Margo Selby | Textile Artist

Rhythmic and uniform repetition – each element of a composition is changed in a mathematical progression, pick by pick.

Breathing Colour

A joyful textile public art installation by Margo Selby, immersive in colour, form and sound, suspended from the heights of Blackburn Cathedral - is formed of 100 metres of printed and pleated fabric in celebration of Standfast & Barracks’ Centenary year, each single tone chosen by 160 employees with a memory or story in mind.

A sound piece by composer Peter Coyte accompanies the installation, with recordings from Morecambe Brass Band.

A co-commission by The National Festival of Making and British Textile Biennial.


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LIVING COLOUR CHART

moon landing

Margo Selby's first site-specific art installation, created in collaboration with composer Helen Caddick.

moon landing is a celebration of the mathematical and technical possibilities of weaving and the crossovers of pattern, tone and rhythm found in both music and woven textiles. This immersive installation brings together a large, hand woven artwork and a newly composed musical score for a sextet of strings, echoing the threads on a loom.

The project is inspired by the women who used their weaving skills and ability to visualise complicated patterns to create the integrated circuit designs used in the guidance and control systems of the Apollo spacecraft which resulted in the successful 1969 moon landing.


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SALES + COMMISSIONS ENQUIRES | Cynthia Corbett Gallery

Nexus Series

The handwoven Nexus Series are made on a 24 shaft dobby loom. Making is a lengthy process of first designing the composition with colours and proportions, preparing the loom, winding the yarn and setting up the warp – before weaving can even begin. A work is made of hundreds of threads each hand-placed and positioned.

Margo often works in series, developing an idea, in colour and composition, across a number of unique works. Nexus describes this connection, as each work links to the one before.

Handwoven Cotton/Silk/Tencel, these works were made in 2023/24.

Image credit | Cristina Schek | British Art Fair 2024


SALES ENQUIRES | Cynthia Corbett Gallery

Carré

This series, begun in 2022, is Margo’s ode to the square – the primary woven form. An infinite number of variations can be found as the compositions oscillate between dynamism and symmetry. They are abstract colour studies of full chroma and desaturation. The modular pattern of intersecting orthogonals recalls the iconography of both the Bauhaus and Constructivist Art movements.

SALES ENQUIRES | Cynthia Corbett Gallery

Vexillum Series

The Vexillum series, begun 2019, was a leap in scale from the intimacy of Margo’s handweaving practice to date – the human to the architectural. Going beyond the scale of the loom was a technical challenge. A Vexillum work is made in 9,000-strand sections, requiring absolute accuracy to achieve a cohesive whole.

Tessellation Series

Margo's use of colour is instinctive and joyful – blocks of colour interacting. The proportions are arrived at by way of combining intuition and measurement. In a game of scale, moving from micro to macro, each composition is a development of weave structures blown-up and abstracted. The method of production requires exact planning and complex mathematical calculation.

These works are available through the Margo Selby Studio or our appointed gallery partners.

VIEW TESSELLATION ARCHIVE

Kaleidoscope

Margo explores the optical effects of colour, and plays with off-kilter symmetry in her work. Geometric pattern is made macro in these fractal compositions, expanding infinitely – the forms project and recede, creating a sensation of dynamism.

VIEW KALEIDOSCOPE TRIPTYCH

Zoetrope

The Zoetrope series, begun in 2020, centres on a narrow vertical format, displayed in multiples. The graduating forms give the impression of motion and light taking inspiration from the zoetrope; a playful nineteenth century device that gives the optical illusion of movement.

Zoetrope I, II and III are conceived as triptychs, but works in this series can be commissioned for larger sequences (or pairs). Smaller studies are also available.

These works are available through the Margo Selby Studio or our appointed gallery partners.

VIEW ZOETROPE ARCHIVE

Vexillum Yarn Windings

Margo Selby with Cynthia Corbett Gallery at Collect Art Fair.

Represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery, Margo Selby returns to Craft Council’s Collect Art Fair.

Collect Art Fair showcases exceptional work made recently by living artists and designers allowing each gallery to curate their own display and commission new pieces or bodies of work.

I am honoured to be presented by the Cynthia Corbett Gallery. I’ve long admired Cynthia’s practice of curating a progressive crossover of fine art and craft, celebrating artists across multiple mediums in the international market.

– Margo Selby

Image credit: Cristina Schek

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