In Stitches with Su Richardson

Su Richardson: In Stitches at the Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) presents the largest retrospective of the artists pioneering feminist art to date, and the first solo exhibition in her hometown. Running from 8 March to 1 June 2025 at the Arena Gallery, In Stitches showcases the breadth of her fifty-year career.

From crochet and soft sculpture to colour prints and postal art, Su Richardson’s humorous, subversive style challenges traditional gender roles and societal expectations. As a Birmingham-based pioneer of British feminist art, she is known for her contribution to redefining craft and textiles as a fine art form. Yet despite her central role in the feminist movements of the 1970s and 1980s - and British art history as a whole - Richardson existed outside the mainstream art world for decades, which contributed to her thirty-five-year break from making new work. Returning in 2018, her work is now receiving the recognition it deserves.

Su Richardson, 'Medal Winning Milk (detail)', 2022. Courtesy the artist. Credit Tegen Kimbley

Curated by Roma Piotrowska, In Stitches honours and celebrates Richardson’s legacy, offering a fresh perspective on womanhood across time - from motherhood and relationships to ageing, illness, and loss. Richardson reflects on returning to making art after raising her son:

“When I returned to making work, I felt like I was catching up on all the things that had happened not just in my life, but in all women’s lives. During those intervening years between your thirties and seventies, so many things happen: from motherhood to menopause and conditions like endometriosis, to experiences related to loss and caring. Through this exhibition, I want to make visiting gallery spaces more of an everyday, relatable experience. It’s about having the events in ordinary people’s lives recognised by others. By communicating these themes in a friendly, down-to-earth way, I hope people will feel a link to my work and think, ‘Oh, I remember feeling that!’ - and if not, that it will help them see things from a different perspective.”

Su Richardson, 'Out of the bag - self portrait aged 75', 2022. Courtesy the artist. Credit Tegen Kimbley 1.jpg

Alongside the exhibition, MAC presents a public programme featuring critical thinking workshops, a postal art workshop, and an artist talk with Richardson in conversation with Linsey Young and Alexandra Kokoli. This retrospective offers a unique opportunity to engage with a vital figure in feminist art history and celebrate the power of textiles in storytelling.

In addition to the news about this show, we invite you to enjoy the following interview with Su, as part of our series of ‘5 Minutes with a Friend’ conversations:

Su Richardson with ‘Underwear – Skin Sale’, 1980s. Photographed by Rhonda Wilson.

Su, what is your first memory of a textile?

My first memory of a textile was the yellow and black satin of a dress with a circular skirt I wore for a ballet performance aged about 7. I just loved the shiny yellow fabric and dress that I would never have had for everyday wear!

Can you put into words what you love about textiles?

I love the colours, textures and patterns of textiles that place them in a specific period of time. I love the practicality, frivolity, durability and usefulness of textiles, and that I can recycle them into cut strips for crochet, use them for linings and backings of artworks, and as part of or as the basis of works. Old jeans can become a river, dungarees can be a hanging, aprons a canvas for a message in words, or gloves as hands and arms.

Su Richardson, 15 Hours More, 2020. Credit: Artsy.net

You realise most of your work using textiles, where is your most inspiring space / place to create?

My most inspiring place to create is my sofa at home in my living room.

What has inspired you recently? 

I am often inspired by what I read, e.g. novels, non-fiction, newspapers, current affairs and concerns, and anything that particularly affects women’s lives.

Feministo Crochet – (Little ‘banner’ made for Postal Art Event), 1975/6, (private collection)

What is your most cherished textile, and why?

My most cherished textile is my mother’s teacher training college athletics leotard from the 1920s. It represents her life and hopes before marriage, motherhood and family commitments. I have used it in an artwork about her life.

Where did you learn your craft?

My mother taught me to hand sew, and use her Singer Treadle sewing machine. I used it mainly to reconstruct fashionable 1960s clothes from old clothing and remnants of fabric. A friend at art college taught me to crochet, as I had admired her zig zag designs. I found it easy to do, and a way of creating soft sculpture.

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Further Information:

Su Richardson

Midlands Art Centre