Richard McVetis Richard McVetis

BIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY 

Born in eMalahleni (Witbank), South Africa, 1983
Lives and works in London

Richard McVetis studied at Manchester School of Art and the Royal College of Art, where he is currently Interim Co-head of the Textiles programme. He has been shortlisted for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize (2023), Jerwood Drawing Prize (2011, 2017), and Loewe Craft Prize (2018), and was awarded Bronze at the Cheongju Craft Biennale, South Korea (2025). His work has been exhibited widely, including Threads at Arnolfini (2023), the British Textile Biennial (2021), RENEW at Kettle's Yard (2019), and Form + Motion with the British Council in South Korea (2017). He held a solo show at the Craft Study Centre, Farnham in 2022, and in 2025 received an A-N Bursary and a Cove Park Residency (2025/26). His work is held in the collections of the V&A London, Korean Craft Museum, and Huddersfield Art Gallery.


EDUCATION

MA Constructed Textiles — Royal College of Art, 2008
BA (Hons) Embroidery — Manchester Metropolitan University, 2006
Foundation Diploma in Art & Design — Stafford College, 2001


SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022

Shaped by Time — Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, UK, 2022


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026

ThreadFlux — White Conduit Projects, London, UK
The Sun and the Moon — Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
A Moment for Eternity — Hauser & Wirth, London, UK
Collect 2026 — Cavaliero Finn, Somerset House, London, UK
Platform: The Unexpected — curated by Dr Ferren Gipson, London Art Fair, UK


2025

An eXhibition of SMALL things with BIG ideas — White Conduit Projects, London, UK
Cheongju Craft Biennale — Cheongju, South Korea
Collect 2025 — Cavaliero Finn, Somerset House, London, UK
Lions & Unicorns — White Conduit Projects, curated by Lol Sargent, London, UK

2024

Objects of Contemplation — Make Hauser & Wirth, London, UK
20 Years — Cavaliero Finn, London, UK
On Tenderness & Time — curated by Jenn Ellis, presented by Xenia, London, UK
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize — Bournemouth, Plymouth and Wigan, UK
Inspired — Ruup & Form, Collect International Art Fair, London, UK

2023

Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize — London, UK
Threads: Breathing Stories into Materials — Arnolfini, Bristol, UK
House Guests — David Parr House, Cambridge, UK
Elemental Lines — Cavaliero Finn, Ballroom Arts, Aldeburgh, UK
In Quest for Harmony — Ruup & Form, Collect International Art Fair, London, UK
Into the Night — Cavaliero Finn, London Art Fair, UK

2022

Sixty Drawings + Ten — The Whitaker, Manchester, UK
Conversations — The 62 Group, St Barbe's Museum & Art Gallery, Lymington, UK
Essence — The 62 Group, London & Harrogate, UK

2021

Definitions of Drawing — Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds, UK
Connected Cloth — British Textile Biennial, The Whitaker, UK
Monochrome — Ruthin Craft Centre, Wales, UK


2020

Of Time and Place — Living Object, London, UK
25 Years — Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London, UK
Ten — Unit Twelve, Stafford, UK


2019

RE-NEW — Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, UK
David Gates: In Dialogue — Make Hauser & Wirth, Somerset, UK
COS Series IV — Coal Drops Yard, London, UK
Construct — The 62 Group, Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds, UK
The Future of Craft — London, UK
Crafting New Perspectives — Culturesphere, Gmund Büttenpapierfabrik, Germany
Future Icons — London Art Fair, UK
Retail Space — Seventeen Gallery, London, UK

2018

Loewe Craft Prize — The Design Museum, London, UK
Stitch — Daniel Raphael, London, UK
Is It Useful? — Unit Twelve, Stafford, UK
Monochrome — Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool, UK
5x10 — Rolfe Judd Architects, London, UK
The Uppermost Layer — Jaggedart, London, UK

2017

Craft Forms — Wayne Art Center, USA
Make_Shift — Collyer Bristow Gallery, London, UK
Form + Motion — UK Pavilion, British Council & Crafts Council, Cheongju International Craft Biennale, South Korea
Drawing Open — No Format Gallery, London, UK
Real to Reel: The Craft Film Festival — Crafts Council, Picture House Central, London, UK
Collect: The International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects — Crafts Council, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Jerwood Drawing Prize — Turnpike Art Centre, Leigh & The Gallery, Poole, UK
The Thread Unraveled — V.M. Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan

