Six artists demonstrate how ‘soft’ techniques such as quilting, embroidery, crochet, knitting, and tufting can convey sharp, personal, and societal narratives. Here, textiles do not become mere decoration or an afterthought, but rather a medium for vulnerability, friction, and resistance.
The works in Radical Softness move between intimacy and confrontation. They address themes such as identity, mental health, trauma, and recovery, making visible what often remains beneath the surface.
Tatum Kempers My Cabinet of Ego's presents a series of crocheted self-portraits that are simultaneously absurd and vulnerable. In her “cabinet of egos,” she explores the tension between self-image and reality. “I do not use absurdity as an escape; it is my personal resistance to reality.”
Marianna O’Reilly draws on her Russian-Armenian-British background and combines various disciplines in her practice. In The Triumph of Laughter, she confronts the visitor with the impact of sexual abuse. The work is simultaneously a testimony, a feminist statement, and an invitation to conversation.
Ant Stevens incorporates embroidery, recycled materials, and everyday objects into layered compositions that balance humor and gravity. His work reflects on mental vulnerability within an apparently banal reality. “My creations are just like life: a laborious and frustrating process. Yet I derive joy and satisfaction from the result.”
Hélène Picard approaches textiles from a painterly and modular perspective. Her hanging, symbolically charged garments — such as Soft Armor and Robe GriGri — explore the tension between protection and seduction, between visibility and mystery.
Anastasiia Stefaniuk who fled the war and settled in Antwerp, presents a work about repressed emotions with Snirt (2025). A soft, white layer covers what lies beneath, but nothing remains hidden: when the snow melts, an asphalt-grey drabness inevitably returns to the surface.
Uta Kreher In her series Bauhaus Beauty, reinterprets the role of women within the Bauhaus. Using wool as a sculptural material, she writes a tactile, feminist correction to an often one-sided art history.
Six nationalities. Six voices. One exhibition that pushes the boundaries of textile art and radically redefines its ‘softness’.
Anastasiia Stefaniuk / www.instagram.com/an____stef/
Ant Stevens / https://www.instagram.com/wabisabistar/
Hélène Picard / https://www.instagram.com/helenepicard/
Marianna O’Reilly / https://www.instagram.com/marianna_the_un/
Uta Kreher / https://www.instagram.com/utak7/
Tatum Kempers / https://www.instagram.com/tatumkempers/