Connecting Threads at GPS Gallery

Great Pulteney Street Gallery rings in 2026 with a group exhibition that explores the links between marginalised materials and cultural hierarchies. For Connecting Threads Paul Carey-Kent and Christina Niederberger selected eleven artists whose works broaden the scope of textile art.

Having long been dismissed as inferior to painting and sculpture, stitched, woven and threaded works are increasingly receiving attention and recognition, yet are still widely considered as separate from traditional fine art disciplines. Just as aspects of identity relating to race, sexuality or gender are becoming more fluid, so are artists redefining their practice in terms of medium, material or methodology.

The participants in Connecting Threads incorporate physical and conceptual elements of textile art into painting, photography and sculpture in response to societal and political shifts. Sam Owen Hull comments on an increasingly polarised world with the material contradictions of spontaneous painterly marks and considered hand embroidery, while Christine Niederberger interweaves unconscious readings of Abstract Expressionism as a male domain with textile elements widely perceived as female. Michael Raedecker and Tamar Mason both explore the impact of humanity on the natural world, from an urban and rural perspective respectively.

With the majority of works in the show leaning towards more abstract and conceptual approaches, Caroline Achaintre's and Debbie Lawson's tapestries bear the closest resemblance to traditional textile art. The former creating hybrid characters by blending materials and cultural references, the latter hiding imaginary creatures in patterned carpets.

Julie Cockburn and Berend Strik both use textile techniques to add new meaning to found photographs, while Hannah Knox mirrors the meditative slowness of knitting when meticulously painting items of clothing. Kate Terry uses thread to draw physical lines into space while John Walter digitally re-engineers popular textile patterns to draw attention to the intersection of art, science and architecture.

The location itself provides a link to Soho's rag trade legacy that has evolved from fabric traders and garment showrooms to flagship boutiques and fashion destination.

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