Maggie Scott
About the Artist
Maggie Scott is a British textile artist living and working in London. She graduated from St. Martin’s School of Art with BA honours in Fashion Textiles. Her professional life as a Textile Artist had existed in parallel with her involvement in gender and race politics. Her experiment with a series of large, autobiographical textile pieces led to a bursary award and a one woman show at Leicester Museum in 2012, “Negotiations – Black in a white majority culture”. After its success, Scott was invited to exhibit in several major USA cities, as well as Germany, Belgium, Portugal, China and Canada. She was shortlisted for the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2021.
Scott creates art from the particularity of who she is: a black woman, a feminist, a daughter, a mother, an activist and a British textile artist. The hand-felted re-interpretations of photographic images often explore the politics of representation and tensions and contradictions of a Black British or identity. Scott’s technical practice is unparalleled in the landscape of contemporary British art, sitting at the boundary of tapestry and digital media, she employs a combination of photography, digital collage and silk and then injects colour by laboriously pushing vibrant merino wool fibres through silk in a process known as nuno felting. The intensely physical process of felting is followed by the careful process of using stich to emphasise the smaller details of an image. In working with fibre Scott pushes a medium traditionally associated with craft into the realm of fine art.
Scott gained recognition for her "Zwarte Piet" series, which explores the controversial Dutch tradition of "blackface." Through self-portraiture, she reimagines the character of Zwarte Piet, subverting the traditional portrayal. By presenting Piet as a powerful, adult woman, Scott challenges the racist stereotypes associated with the character. Scott utilizes traditionally feminine materials to convey powerful messages. Her soft, delicate images confront viewers with hard truths, forcing them to reconsider the harmful implications of cultural traditions.
Maggie Scott is a British textile artist living and working in London. She graduated from St. Martin’s School of Art with BA honours in Fashion Textiles. Her professional life as a Textile Artist had existed in parallel with her involvement in gender and race politics. Her experiment with a series of large, autobiographical textile pieces led to a bursary award and a one woman show at Leicester Museum in 2012, “Negotiations – Black in a white majority culture”. After its success, Scott was invited to exhibit in several major USA cities, as well as Germany, Belgium, Portugal, China and Canada. She was shortlisted for the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2021.
Scott creates art from the particularity of who she is: a black woman, a feminist, a daughter, a mother, an activist and a British textile artist. The hand-felted re-interpretations of photographic images often explore the politics of representation and tensions and contradictions of a Black British or identity. Scott’s technical practice is unparalleled in the landscape of contemporary British art, sitting at the boundary of tapestry and digital media, she employs a combination of photography, digital collage and silk and then injects colour by laboriously pushing vibrant merino wool fibres through silk in a process known as nuno felting. The intensely physical process of felting is followed by the careful process of using stich to emphasise the smaller details of an image. In working with fibre Scott pushes a medium traditionally associated with craft into the realm of fine art.
Scott gained recognition for her "Zwarte Piet" series, which explores the controversial Dutch tradition of "blackface." Through self-portraiture, she reimagines the character of Zwarte Piet, subverting the traditional portrayal. By presenting Piet as a powerful, adult woman, Scott challenges the racist stereotypes associated with the character. Scott utilizes traditionally feminine materials to convey powerful messages. Her soft, delicate images confront viewers with hard truths, forcing them to reconsider the harmful implications of cultural traditions.
The Artworks (Ashurst Art Collection 2025)
No One Came Here To Hide 1
Nuno Felted Merino Wool on Silk Hand Stitched 115 x 90cm |
No One Came Here To Hide 2
Nuno Felted Merino Wool on Silk Hand Stitched 115 x 90cm |
ICU 1
Aluminium Dibond 70 x 50cm |