2016

White Show — Clotworthy House Art Centre, Northern Ireland
Jerwood Drawing Prize — Jerwood Space, London, UK
Making Space — The 62 Group of Textile Artists, Macclesfield, UK
Hand/Work — Bílskúrsgallerý, Icelandic Textile Center, Blönduós, Iceland
Excellence in Fibre — USA

2015

Craft Forms — Wayne Art Center, USA
Cheongju International Craft Biennale — South Korea
White Show — Flow Gallery, London, UK

2014

Microtopia — Kingsgate Gallery, London, UK
The Geometrics — Slow Textiles Group, Textiles Hub, London, UK

2011

Jerwood Drawing Prize — Jerwood Space, London, UK

2007

Mixtacity — Nigel Coates, Tate Modern, London, UK


AWARDS

Cheongju Craft Biennale, Bronze Award, 2025
Cove Park Residency, 2025–26
a-n Bursary, 2025
Resident Artist — Make Hauser & Wirth, Braemar, Scotland, 2024
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, Finalist, 2023
Evelyn Williams Drawing Award, Shortlisted, 2023
Cockpit Textile Prize, 2023
Resident Artist — Xenia Creative Retreat, Hampshire, UK, 2023
Cockpit Arts / Newby Trust Craft Excellence Award, 2019
Loewe Craft Prize, Finalist, 2018
Arts Council England Collect Open, Selected Artist, 2017
Jerwood Drawing Prize, Finalist, 2016
West Dean Tapestry Commission, Longlisted, 2016
Resident Artist — Textilsetur Íslands, Blönduós, Iceland, 2016
Cheongju International Craft Competition, Finalist, 2015
Jurors Award — Craft Forms, Wayne Art Center, 2015
Jerwood Drawing Prize, Finalist, 2011

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

The Edge of Forever — Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2026
Happening — Korean Craft Museum, South Korea, permanent collection, 2025
Permutations — Huddersfield Art Gallery, acquired through the Contemporary Art Society Omega Fund, 2022

TALKS 

Ruskin Prize Symposium: Patience in Looking, Truth in Making, 2026
Platform: Material Innovation & The Unexpected — chaired by Laura Moseley, London Art Fair, 2026
Mapping Heat: Textiles, Coal and Time — PARSE Conference, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 2025
In Pursuit of Luxury: Honest Luxury — Ravensbourne University, London, 2025
Loewe Foundation — artist talk and panel discussion, Somerset House, London, 2025
Timescapes: Perspectives on Process — Tatter, USA, 2025
Textile + Place Conference — talk and panel discussion, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2023
Unravelling Threads — panel discussion with Gemma Brace & Alice Kettle, Arnolfini, Bristol, 2023
Sew Inclusive: Male & Non-Binary Artists in Conversation — Woven Textile Festival, Huddersfield, 2023
Radical Acts Symposium — panel discussion with Natalie Melton, Harewood House, 2022
Material Lives — Artefact, panel discussion with Grant Gibson, London, 2022
Definitions of Drawing — panel discussion with Courtney Spencer, Leeds, 2021
The Potential of Stitch — The Textile Society, 2021
The Skill of Narrative & Stitched Textiles — keynote, Fashion & Textiles Museum, London, 2021
Possibilities of Fibre Art — organised by Tai Ping, chaired by Grant Gibson, London, 2020
Textile Artists in Conversation — Raystitch, London, 2019
Crafts Council: Home and Abroad — panel discussion, Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2017
Inspiring the Future — various locations, 2016–present


PODCASTS

In Pursuit of Luxury, November 2024
Unravelling Threads — with Gemma Brace & Alice Kettle, Arnolfini, 2023
Material Matters with Grant Gibson, May 2022
Making Meaning — Ruth Singer Podcast, July 2021
Pursuit of Beauty, In Stitches — presented by Amber Butchart, BBC Radio 4, November 2018
Rial Talk — Materials Podcast with Anna Ploszajski, August 2018


PUBLICATIONS

Record, Map and Capture in Textile Art — Batsford, 2022
Textile Travels — Batsford, 2020
Thread: Contemporary Embroidered Art — Thames & Hudson, 2019
De Fil en Aiguille: Embroidery Art — Pyramyd Editions, 2018
Dimensional Cloth — Andra Stanton, 2018
Textile Landscapes — Cas Holmes
Hand Stitch Perspectives — Alice Kettle & Jane McKeating, Bloomsbury Press, 2012

