Top textiles prize for UCA's
Shelly Goldsmith

Shelly Goldsmith, reader in Textiles at UCA School of Fashion in Rochester, has won the prestigious Vlieseline Fine Art Textiles Award 2020 for her piece, Locus of the Dress.

09 Sep 2020

Shelly Goldsmith, reader in Textiles at UCA School of Fashion in Rochester, has won the prestigious Vlieseline Fine Art Textiles Award 2020 for her piece, Locus of the Dress.

The judges commended Shelly on her “thoughtful and thought-provoking work”, describing it as a “visually arresting and intelligent artwork rooted in textile history and practice. Its excellence derives from an artistic and considered investigation of ‘the landscape of a dress’ and how this relates to ideas of perception, personal identity and control.” 

Shelly used a mix of materials - dispersal dye on reclaimed polyester cloth, reclaimed polyester dress, silk thread, digitally woven tapes – and printing and dyeing processes that create an almost-photographic result. Talking about her work, Shelly said: “I’m concerned with exploring the fine veneer of cloth that stands between us & the world, investigating the external and internal landscape of a dress, its zones of psychogeography, a place we inhabit as home physically and psychologically.“ 

The Vlieseline Fine Art Textiles Award recognises the creative talents and skills of high-calibre artists and quilters - and is judged on the following criteria and is of a standard that:

• Would be considered as fine art and worthy of premium gallery space
• Transcends its craft or making process, standing alone as visual art.
• Is clearly rooted in and reflecting of the inspiration, source, concept or idea of the artist, with fully resolved composition.
• Is rooted within the medium of textile, meaning that cloth and thread are used as the pivotal materials/media.

You can find out more about Shelly's work via her website and instagram page.