Skip to main content
Tickets Added to basket!

Tickets have been added to your basket and will be held in a basket for 10 minutes.

Sculpture of five figures with pink heads and yellow arms
Rae-Yen Song, Song Dynasty, 2021. © Courtesy of The Artist

Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles (2024)

Posted
Sunday 15 December 2024

The Mead Gallery was the first venue for this ambitious group exhibition from Hayward Gallery Touring exploring how contemporary artists are using textiles in surprising and radical ways.

Exhibition dates: 9 October – 15 December 2024

Curated by artist Caroline Achaintre, the artists in Material Worlds take the everyday, intimate and accessible qualities of textiles to create artworks that are theatrical, bold, unsettling and humorous.

Spanning a wide range of approaches, the artists in the exhibition share a deep awareness of the cultural significance of textiles, alongside a desire to test their potential as a medium for contemporary art. 

The familiar, material stuff of everyday life is transformed into the unexpected - the ordinary is made extraordinary - to explore ideas of the body, identity, gender, race, heritage, myth and folklore.

The exhibition featured the work of Caroline Achaintre, Tonico Lemos Auad, Jonathan Baldock, Phyllida Barlow , Alexandre Da Cunha, Enam Gbewonyo, Holly Hendry, Paul Maheke, Anna Perach, Yelen Popova, Paloma Proudfoot, Yinka Shonibare, Rae-Yen Song, Tenant of Culture.

Recent News

Things to do in Coventry this September

It’s back-to-school season, so make your family time count this September! If you’re trying to plan the perfect family day out this month, there’s something…

Sunday 31 August 2025

The Classroom of Creativity 2025

Over the past year, we’ve been working with local schools and artists to embed creativity in classrooms in Canley, Hillfields, Foleshill and Tile Hill.…

Thursday 21 August 2025

New Season Now On Sale

As the nights begin to draw in, take a look through our digital brochure to see what we have on offer this autumn/winter.

Monday 18 August 2025