Sally Spens British
"Drawing has always been central to my practice, both as a textile designer and as a painter/printmaker. It is important to me that the images are handmade and originate from my drawings and experience.”
Sally Spens is a British artist whose practice bridges the fields of printmaking, painting, and textile design. She studied Fine Art with a specialization in Textiles at Goldsmiths’ College, London, and went on to work as a textile designer in both the UK and Japan. Her time in Japan, particularly a seven-year collaboration with the prestigious Kawashima textile company, had a profound impact on her work and is now archived by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Spens remains one of the few Western designers to have worked so extensively with a Japanese textile house.
In recent years, her focus has shifted to hand-inked copper plate etchings, through which she continues to explore themes of memory, nature, and abstraction. Her prints often feature botanical forms, vessels, and imagined objects, rendered with the sensitivity and discipline of a trained designer. Using painterly intaglio techniques, Spens creates intricate, layered compositions that reflect both observation and imagination.
Spens' work has been exhibited internationally, with shows in the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and at the European Cultural Centre in Venice. Her prints are held in both private and public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, affirming her status as a significant figure in contemporary printmaking.
