About
Margo Selby is an artist and designer working with colour and geometric form in textiles. The handwoven artworks are made on looms in Margo’s Whitstable studio, and exhibited and collected worldwide.
Margo’s works are painterly, in regard to the optical mixing of pure colour – and sculptural, in the physicality of woven thread as a mode of construction. As yarn, the colours are integral, rather than applied to a surface. The woven textile is taken from the loom, stretched, framed and wall-mounted; the works are intended to operate as visual objects rather than pictures or decoration. Formal aesthetics are paramount, and in constant intersection – colour, shape, orientation, rhythm – a rumination on the visual.
Margo studied at Chelsea College of Art & Design and the Royal College of Art in London, and at Atelier National d’Art in Paris. She established her eponymous textiles company in London in 2003, and moved to Whitstable on the north Kent coast in 2012. Margo’s tenet is ‘Art Into Industry’ – alongside her art practice, she oversees the design work of her studio for industrial production, collaborating frequently with textiles manufacturers, artisan makers, fashion designers and interior designers; the loom is at the heart of everything.
“I use thread to create abstract geometric artworks that explore repetition and transition, symmetry and asymmetry, the dynamic and the stable. I draw influence from the visual world around me: architectural forms; graphic design; pattern, scale and colour combinations. Colour is a driving force behind my work. I enjoy the infinite effects of many subtle hues and tones that can be explored when blending from one colour to another.
I’m interested in the relationship between man and machine, hand and industry, craft and technology. The loom itself, and the disciplined nature of weaving, provide boundaries and constraints which can be pushed against. The orderly nature of the craft of weaving is reflected in the systematised designs of the artworks. I am satisfied by rhythmic and uniform repetition where each piece of a composition is changed in a controlled and methodical way.”
– Margo Selby, 2022
