art of the STITCH and SAMPLE opened to great acclaim on Saturday 30 August 2003 at the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead.

The fifth art of the STITCH exhibition, presented by the Embroiderers' Guild in association with Coats Crafts UK, is an open international biennial exhibition selected by a panel of artists and museum curators. Not only does the exhibition showcase contemporary embroidery as an expressive medium, it gives an insight into its diversity of production and perception today through the work of artists who use or reference this medium. This year there were 647 submissions made by 430 artists from around the world, with 38 works selected for exhibition. From the 33 artists exhibiting, four were selected to receive the following awards for art of the STITCH, presented by Coats Crafts UK:

The Anchor Award for most outstanding exhibit:
Audrey Walker No Evil

Anchor International Award for most outstanding exhibit by an
artist who has not previously exhibited outside their country of residence:
Helen Fletcher A Pretty Girl In Your Bathroom Checking Out Her Sex Appeal

Anchor Innovation Award for most outstanding exhibit
developed through innovative use of stitch:
Clare Proctor Well Felt

Anchor Student Award for most outstanding exhibit
by an artist who has completed a FE/C&G course in 2002:
Emer O'Brien De/others

It has become the tradition to accompany art of the STITCH with an exhibition which provides a historical or wider contemporary context for the work on show. This year sees an exhibition entitled SAMPLE, developed by the Embroiderers' Guild and independent curator Jo Saunders.

Eleven contemporary artists were challenged to question and extend their existing practice, by producing provocative new work for an exhibition that confronts perceptions of contemporary art and embroidery, each developing their work through the theme of stitch, regardless of the methods of their current practice. For half of the artists involved in SAMPLE, as established fine art practitioners working in formats ranging from performance and installation to abstract painting and digital technology, stitch introduces an entirely new palette of references and methods. Of the five artists in SAMPLE already working with stitch, each has introduced a new dimension to this relationship, rediscovering the history and social significance of embroidery as a subject as well as a method of production.

A fully illustrated colour catalogue for art of the STITCH and SAMPLE is available from the Embroiderers' Guild, priced at £7.95.

art of the STITCH and SAMPLE can be seen at the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, Birkenhead, UK (30 August - 12 October 2003), before touring to the Dutch Textile Museum, Tilburg, The Netherlands (8 November 2003 - 22 February 2004) and Hall Place, Bexley, Kent, UK (13 March - 30 May 2004).

For images (including those shown here) and further information about art of the STITCH and SAMPLE, please contact the Embroiderers' Guild on +44 (0)20 8943 1229 or [email protected].

BACK TO PRESS ROOM

SAMPLE: Michael-Brennand Wood

art of the STITCH: Clare Proctor

SAMPLE: Jennifer Wright

art of the STITCH: Itie Langeland

more images can be seen on the Events pages