Holly Searle – Meet the Artist

Award winning textile artist Holly Searle, also known as The Subverted Stitcher, is a textile artist who uses her needle and thread to spotlight social issues close to her heart. In 2020, she launched her Subverted Vintage Tea Towel Series to provide a platform for these important topics. 

Each artwork consists of hand cut felt letters, a vintage tea towel and a curated collection of words. To date, Holly has hand stitched over 160 artworks in her subverted tea towel series.
Holly Searle: https://www.instagram.com/the_subversive_stitcher

Holly’s passion for embroidery was ignited after seeing a sampler by Mary Frances Heaton, an inmate of a Victorian asylum, at a mental health exhibition. Inspired by Mary’s use of needle and thread to petition Queen Victoria about social injustices, Holly began creating pieces that draw attention to social issues and empower women. Holly’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions, resonating with echoes of Mary’s enduring voice and passion.

The Subverted Tea towel collection by Holly Searle
The Subverted Tea towel collection by Holly Searle

Creatively shut down in the Covid Pandemic of 2020, Holly found her voice again by subverting pre-loved vintage tea towels (little domestic works of art), to raise awareness of issues she felt needed soap boxing.  

The Subversive tea Towel exhibition
The Subversive tea Towel exhibition

Prior to the Covid Pandemic of 2020, award winning Textile artist Holly, had established a healthy and progressive career in the art world.  After she began her current textile practice in 2016, she went on to exhibit her work both collectively and independently in art spaces such as the Saatchi Gallery. 

work by Holly
Work by Holly

In 2018, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Throughout her treatment, her work acted as both an outlet and a distraction from her illness. During this time, she won her first solo show of her early embroidered pieces.  

Filmed at the Knitting and Stitching Show 2024.

Further reading

If you’ve enjoyed watching this video, you might like the work of Batool Showghi featured in a video from the Knitting & Stitching Show 2023.

Repair Restore Recreate

Each year at the Knitting & Stitching Shows the Embroiderers’ Guild curate a Members’ exhibition. For 2024 the theme is ‘Repair Restore Recreate’ and I’m pleased to share that Darning Sampler 2 and They Shall Grow Not Old have been accepted for exhibition.

They Shall Grow Not Old - part of the Repair Restore Recreate
They Shall Grow Not Old – part of the Repair Restore Recreate
Darning Sampler 2 - part of the Repair Restore Recreate
Darning Sampler 2 – part of the Repair Restore Recreate

Opposites Attract

In addition to the Repair Restore Recreate exhibition, the Guild stand will have the Members’ Challenge 2024 ‘Opposites Attract’ on show – which includes my piece ‘Good Grub

Good Grub
Good Grub

All three artworks can be seen at the Knitting & Stitching Shows this autumn.

Nearly Home Exhibition

I’m delighted to share that ‘Time for Tea‘ has been accepted for the ArtCan ‘Nearly Home’ exhibition in Spain by curators Catherine Fenton and Walk Bye founder Catalina Aranguren.

This digital exhibition takes place at the Mostrador de Mirasierra Gallery, Madrid, Spain, October 21 – November 20 2024.

Artists taking part in Nearly Home
Artists taking part in Nearly Home

“Mostrador de Mirasierra is a gallery cafe bar in an affluent area of Madrid. It is set over two floors and has a reputation for excellent art exhibitions in Madrid. In the basement level there is a large screen on which we will introduce ArtCan to Madrid by having the Walk Bye projection running throughout the month. We will also have a list of participating artists and a QR code to the ArtCan website on the wall next to the screen.” ArtCan.

Time for Tea is part of the Nearly Home Exhibition
Time for Tea is part of the Nearly Home Exhibition
Time for Tea
Time for Tea

Nearly Home Exhibition

“Nearly Home asks us to consider how, beyond the obvious structures of shelter, do we personally define the often intangible quality that gives each of us a feeling of belonging? How do some fortunate enough to have had a happy childhood home, consolidate the feeling of nostalgia, with a need to grow new roots? Whether displaced by circumstance or choice, we navigate the world physically and spiritually in search of home, a place where we are in tune with who we are and comfortable to welcome in the people we love.” Catherine and Catalina.

Curators

Catherine Fenton’s work frequently deals with issues surrounding the environment and human rights. Using collaged material relating to the subject, her paintings subtly draw the viewer in with colour and texture with the intention rousing further curiosity. Her paintings have been exhibited with the Just Water campaign in St Paul’s Cathedral London, along with exhibitions and installations for Greenpeace, Toilet Twinning and The Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture.

Joining ArtCan in 2016, Catherine is now the Philanthropic Programme Director and curated an ArtCan exhibition for The International Day of the Girl Child which combined a programme to engage disenfranchised women with the charity Hibiscus London.

Catalina Aranguren’s work is a documentation of the mundane. Her work is a dialogue about the modern world and our place in it. Because her childhood was a constant wavering between languages, cultures, and third and first worlds, on a daily basis, her work focuses on the relationship between the learned and the subconscious. Her work is in private collections across the United States, UK, Australia, Chile, Sweden and Colombia. She has exhibited across the Unites States as well as Turkey, Spain, UK, Canada and Sweden.

Catalina founded Walk Bye as collective outdoor art exhibition that invited creators to exhibit original work to be displayed outside their home or from a window visible to the public from a distance during the pandemic. Walk Bye continues to create exhibition opportunities and promote the work of artists to positively contribute to their careers. Catalina is a new member to ArtCan. She joined after moving to Madrid from New York.