Freddie Robins (b.1965) lives and works in Essex and London. Currently Professor of Textiles at the Royal College of Art she works to commission and exhibits nationally and internationally. In 2025 she is the Stephen E. Ostrow Distinguished Visitor in the Visual Arts Program, Reed College & Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Portland, Oregon, USA.

Statement

Freddie Robins’s practice crosses definable categories of art, craft and design. She combines these elements elegantly, and with playful wit subverts meaning and making, fusing a melting-pot of approaches to ‘craft’.

She uses knitting to explore pertinent contemporary issues of the domestic, gender and the human condition, as well as the cultural preconceptions surrounding knitting as craft. Her work aims to disrupt the notion of the medium as passive and benign. Her pieces often incorporate both humour and fear. There is also a display of almost obsessive perfectionism in the quality of each piece’s hand-made finish.

Freddie Robins has work in private and public collections including the Government Art Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, Crafts Council, Nottingham Castle Museum, Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museum and KODE – kunstmuseene i Bergen. She is exhibited internationally, including most recently, History in the Making: stories of materials and makers, 2000 BC – Now, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, If Not Now, When? Generations of Women in Sculpture in Britain, 1960 – 2022, The Hepworth Wakefield and Saatchi Gallery, London, I Put a Spell on You – New Magic and Mysticism, Art Exchange, University of Essex, Creature Comforts, JGM Gallery, London, Kette und Schuss, CC binder, Puurs, Belgium and We are Commoners: Creative Acts of Commoning, a Craftspace national touring exhibition.

Andrée Cooke, Curator

Selected Bibliography

Freddie Robins on knitting, Material Matters with Grant Gibson, 12 May 2020 Listen to podcast

Stour Surrounding – Artists and the Valley, a documentary film that takes a look at artists both past and present who have responded to the landscape of the Stour Valley, 29 October 2020 Watch film on youtube

Freddie Robins – Body, Nobody, Somebody, Anybody by Dawn Ades Read text

L’art féminine by Claire Doherty Read text

Joking Apart: the work of Freddie Robins by Linda Sandino Read text

See Yourself X: Human Features Expanded, Madeline Schwartzman, Black Dog Press, London, 2018 ISBN 978-1-910433-22-5

Craftfulness – Mend yourself by making things, Rosemary Davidson & Arzu Tahsin, Quercus, London, 2018 ISBN 978-1-78747-266-2

Unravelled – Contemporary Knit Art, Charlotte Vannier, Thames & Hudson, London, 2018 ISBN 978-0-50023-988-9

Crafting Textiles in the Digital Age, Nithikul Nimkulrat, Faith Kane and Kerry Walton, Bloomsbury Academic, 2016 ISBN 978-1-47428-620-6

The Feminist Uncanny in Theory and Art Practice, Alexandra M. Kokoli, Bloomsbury Academic, 2016 ISBN 978-1-47250-558-3

Art & Fashion. Between Skin and Clothing (catalogue), edited by Markus Bruderlin and Annelie Lutgens, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg / Kerber Art, Germany, 2011
ISBN 978-3-86678-538-0

Extra/ordinary: craft and contemporary art, edited by Maria Elena Buszek, Duke University Press, USA 2011 ISBN 978-0-8223-4762-0

Contemporary Textiles: the fabric of fine art, edited by Nadine Kathe Monem, Black Dog Publishing, London 2008 ISBN 978-1-906155-29-2

Curriculum Vitae

Selected Exhibitions

2024

Hoard, an exhibition by artists from the Blackwater Polytechnic, Bankley Studios & Gallery, Manchester.
The Amber Room: Sticking up for Soft, Cedric Bardawil, London.
Colour made Manifest, Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, London.
Thread Count, The Art Station, Saxmundham, Suffolk.
5&20, 99 Bishopsgate, London.
Sluice [Vernacular] Colchester Expo 2024 with the Blackwater Polytechnic, the Minories, Colchester.

2023

If Not Now, When? Generations of Women in Sculpture in Britain, 1960 – 2022, The Hepworth Wakefield touring to the Saatchi Gallery, London.
History in the Making: stories of materials and makers, 2000 BC – Now, Compton Verney, Warwickshire.
I put a Spell on You – New Magic and Mysticism, Art Exchange, University of Essex, Colchester.
Essex Artists Past and Present, Hayletts Gallery at the Minories, Colchester.
…proliferating materialities…, Gallery Season (SZN), London.

