The Old Grocery
The Blackwater Polytechnic
The Grange Projects
Blog
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Spacetime: Awkward ;-) The Old Grocery, Wivenhoe, Essex 12 - 21 June 2026
16 May 2026
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Supermarket Stockholm Independent Art Fair, 23 - 26 April 2026
Freddie Robins will be exhibiting in Spacetime: awkward ;-) Curated and hosted by Grange Projects and Blackwater Polytechnic.
Spacetime: awkward ;-) It is a collaborative project by Blackwater Polytechnic and Grange Projects that responds to an accelerated and unstable world by building slowly, with skillful labour, friction and joyful imperfection. The stand works as a shared environment where polish gives way to presence, and where awkwardness becomes a way of looking harder, staying longer and making space for conversation. Be difficult.
Erskinehuset, Slakthusområdet (the former Meatpacking District)
Hallvägen 21
121 62 Johanneshov
Stockholm, SwedenOpening hours:
Thursday 23 – Friday 24 April 14.00–20.00
Saturday 25 April 12.00–20.00
Sunday 26 April 12.00–18.00Admission: 200 SEK
Seniors and students admission: 160 SEK
4-day pass incl Catalogue/Art Magazine: 600 SEK
Free admission up to 16 yearsExhibiting alongside Ben Coode-Adams, Cailin Cummins, Sophie Giller, Tilly Hawkins (Nukleopatra), Sara Impey, John Plowman, Sally Plowman, Plowman and Cummins & Nicola Streeton
Download Press Release here
07 April 2026
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Guest Artist Talk (online) - Who’s Scared of the Soft Stuff? Finding power in the soft and the floppy - Wednesday 21 January, 6.30 – 7.30pm
To register you place please contact katy@seetapateldance.org by 14th January 2026.
08 January 2026
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Apotropaic, Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, Portland, Oregon, USA
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. Portland, Oregon, USA 97202
13 September – 18 December 2025
Presented by the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, Freddie Robins: Apotropaic is the first one-person exhibition by celebrated UK textile artist Freddie Robins, Professor of Textiles at the Royal College of Art, London.
Over the last several decades, textile artist Freddie Robins has earned a reputation as a radical conceptualist whose hand- and machine-made tapestries, sculptures, and chimerical assemblages are as playfully cheeky as they are political. Robins came of age during second-wave feminism. Like fellow British artists Sarah Lucas and Greyson Perry, Robins has joyfully labored to free textile art—and knitting in particular—from forms of sentimentality devoid of critique. Robins was a teen when Punk hit the streets and ripped apart fashion, suturing the wounds with safety pins. Titles of earlier works such as Bad Mother and Craft Kills speak to the cultural upheavals that have fueled Robins’ rebellious expressionism, and shifted the art-craft divide into the rearview mirror.
In British culture, knitting’s persistent nostalgia remains inseparable from the country’s self-image as a society in which duty and emotional restraint are social values transcending class. The WWII slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On” is alive and well, emblazoned on millions of mass-produced objects, from coffee mugs to underwear. While Robins embraces the subterfuge of kitsch, repression is nowhere in her artistic vocabulary. The union of artificial and natural materials in her work creates an unease reflected in every global discount store.
Robins has consistently drawn our attention to the manner in which, under imperialist capitalism, the social ground of aesthetic taste seeks to establish as universal, aesthetic, and cultural practices that are the result of privilege. Hand-knit garments embody both the hedonism of consumer luxury, and the deprivation of economic precarity. For Robins, knitting is a multisensory research practice—a never-ending source of information and reflection. In the artist’s words: “Knitting is my way of interpreting and coming to terms with the world that I inhabit. It sits between my internal world, and the physical world, like a form of comfort or rather discomfort. My knitting practice questions conformity and notions of normality. I use knitting to explore contemporary gender and the human condition.”
The title of the exhibition—Apotropaic—is an ancient Greek adjective meaning something that “turns away from,” or “averts,” and it signifies objects that possess the ability to deflect ill intention and instill protection. The “evil eye” is a familiar apotropaic symbol from ancient Egypt, where it existed as the Eye of Horus—the Egyptian deity with the head of a falcon. Horus brought safety and healing to supplicants; and representations of the g-d’s eye have been discovered under the linen wrappings of mummified pharaohs. Before ancient Egyptians created the apotropaic symbols we live with today, Neanderthals carved thatched line-forms into the magical areas of their caves; and in rural England, from the Middle Ages to Victorian times, villagers embedded bundles of talismanic objects under the floorboards and in the walls of their dwellings. Contemporary capitalism, on the other hand, can only market, but never authentically inhabit, spiritual experience and authentic care. The global phenomenon of the Hilma af Klint exhibition is a clear indication of our thirst for a more meaningful way forward.
