Harriet Riddell’s sewing machine has been on journeys all around the globe. Rooted in a longing to be in the great outdoors, adventure and drawing from life, Harriet AKA InStitchYou has spent the last 12 years stitching scenes in the most unusual locations.
From landscapes in India, Kenya, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Africa to name a few, making art about people, place and culture.

2024 brings birth of a new work, inspired by Isabella Tree’s book ‘Wilding’ Harriet is exploring her own visual interpretation of the beauty and impact of allowing nature to take the drivers seat. Through free-motion embroidery, Harriet looks at the connections and rhythms found from the roots of the dock leaf to the wing of the stork. Celebrating biodiversity and the unsung hero’s of Britain’s flora and fauna.

This exhibition will show how Harriet can push her own boundaries in her use of scale. Going ‘big’ has it’s limitations when working with a domestic sewing machine. Harriet is working to overcome these boundaries and unleash a wilder side of stitching. The artworks tell a story through cloth and stitch and the materials used are dyed from plants found in the British countryside.

               EDUCATION

2009 – 2012    BA (1st Class degree Hons) Contemporary Applied Arts, University of Hertfordshire

               SELECTED SOLO SHOWS

2022    The Other Art Fair - Harriet Riddell,Presented by SAATCHI ART, 17-20 March, 2022, London UK

2019     The Travels, The Studio Gallery, Oxford

2016     The Fabric of Life, Textile Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany
               Scrub Life, The Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK

2015     InStitchyou India, The Nehru Centre (Indian High Commission), London, UK
               Hadithi Hadithi, Kuona Trust Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya

2014    Hand Made in India, Khoj, Delhi, India

              ‘Pop-Up’ at Moska Day Spa, Toronto, Canada

2013     Unravelled, Hepsibah Gallery, London, UK

               SELECTED GROUP SHOWS

2022    Arte Nuvola, Rome, IT

2022    Hand Land, Group Show, curated by Tatiana Martyanova, C+N Canepaneri Gallery, Milan, IT

2021     MiArt 2021, C+N Canepaneri Pad. 4 Stand B39, 17 - 19.09 2021

2020    Meditation in colour, text by Lorenzo Bruni, Canepaneri, Milan

2019     NTU Art Centre, Dream Place, Taiwan

2018     Hepsibah Gallery, Black and White, South Africa

2017     Drawing Today, Kunstverein Hochrhein, Bad Säckingen, Germany
               Knit and Stitch Show, InStitchYou Gallery, UK
               GX Gallery, London, UK

2016     Henley Royal Regatta, Stewards Enclosure Exhibition, UK

               Affordable Art Fair, Bristol, UK
               GX Gallery, 40 by 40, London, UK
               Glastonbury Performing Arts Festival, UK

2015      The Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London UK

2014     Aiguille-en-fete, Paris, France
               Art in Action, Oxfordshire, UK
               Urban Art Fair, London, UK
               Buskers Bern, Bern, Switzerland
               Kreative Dage, Fredericia, Denmark
               The Big Stitch, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford UK

2013     Art in Action, New Comers, Waterperry, Oxfordshire, UK
               New Designers, One Year On, Kensington, London, UK

2012     New Designers, Kensington, London, UK
               Graduate Show, University of Hertfordshire, UK