COMMISSIONS / PROJECTS 

1 Triton Square — commission by New Public, 2025
Royal Academy of Arts — Sketch with Stitch, 2025
Crafts Council x Toast — Renewal, 2021
Store Store x Barbican, 2020
Late at Tate Britain — Tate Collective, 2020
Institute of Making, UCL, 2018–2020
Mulberry — Take Root Branch Out, 2020
COS, 2019
Toast — RE-NEW, 2019
Cheltenham Science Festival, 2019
Rolfe Judd Architects, 2018
The Big Draw — Jerwood Visual Arts, Jerwood Space, London, 2016

PRESS

The Design Edit - Profile and interview by Emma Crichton-Miller - February 2026

Less is More - Selvedge Magazine - Interview by Katerina Knight - February 2026

Curators Choice - Art Aurea Magazine - Germany - Summer 2025

The Interconnectedness of Life and Cosmos - January 2025

Granules of Time - Handwerken Magazine - Netherlands - 2025

Material Source - August - 2024

Six Textile Artist to invest in - Homes & Gardens - 2024

Hole & Corner - In conversation - October - 2023

Muji - Craft your comfort - Artist Profile - October 2023

Financial Times - Contemporary Embroidery - August 2023

Spectator - Threads: Arnolfini - August 2023

Sixtysix Magazine - 13 Textile Artists Pushing the Medium Forward - July 2023

See Sew - Brother Japan - February 2023

Crafts Magazine - Cotton Artist Spotlight - October 2022

Embroidery - Review of solo exhibition - April 2022

A Stitch in Time - Oliver Spencer in conversation with Richard McVetis - April 2022

Textile artists: the pioneers of a new material world - Harriet Llyod-Smith for Wallpaper* - March 2022 

Labour of Love - Interview by Craig Mclean for Hole & Corner - January 2022

Toast Magazine - Reviving and Reinventing - May 2021

Tatter Journal - The Vastness of Minutia - May 2021

Embroidery - My Space - March / April 2020

Turnball & Asser - Off the Cuff - September 2020

Interview - Jamie Chalmers (Mr X Stitch) - July 2020

Textile Curator - June 2020

TOAST x Kettles Yard - November 2019

TOAST Magazine - RE-NEW at Kettles Yard - October 2019

Korean Craft + Design Foundation - Special Feature - July 2019

Evening Standard - Gallery Walls - March 2019

Wilma Journal - December Distilled - December 2018

Textile Artist - From Concept to Creation - Nov 2017

Uppercase Magazine - Making Time - Oct 2017

Wearables Magazine - Inspiration - June 2017

Embroidery Magazine - Making Time - May/ June 2017

Textile Artist - Creating texture and pattern with Stitch - April 2017

Crafts Magazine - Collect Guide - Open to ideas by Imogen Greenhalgh - Feb 2017

House & Garden - Preview the talent at Collect - Jan 2017

Inspirations Magazine - Issue 91 - Sept 2016

Embroidery Magazine - Sept/Oct 2016

House & Garden - Buying Art Dec 2015

Inspirational - Nov 2015

Embroidery Magazine - Nov/Dec 2015

Crafts Magazine - July/August 2005


MEMBERSHIP & AFFILIATIONS

Brother - The Art Workers Guild 

Artisan - Homo Faber 


TEACHING

Interim Co-Head of Programme, MA Textiles — Royal College of Art, 2025–present
Tutor (Research), MA Textiles — Royal College of Art, 2017–2025
Opponent, MFA Craft — HDK-Valand, Academy of Art and Design, Sweden
Tutor — West Dean College of Arts and Conservation

VISITING LECTURER
Royal College of Art, MA Textiles, 2017–2022
University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, MA Textiles, 2022–present
Chelsea College of Arts, UAL, Graduate Diploma Textile Design, 2022–present
Royal School of Needlework, BA Embroidery, 2022
Loughborough University, BA Textile Design, 2022
Manchester Metropolitan University, BA Textiles in Practice, 2021
Buckinghamshire University, BA Textile Design, 2019
De Montfort University, BA Design Crafts, 2017

WORKSHOPS & PARTICIPATORY PROJECTS
Institute of Making, UCL, 2018–2021
Tate Britain, Tate Collective, 2021
West Dean College, 2017–present
Freelance — national and international venues, 2011–present, including South London Gallery, Kettle's Yard, Jerwood Arts, Toast, Store Store, Raystitch and Loop

MENTORING 
Arts Emergency, 2023
New Designers, 2021–2023






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