EMMA NEUBERG

Drapes: Painting, Power and the Architecture of Cloth

Drapes was my first large-scale installation, commissioned by curator Hannah Rose for the Mirror Gallery at the University of Plymouth in 2016 to launch its Textiles Season, which also featured British designers Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons of Timorous Beasties and Kit Kemp.

Rather than hanging paintings on walls, I wanted the paintings to become the walls.

Measuring 3.5 × 4 × 5 metres (11.5 × 13 × 16 feet), Drapes consisted of twenty suspended textile elements. Using satin polyester as a volumetric medium, the installation transformed the gallery into an immersive environment in which colour, pattern and material occupied architectural space. Each element employed repeating…

Painting Consumer Culture: Billboard Skirts and Recycled Plastic

During my PhD in Constructed Textiles at the Royal College of Art, I began experimenting with recycled plastics as a printing medium. What started as a technical investigation gradually became a way of thinking about painting, printing, consumer culture and the material afterlife of everyday objects. My Billboard Skirts emerged from…

Remembering Rudolf Nureyev: Quilt 23 at Tate Modern

In June 2025, my commemorative quilt for Rudolf Nureyev (Quilt 23), was exhibited in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern as part of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt.

I made the work to honour Rudolf Nureyev whose extraordinary contribution to dance transformed the cultural landscape and whose death from an AIDS-related illness remains emblematic of a generation of artists lost during the AIDS epidemic. The quilt forms part of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, a remarkable collective artwork created between 1989 and 1996 by friends, partners and family members in remembrance of those who died from AIDS-related illnesses. I submitted my quilt to Rifat Ozbek’s Quilts of Love call-out in 1994 alongside Giorgio Armani, Bella Freud and Vivienne Westwood.

From 12–16 June 2025, visitors were be able to experience the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt in its entirety within Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. Forty-two quilts and twenty-three individual panels were displayed together, recalling the quilt’s original public presentations, where it was shown outdoors in Hyde Park as both an act of remembrance and a powerful form of protest that challenged silence, stigma and political indifference during the AIDS crisis…

Drapes: Memory of Colour at Craft Central UK

In 2019, Drapes was presented in Memory of Colour, my solo exhibition at Craft Central UK’s newly renovated Forge Gallery in East London, curated by Helen Kemp and directed by Marguerite Metz.

By this stage, the installation had already undergone several architectural transformations. At Craft Central, however, I felt that the work once again found a setting that allowed it to breathe. Rather than negotiating with corporate foyers, Drapes entered a space whose scale, atmosphere and industrial history became active participants in the exhibition.

The Forge occupied a beautifully restored Victorian shipbuilding yard where original brickwork, cast-iron columns, gantries and steel beams had been carefully preserved within the new gallery. A contemporary timber amphitheatre introduced another architectural rhythm, giving the space the atmosphere of a theatre suspended within an industrial monument…

AT V&A

Emma Neuberg is interviewed by Alex Flowers, the Director of Digital Programmes at the V&A Museum in Kensington, about her animated artworks for the V&A website and teaching programme.

Billboard Skirts: Plastic, Painting and the Pacific Gyres

Billboard Skirts, 2007, was the first body of work in which I began to think beyond the picture plane. Developed from my PhD research in Constructed Textiles at the Royal College of Art, the series explored how discarded materials might become the substance of painting itself.

The series comprised six works: Barbie Goes Shopping, Hey Superman, Swissland, I Thought It Would Come True, Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Appealing? and War Games. Each was constructed from recycled plastic bags and second-hand denim, using a printing process that grew directly from my doctoral research into extending the life of waste plastics through design.

The works were first exhibited in Ever & Again: Experimental Recycled Textiles curated by Professor Rebecca Earley at the Triangle Gallery, Chelsea College of Art, London, from 19–25 October 2007. At the time, I was also working with Textiles Environment Design at the University of the Arts London as a consultant exploring polymer textiles and sustainable material innovation…

LINCOLN CITY ARTS FELLOW, LOS ANGELES 2020-2026

I’m delighted to be awarded a Lincoln City Fellowship for the development of new, large-scale works. The works will be immersive pieces printed on paper for a total work of art effect. I will continue to develop my unique hand-drawn works and overlay and

Drapes at Aldgate Tower: Scale, Suspension and Architectural Space

Following its presentation at 99 Bishopsgate, Drapes was invited to Aldgate Tower in the City of London. Commissioned by Brookfield Properties and curated by Saff Williams at Acrylicize, the installation entered a dramatically different architectural setting.

Where 99 Bishopsgate offered a sense of intimacy through its sequence of spaces, windows and planted courtyard, Aldgate Tower presented an expansive glass-and-steel thoroughfare crowned by an exceptionally high atrium. The architecture transformed the work once again.

