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.

A Tall Order Exhibition

Sound of the Mill and Worker Bees

I’m please to announce that I’ve been invited by curators Dr Derek Horton and Dr Alice Correia to take part in A Tall Order exhibition at Touchstones Gallery, Rochdale.

The artworks selected for exhibition are ‘My Rochdale Lad‘ Pocket, Worker Bees and Sound of the Mill.

The exhibition runs in Galleries 1, 2, 3 & 4 from 4 February to 6 May 2023.

Artists taking part in A Tall Order exhibition
Artists taking part in A Tall Order exhibition

This invitation follows a wonderful conversation I had with Dr Horton when I shared my work at Touchstones in September 2022.

A Tall Order
A Tall Order

In the 1980s, Touchstones was known as Rochdale Art Gallery. Its daring and innovative approach to exhibition and education programming positioned it on the national map.

Led by Exhibition Officer, Jill Morgan, the focus on exhibiting artists engaged in critical and socio-political practice gave a platform to those who were not being offered the opportunity to show their work in other high profile institutions.

A Tall Order! is an invigorating look at the artwork made and exhibited here during the 1980s by a generation of artists, many of whom were women, young, working class and Black.

Featuring key works from this time and demonstrating how this period influenced many artists, the show will include loans from both public and private collections brought together from around the UK. Alongside selected works from Rochdale’s own collection, the exhibition will also present a series of three new and exciting commissions by contemporary artists, Lubna Chowdhary, Sarah Joy Ford and Jade Montserrat.

Generously supported by a grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and Arts Council England and Friends of Rochdale Art Gallery funding, A Tall Order! is curated by independent research curators Dr Derek Horton and Dr Alice Correia.

A Tall Order
Touchstones logo
Touchstones

Gratitude Exhibition

Close up of the stitching - Giant Cauliflower Harvest - embroidered word, red thread about my father and his allotment

I’m pleased to announce that “Giant Cauliflower Harvest ” has been selected for the Gratitude Exhibition at Canco Park, 47 Dey Street, Jersey City, NJ 07306, USA. This is a public arts event where pieces from artists from around the world are printed onto vinyl and hung outside in public spaces.

Gratitude exhibition poster
Gratitude exhibition poster

Cities gain value through public art – cultural, social, and economic value. Public art is a distinguishing part of our public history and our evolving culture. It reflects and reveals our society, adds meaning to our cities and uniqueness to our communities. Public art humanizes the built environment and invigorates public spaces. It provides an intersection between past, present and future, between disciplines, and between ideas. (The Public Art Network Council explain it best in their Green Paper) ….. Gratitude is something we have learned to appreciate and be more considerate of since the pandemic, it has been amazing to receive such a diverse range of styles and subject matter. Walk Bye has become a platform that the people of Jersey City not only recognize, but crave. People send messages asking when the next show will be coming… To be able to celebrate, discover and enjoy artists and cultures from around the world while you walk in your own city is an incredibly fulfilling thing that encourages you to value the diversity and beauty of your own place.

Catalina Aranguren, Founder & Organizer, Walk_Bye
Artwork shared by Walk Bye on Instagram
Artwork shared by Walk Bye on Instagram

The exhibition is curated by artist Catalina Aranguren in conjunction with Walk Bye, Canco Park Conservancy & Bergen County Audubon Society.

The artwork will be unveiled on Sat Jan 14th, 2023 12-2pm in conjunction with a local event supporting Wildlife at the park.

This is second large scale Walk Bye exhibition I’ve taken part in.