Anna Gravelle is best known for rethinking the traditional trade of tufting (typically associated with rug making) as a medium for creating large-scale, wall-mounted artworks, as well as adding tactile and three-dimensional character to fabrics. She showcased her lovely artworks at the Contemporary Applied Arts gallery during the London Craft Week.
Her work has received positive acclaim in the past with the The New York Times, for example, hailing her as "a master of weaving and color" and describing her pieces as "exquisite works of art that look like nothing else."
In the last two years Gravelle has also developed a range of bespoke embroidery, sewn onto fabrics and pillows to produce soft, tactile art. Her innovative approach to traditional embroidery has won her commissions from the Victoria and Albert Museum Fashion Collection, the Victoria and Albert Museum Costume Collection, the National Portrait Gallery, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Royal College of Art.
Gravelle gives the tufting skill a modern touch by employing luxurious materials like the finest wool and silky threads to produce stunningly beautiful embroidery. The end product is something that leaves you fighting the urge to touch it.
Gravelle’s new art from the past two years celebrates the shifting of the seasons, ushering in summer with bursts of painterly color. The abstract art shows landscapes that reflect natural forms in a precise and impactful way.
At the workshop, Gravelle was accompanied by that of Tanya Gomez, a renowned ceramicist whose characteristic porcelain vessels in glossy colors echo Gravelle's expressive landscape artworks.
All in all, it was enthralling to view and appreciate the awe-inspiring and creative works by one of London’s finest craftspeople.