2022

Creature Comforts, JGM Gallery, Battersea, London.
SCP with Carl Clerkin’s Beasley Brothers Repair Shop, London.
Material Matters with Carl Clerkin’s Beasley Brothers Repair Shop, Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London.
Eternally Yours – Care, Repair and Healing with Carl Clerkin’s Beasley Brothers Repair Shop, Somerset House, London.
Amazing Women, The Show Windows: Reflections project, City Arcade, Coventry.
We are Commoners: Creative Acts of Commoning with the Blackwater Polytechnic, a Craftspace national touring exhibition, The Civic, Barnsley, Hub: a national centre for craft and design, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, The Gallery, Hull Central Library and We are the Minories, Colchester.

2021

Maker’s Eye: Stories of Craft, Crafts Council Gallery, London.
Art at Home through Kath & Company, Twickenham, London.
Juxtapose Art Fair with the Blackwater Polytechnic and M100 Exhibition Centre for Contemporary Art (Odense), Aarhus, Denmark.
We are Commoners: Creative Acts of Commoning with the Blackwater Polytechnic, a Craftspace national touring exhibition, Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, Wales, Leicester Gallery, De Montfort University, Leicester and Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Bovey Tracey, Devon.

2020

Kette und Schuss, CC binder, Puurs, Belgium.
New Doggerland, Thames-Side Studios Gallery, London.

2019

Between Us: Biennial Conversations and Exchanges, Ex Marks the Spot, Great Yarmouth & University of Suffolk, Ipswich.
Resistant Materials III, Blackwater Polytechnic, Feering, Essex.
Sleepy Heads, Blyth Gallery, Imperial College, London.
Material: Textile, Messums Wiltshire.

2018

Resistant Materials II at Sluice Exchange Berlin with the Blackwater Polytechnic, Das Kühlhaus Berlin, Germany.
Resistant Materials with the Blackwater Polytechnic, M100 Exhibition Centre for Contemporary Art, Odense, Denmark.

2017

StrangeLands, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London.
Uncertain things, The Sentinel Gallery, Wivenhoe, Essex.
A Table of Elements, Greystone Industries, Wickham Market, Suffolk.
Between things, the Minories, Colchester.
Showtime, COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London.
What do I need to do to make it OK? The National Centre for Craft & Design, Sleaford, Lincolnshire and Rugby Art Gallery & Museum.

2016

Liberties, The Exchange, Penzance, Cornwall.
Flat-out Lowlanders, Blackwater Polytechnic, Feering, Essex.
Big Steam Print, Museum of Art + Craft, Ditchling and Phoenix Gallery, Brighton.
What do I need to do to make it OK? Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Bovey Tracey, Devon, R-Space Gallery, Lisburn, Northern Ireland and Forty Hall, Enfield.
Some rocks and a hard place, The Sentinel Gallery, Wivenhoe, Essex.
OTHER exhibition, Courtyard Gallery, Royal College of Art, London.
COUNTER_FITTERS, Geddes Gallery, London.

2015

Sluice 2015 with the Blackwater Polytechnic, Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London.
What do I need to do to make it OK? Pump House Gallery, London.
Liberties, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London.
Brocki, Blackwater Polytechnic, Feering, Essex.
Sex Shop, Transition Gallery, London.

2014

Sluice Exchange Rates: The Bushwick Expo with the Blackwater Polytechnic, Theodore:Art, Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Yan Tan Tethera, Cecil Sharp House, Camden, London and touring UK.
Sex Shop, Folkestone Fringe 2014, Kent.
The Essex Secession, Blackwater Polytechnic, Feering, Essex.
Freddie Robins, Artifex gallery, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius, Lithuania.

2013

Sluice 2013 with The Essex Embassy from the Blackwater Polytechnic, London.
Happy Days, Blackwater Polytechnic, Feering, Essex.
COLLECT, Project Space, Saatchi Gallery, London.
A celebration of works by Martha Fiennes, Freddie Robins and Alice Cicolini, Spring Studios, London.

2012

Transformations, Smiths Row, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
40:40 – forty objects for forty years, Crafts Council online exhibition
http://www.4040.org.uk

2011

Bite-Size: miniature textiles from Japan and the UK, Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation, London, Gallery Gallery, Kyoto, and Nagoya University of the Arts and Sciences, Japan.
Contemporary Craft, HERE & NOW, Cheongju International Craft Biennale 2011, Korea.
Fifties, Fashion and Emerging Feminism [a contemporary response], Collyer Bristow Gallery, London.
7th International Triennial of Contemporary Textile Arts, Tournai, Belgium.
Art & Fashion. Between Skin and Clothing, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany.
A new Hook. Re-thinking needlework, Museum Bellerive, Zurich, Switzerland.

