skill devoted to the creation of head and hair adornments, and in doing so, celebrate the artistic richness and diversity of the African continent.

Women Making History
London Scottish House
Until 11 July 2021, free.

In June 2018 tens of thousands of women embraced the idea of PROCESSIONS and joined together to create an unforgettable mass-participation artwork celebrating 100 years of votes for the first UK women. Three years on, Women Making History continues this legacy, providing an opportunity to reflect on the banners’ calls for equality, to examine the pace of progress and to be inspired to keep pushing for change. Created by leading artists in collaboration with women’s groups across the UK, these vibrant artworks inspired by the banners of the suffrage movement, speak to the present and the future. 

Threads of Influence: Textiles from the 2nd - 20th century.
Francesca Galloway, London
Until 16 July 2021
The wide-ranging group of works are united by their cultural synthesis, or the way in which they interweave styles from across the globe, and their role as symbols of power, authority or social status. As such they embody some of the most fascinating and complex aspects of textile art. An Ottoman velvet employs ‘Italianate’ motifs, indicative of the close relationship between these two weaving traditions in late 16th century, while an important group of four silk embroidery fragments with Dionysian themes gives an insight into the intersection of cultures on the Silk Road between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD.

Anne Kelly: Well Travelled
Ruthin Craft Centre, Wales.
Until 17 July 2021
Before the pandemic Anne Kelly travelled all over the world: to teach, exhibit, see family, and for play. She is also a collector of textile flotsam and jetsam, as well as memories. Memories of places she has visited in person, but also places and scenes she has visited in exhibitions, in books and films. Anne’s work reminds us that the mind keeps travelling, regardless of what our bodies are doing. In Well Travelled she shows us so many ways of celebrating her and our memories of travel, past and future. It is an intricate, rich and beautiful journey celebrating textiles, travelling, memories and making.

Paris to Hollywood: The Fashion and Influence of Véronique and Gregory Peck
Denver Art museum
Until July 18 2021

A selection of haute couture, fashion sketches, photographs, film clips, family snapshots, and documents will be exhibited publicly for the first time, providing a unique look into the style of one of Hollywood’s most beloved couples. Through more than four decades of material from the 1950s to the 1990s, the presentation provides an overview of how fashion changed as the roles of women in society evolved in the 20th century.

Sheila Hicks: Music to My Eyes
Alison Jacques, London
Until 31 July
In an exhibition which anticipates a major solo show at The Hepworth Wakefield (April 2022)‘Music to My Eyes’ responds to Hicks’s lifelong relationship with colour and thread. Throughout her 70-year career, the Nebraska-born, Paris-based artist has endeavoured to bestow upon fibre an independent voice, allowing form, colour and texture to dictate its own progression through space. As Hicks notes: ‘Thread is the universal language. It could become a hammock, or a fishing net, or a hat, or a home… It’s the first thing you feel in the morning when you wake up in your bed sheets, then you step on a rug, you pick up a towel…’