In Apotropaic, many of Robins’ recent assemblages are composed of the soft and, at times, unwieldy remains of other projects, coupled with found stones and other natural objects, as well as treasures from her vast collection of things past. Old toys, dolls, amulets, pipes, office supplies, and other ritual curiosities meander through Robins’ home in an internal alleyway of large, glass-fronted cases resembling wardrobes. The space feels like a portal as well as the habitat of Robins’ creatures, like the three knitted horses in the exhibition, with pareidolic rocks for heads. These small, irresistible equines conjure our desire to care for the endangered; and Robins offers them to us as emotional-support companions. Gazing upon their softness arouses a dreamy return to childhood. Absorbing Robins’ work slows our perception of time, and as we concede to knitting’s temporality, an internalized softness ensues—the supple experience of attention. Taken from Cooley Gallery
Apotropaic is curated by Stephanie Snyder, Anne and John Hauberg Director and Curator of the Cooley Gallery, and organized by Kris Cohen, Jane Neuberger Goodsell Professor of Art History and Humanities.
Freddie Robins comes to Reed as a Stephen E. Ostrow Distinguished Visitor in the Visual Arts. The program was established by Edward and Sue Cooley and John and Betty Gray, in honor of art historian Dr. Stephen E. Ostrow, for his role in designing the Cooley Gallery, and for supporting the teaching of art history as part of the humanities. The Ostrow program brings to campus creative people who are distinguished in connection with the visual arts and who will provide a forum for conceptual exploration, challenge, and discovery.
Photography: Douglas Atfield and Mario Gallucci
Reed College – Stephen E. Ostrow Distinguished Visitors Program
Cooley Gallery24 December 2025
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Apotropaic, Reed College | Stephen E. Ostrow Distinguished Visitors in the Visual Arts | Cooley Gallery
05 October 2025
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The Anglian Embassy European Tour with the Blackwater Polytechnic, April - October 2025
Supermarket Art Fair, SKHLM Skärholmen Centrum, Stockholm, Sweden, 3 – 6 April 2025
Sluice Expo 2025, Technical Museum of East Iceland, Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, 23 – 25 May 2025
JuxtaposeArt Fair, Godsbanen, Rå Hal, Karen Wegeners Gade 4, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark, 13 – 15 June 2025
The Grange, Great Cressingham, Norfolk, 5 July 2025
The Art Station, Saxmundham, Suffolk, 4 – 25 October 2025
The Anglian Embassy, a collaboration between Blackwater Polytechnic (Braintree), 303 Projects (Lowestoft), Grange Projects (Great Cressingham), Original Projects, Possible Worlds, and Red Herring Press (Great Yarmouth), showcases East Anglian artists across Europe.
We are committed to establishing practical, long-term partnerships with artist-run organisations in East Anglia for mutual benefit and to share skills, resources, and creative people. Our coastline and hinterland are now studded with artist-run projects. This project will serve as a strategic roadmap for future collaborations, empowering artist-run spaces to be bold and effective in supporting artists to create ambitious new work.
Through this initiative, we will introduce our region on an international stage. We are eager to revitalise connections with our close neighbours—organisations and individuals around the North Sea who share our rich heritage. After all, Antwerp is nearer to us than Manchester. Participating in this expo is a cost-effective approach and a powerful way to connect with organisations and individuals who can create opportunities for us to advance projects both locally and abroad, making the most of our resources.
Our region is in the midst of a transformative revolution in green energy, population growth, and gravel extraction. While we experience our own Industrial Revolution and urbanisation—albeit two centuries later than everyone else—we find ourselves culturally and politically unprepared. Our ecologically fragile coastline hosts 90 million migrating birds on fast-eroding mudflats and salt marshes. This project will engage our counterparts across the North Sea who are facing similar challenges.
Our objectives are clear: elevate the profile of our region’s visual arts both internally and externally, create a forum to discuss our shared cultural orbit around the North Sea, and initiate collaborative international projects through networking.
Ultimately, we aspire to cultivate an atmosphere of inclusion and support that empowers all artists—regardless of their background—to flourish and enhance the vibrant artistic landscape of our region. By uniting our efforts and resources, we will not only reinforce our local arts community but also make a meaningful impact on a wider scale, amplifying our voices across borders and shaping the future of the arts in the North Sea area. Statement by Ben Coode-Adams
Showing with the Blackwater Polytechnic: Stuart Bowditch, Simon Carter, Ben Coode-Adams, Sophie Giller, Iris Dina Gunnarsdottir, Tilly Hawkins, Tristan Howe, Sara Impey, Justin Knopp and Freddie Robins.
The Anglian Embassy stand was developed, designed and built by Ben Coode-Adams and Sophie Giller.