2010

The Art of Fashion: Installing Illusions, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.
Extraordinary Measures, Belsay Hall, Northumberland.
The Endless Garment, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
Draw: Turning Thoughts into Line, Royal College of Art, London.

2009

Dritto Rovescio, La Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Dress Codes: Clothing as Metaphor, Katonah Museum of Art, New York, USA.
Making and Mending, Smiths Row, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
Concerning Matter, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London.
Think Tank takes on Skill, Contemporary Applied Arts, London and touring Europe.
The Peckham Experiment, Space Station sixty-five at Camberwell Space, Camberwell Art College, London.

2008

Cloth & Culture Now, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich and Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester.

2007

Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting, Museum of Arts & Design, New York and touring USA.
Crimes of Omission, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, USA.
Body, Nobody, Somebody, KODE – kunstmuseene i Bergen, Norway (solo).
The Perfect, Contemporary Applied Arts, London (solo).
Wintry, Lounge Gallery (Monika Bobinska), London.

2006

Johnny Foreigner, Kunstforum Rheinhessen, Essenheimer Kunstverein, Germany.

2005

Ceremony, Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, London.
Reveal, Castle Museum, Nottingham.
Knit 2 Together: Concepts in Knitting, Crafts Council Gallery, London and touring.

2004

Flexible 4: Identities, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester and touring internationally.
Cosy, Queen’s Hall, Hexham (solo).
Them Indoors, Geffrye Museum, London.

2003

Cosy, The Pier Arts Centre, Orkney, Scotland (solo).

2002

Cosy, firstsite at the Minories Art Gallery, Colchester (solo).
Metamorphing, Wellcome Trust Gallery, The Science Museum, London.
Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2002: Textiles, Crafts Council Gallery, London and touring UK.

2001

Shelf Life, Gasworks Gallery, London touring to Spike Island, Bristol and Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool.
Free Radicals, Konstfack, Stockholm, Sweden and touring.
Adorn, Equip, The City Gallery, Leicester and touring UK.

2000

Out of the Closet, Sotheby’s, London.
Freddie Robins, firstsite at the Minories Art Gallery, Colchester (solo).

Work in Collections

Government Art Collection, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Crafts Council, London, Castle Museum, Nottingham, Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, KODE – kunstmuseene i Bergen, Norway, Spring Studios, London, Szombathely Art Gallery, Hungary.
Private collections in UK, Turkey, USA and Australia.

Selected Commissions

1999

Commissioned by inIVA (Institute of International Visual Art) to create a multimedia work for X-Space, their experimental web space http://www.iniva.org/xspaceprojects/robins

1998

Public Art Commission, Hands of Hoxton, by the London Borough of Hackney for Shoreditch Library, London.

Residencies

2004

Galerie sphn, Berlin, Germany.

2003

Britto International Artists’ Workshop, Tepantor Film City, Bangladesh – a Triangle Arts Workshop.

Awards and Scholarships

2021

a-n Artists Bursaries 2021: Time Space Money.

2013

Grants for the Arts award, Arts Council England/National Lottery.

2012

Shortlisted for Women to Watch 2012, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, USA.

2006

AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council), Small Grant for the Creative and Performing Arts.
Research Development Award, Royal College of Art.

2003

Travel Award to Bangladesh, British Council.
Visual Arts Research Award, Goldsmiths College.

2002

Shortlisted for the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2002: Textiles.

2001

London Arts Award.

Education

1987-1989 MA (RCA), Royal College of Art, London.
1984-1987 BA (Hons) 1st Class, Middlesex Polytechnic, London.

Read full Curriculum Vitae

Selected published writing (by the artist)

read full Published Writing and Bibliography

Selected Press

read full Press Archive

Links

Further information and images of work can be found on the following sites:

Instagram
@iamfreddierobins

Royal College of Art – Staff Profile
www.rca.ac.uk

Blackwater Polytechnic – established by Freddie Robins and Ben Coode-Adams as an informal educational establishment that is now promoting the creativity that is found in Essex through The Essex Embassy
www.blackwaterpolytechnic.com
instagram @blackwaterpolytechnic

Grand Designs – Freddie Robins and Ben Coode-Adams convert a 16th century timber framed barn into a home, studio and workshops in Essex
www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs

Victoria & Albert Museum – interview and pattern for Conrad from Odd Gloves series
www.vam.ac.uk/knitting

Textile Curator – interview
www.textilecurator.com

TextileArtist.org – Disrupting preconceptions of craft interview
www.textileartist.org

Make Believe – online journal of innovative writing about craft, design and creativity. Make Believe supports writing that is beautiful, radical and wise. Since 2013, it has considered, ranted, struggled, mused on, and thought about the process of making.
www.makebelieve.ie

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