Internationally renowned artist, Jilli Blackwood graduated from the prestigious Glasgow School of Art in 1986, receiving a first class honours degree and two awards in art and design.
Her principle medium is textiles and she specialises in embroidered and woven textiles, however, in recent times she has introduced oil painting to her craft. Jilli’s unique embroidery technique ‘slash and show’ creates wall hangings and ‘Art to Wear’.
Her pieces are held in numerous museum, corporate, public and private art collections, including: the United States Government, the Scottish Government, National Museums Scotland and the V&A in London. She has exhibited in both group and solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Canada, Kuwait and the UK.
Jilli is best known for her ‘Millennium Kilt’ series which was first exhibited in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London in an exhibition entitled ‘Men in Skirts’. Jilli lent into the circular economy many years before it became mainstream, breathing new life into vintage kilts and transforming these into works of art. This series was the inspiration behind her first appearance on a global stage as Director of Costume for the Flag Handover Ceremony in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, where she designed the outfits for 350 cast members in a contemporary embroidered red tartan. In 2014, Jilli was invited to design the parade uniforms for the Scottish Team at the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Since the Covid lockdown an exciting body of new work has emerged; it is a blend of Jilli’s “slash and show” technique with her trademark use of colour, this time in oil paint, to transform the canvas into embroidered, textural paintings which draw inspiration from the world outside and her internal world.