Photography: Sophie GillerBlackwater Polytechnic
Supermarket Art Fair
Juxtapose Art Fair
Sluice
Technical Museum of East Iceland
Grange Projects
The Art Station04 October 2025
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The Anglian Embassy at the Art Station, Saxmundham 4 - 25 October 2025
The Art Station in Saxmundham invites you to dive headfirst into a riotous, exhilarating new exhibition presented by the Anglian Embassy (Blackwater Polytechnic in collaboration with the Grange Projects) — two insanely imaginative collectives whose playful, hands-on spirit blasts straight through the barriers of art and expectation. Their impact far outstrips their size. No holds barred.
Saturday 4 – Saturday 25 October 2025
Open 10am – 4pm weekdays, 12pm – 4pm Saturdays, closed Sundays
The Art Station, 48 High Street, Saxmundham, Suffolk IP17 1ABSaturday 18 October 4pm – 6pm
Performances from Plowman and Cummins, Nukleopatra and Stuart Bowditch
The Old Bank, 24 High Street, Saxmundham, Suffolk IP17 1AEOpening party Friday 3 October 6pm – 8pm. All welcome
03 October 2025
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Brenda M. King Prize for Critical Writing in Textiles 2025, The Textile Society
Freddie Robins has won the prestigious Brenda M. King Prize for Critical Writing in Textiles 2025, awarded by The Textile Society, for her essay Softness is Power: A feminist discussion and subversion of softness.
“Within this essay Robins explores and questions the art world’s acceptance of the ‘soft stuff’. Despite the resurgence of interest in textiles in recent years, and the more prevalent utilisation of textiles by ‘fine artists’ as well as ‘textile artists’ it seems that there is still a reluctance to accept and acknowledge the physical characteristics of textile work. This ‘debate’ is not new, it has been discussed in many forums, but more from the craft and textile perspectives than from the fine art perspective. Freddie Robins’ essay demonstrates that this investigation is valid and ongoing, providing an interesting and pertinent summary of ‘soft stuff’ and how it is viewed within the contemporary art world.”
The essay will be published in The Textile Society’s annual journal Text No.52.
21 September 2025
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'TEXTILE FINE ART - Conversations with Artists Creating by Hand' and other publications
Freddie Robins is featured in TEXTILE FINE ART – Conversations with Artists Creating by Hand by Helen Adams textilecurator.com, with foreward by Ann Coxon. Published by Laurence King, London 2025.
“This volume brings together the work of 50 contemporary artists who use textiles. All are linked through their commitment to creating by hand but each brings a unique perspective. Through their conversations with textile curator, Helen Adams, we discover the artists’ pathways, motivations and inspirations in their own words.”
www.laurenceking.comOther new publications featuring Freddie Robins:
Brink (a chapter authored by Freddie Robins and Zoe Laughlin) in Contemporary Thinking on Play, edited by Victoria de Rijke & Rebecca Sinker, published by Springer Nature, Cham, Switzerland, 2025.
www.springer.comNarrative Textiles: Tell your story in mixed media and stitch by Ailish Henderson, published by Batsford, London, 2024.
www.batsfordbooks.com20 September 2025
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Any, Body, Home
Warrington Museum & Art Gallery, Bold Street, Warrington WA1 1JG
5 July – 31 August 2025
Knitted Homes of Crime – Eleanor, 2002, hand knitted and embroidered wool, quilted lining fabric.
Knitted Homes of Crime – Charlotte (on left), Knitted Homes of Crime – Ethel (on right), 2002, hand knitted and embroidered wool, quilted lining fabric.
Any, Body, Home questions and reimagines the domestic, spotlighting narratives around power, identity, beauty, labour, memory and belonging. It looks beyond the windows through which we often view the world, opening up intimate and critical reflections on how “home” is experienced, shaped, and claimed.
The works in Any, Body, Home are bound by a shared concern with the domestic and the bodily — how spaces shape us, and how we shape them. From architectural spaces that mirror cultural displacement to garments that speak of inherited roles, from homes of control and violence to sites of care and ritual, the exhibition reveals the domestic as both sanctuary and site of struggle. The body, often central — whether adorned, trapped, performing, or dissolving into its surroundings — becomes a vessel for storytelling and resistance. Together, these works disrupt conventional ideas of femininity and homemaking, offering alternative, sometimes subversive narratives that challenge what it means to dwell, to nurture, and to belong.
Exhibiting artists: Natalie Baxter, Susie Green, Marie Jones, Ivy Kalungi, Rachel Maclean, Flo Perry, Amalia Pica, Freddie Robins, Emily Speed, and Katie Tomlinson, the exhibition spans painting, sculpture, film, installation, and performance.
Curated by Culture Warrington Associate Artist Marie Jones.
Photography: Amy Sanderson
07 September 2025
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