‘The apotropaic quality of Steele’s work seems expansive. I feel uplifted by the conception of art as continuous and intuitive making, encouraging collaboration. Art, words and print becoming something organic and textured, a tight plait of experimentation, community and creativity.’

Excerpt from Translating Textiles into Print: Jenny Steele’s Women in Print Residency by Iona Glen for Corridor 8

Jenny Steele is a Scottish artist based in North England, UK. Her practice uses heritage weaving techniques to create tactile, evocative and joyful sculptures, exploring celebration, grief and ritual. She is interested in how celebration can be an act of empowerment, a way to feel belonging and fulfil our innate need for uplifting warmth. She conversely often refers to grieving an absence, which stems from experiencing multiple bereavements from early to teen years. 

Since 2020, Jenny retrained extensively in loom weaving, basketry, rush weaving & passementerie through self-directed learning and courses. Her work highlights the tactual, sensorial and metaphorical qualities of weaving and she experiences it as a universal sculptural language. Its properties are familiar and accessible due to everyday usage in interiors, dress and functional objects. 

Jenny uses locally sourced sustainable materials such as discarded industrial yarn from Northern mills and businesses in combination with plant life such as grasses, willow, flora and seaweed which provide a connection to place and sense of belonging.

Between 2023-24, Jenny delivered the project Rituals for Tomorrow, a production and engagement project supported by Arts Council England, developing these craft processes into large scale sculpture in Gorton, Manchester and Barrow, Cumbria. You can read more on the project blog here and the two final works Gorton Rush Cart and Charon.

Jenny’s practice also connects to the restorative qualities of coastal, architectural and rural environments through site-specific artwork, textiles, sculpture, printmaking, and public events.

From 2014-2019, she explored examples of inter war coastal ‘seaside moderne’ architecture within the UK & USA. This period of design on the coast emphasised social wellbeing and positive health. She has created several outdoor and interior sited works responding to this research using a range of printed and stitched methods, from banners, textiles, to digital and screen-printed wallpaper works.

Recent residencies include Northwards Xu, Chongqing, China (2024), L’Atelier Aux Fils De L’Arz, Brittany, France (2024), Women in Print, Art Lab CPS, Preston (2024), Arnis Residency, Arnis, Germany (2022) Cove Park, Scotland (2021), Fountainhead Arts, Miami, USA (2017) and This House for Building, The Tetley, Leeds (2017).

Recent and permanent commissions include Wound and Woven Maypole, Midsummer Festival, MK Council (202^), Less Memories Than Fingers on Hands, Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery, Rawtenstall (2025-26), TEXTILE CITY, Museum of Science and Industry (2022), The Joy of Union, MET, Preston City (2022), Our Library of Light, At The Library, Crosby (2019) and The Seafront, Art B&B (2019).

Recent solo exhibitions and projects include;  Weaving in Progress, Rogue Platform Space (2024), The Maiden Voyage, George’s Dock Plaza, Liverpool, 2019, Why be exotic in private?, The Foundry Gallery, London (2018-19) and Rogue Project Space, Manchester (2019), This Building for Hope, The Midland, Morecambe (2017), Too Much is Never Enough, The Breakwater, Miami, USA (2017), and An Architecture of Joy, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool (2016).

Jenny is a graduate of Goldsmiths MFA (2007) and BA Fine Art DOJCAD, Dundee (2002).

Full CV here