SIR GRAYSON PERRY SELECTS

Sir Grayson Perry, Donald Smith, Amy Jayne Hughes and Cherie Silver select Emma Neuberg’s painting
for The Democratic Dish, a new public project with ChelseaSpace.

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS AT THE V&A

Emma Neuberg celebrates ten years lecturing in Digital Pattern & Decoration in Art & Design at the V&A.

AT ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND

Arts Council England generously awards Emma Neuberg a Developing Your Creative Practice grant for her new project Painting into Textiles.

AIR IN LA

We’re thrilled to announce that after a productive time on the Artist Residency OTIS Summer Program 2019 in Los Angeles, Emma Neuberg has produced a new series of painting sculptures

AT OPEN STUDIOS

You’re invited to Emma Neuberg’s new show, Shields, in her studio at Textiles Hub London, north London.

AT THE V&A

Emma is excited to present her new Digital Pattern Art & Design workshops at the V&A for the upcoming season.

IN THE STUDIO

Emma enjoys nomadic studios in Europe and the US where she explores different painting cultures and landscapes.

Drapes at 99 Bishopsgate: Reconfiguring a Site-Specific Installation

Following the presentation of Drapes at the Mirror Gallery, the installation was invited to open the Fine Art season at 99 Bishopsgate in the City of London. The invitation came after Saff Williams, then at Acrylicize, encountered the press surrounding the original exhibition. The commission for Brookfield Properties marked an important new stage in the life of the work, bringing Drapes from a university gallery into one of London’s most striking contemporary

AT MIRROR GALLERY

Mirror Gallery celebrates the first installation of Emma’s Drapes, measuring 11.5 x 13 x 16 feet (3.5m x 4m x 5m) as part of its textiles season celebrating artists who work with fabric.

IN THE GEOMETRICS

Emma Neuberg’s solo show at Mirror Gallery presents new works based on grid formations, modularizations and repeating patterns.

AT LONDON FESTIVAL OF ARCHITECTURE

Emma Neuberg will be in conversation with Neringa Dastoor for the London Festival of Architecture taking place at CASS ART this summer.

AT THE PODIUM

Emma gives her Shadow Fabric Artist Talk alongside her solo show programme at Plymouth College of Art & Design, in the UK.

AT FRIDAY LATES

Emma Neuberg is excited to present the next V&A Friday Late for the blockbuster exhibition The Fabric of India with The People’s Print!

AT THE V&A WITH SAMSUNG AUTODESK

Emma delivers an exciting design collaboration with Samsung and Autodesk at the V&A Museum in Kensington!

AT SOMERSET HOUSE

Emma is excited to present her new Digital Pattern & Decoration Art & Design workshops at Queen Elizabeth I’s former residence Somerset House!

AT KINGSGATE GALLERY

Emma shows in The Geometrics, the new London group show that she co-curated with Daisy McMullan at Kingsgate Gallery.

AT CHELSEA FUTURESPACE

Emma Neuberg shows in Surface at Chelsea FutureSpace, London, with Brian Chalkley, Edward Cotteril, Vanessa Hodgkinson, Charlotte Jonerheim, Sanghyun Kim, Kangwook Lee and Mohammad Namazi.

AT YOUNG MASTERS’ ART PRIZE

Emma Neuberg’s triptychs created during her Artist in Residency at Chelsea College of Art are exhibited at the Young Master’s Art Prize show in west London.

AT WIMBLEDON SPACE

Emma exhibits new animated paintings and wall pieces in Detours show next month at Wimbledon Space, London.

RUNNING POSTMODERNISM AT V&A

Emma Neuberg is excited to present new Pattern & Decoration Art & Design workshops with The People’s Print at the V&A in Kensington.

AT THE CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART & THE NATURAL WORLD

Emma Neuberg’s ‘Welcome to the New Improved Swissland’ textile piece is one of several on show at the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World in Exeter.

IN THE NEW V&A PLASTICS BOOK

The V&A launches a new book on plastics with a chapter dedicated to Emma Neuberg’s work.

AT THE INSTITUTE OF MATERIALS

Emma is happy to make the cover story for the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Spring 2008 magazine!

AT CRAFTS COUNCIL UK

Emma Neuberg is in the new group show Eco Style curated by Rebecca Earley opening at the Crafts Council UK in north London.

AT THE ICA

Seminal works by members of the Textile Futures Research Group at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, in March 2007.

AT CITY GALLERY

Emma Neuberg’s Blossom Capes are in the touring exhibition, Well-Fashioned – Eco Style in the UK, at the City Gallery Leceister, curated by Rebecca Earley. The show ran 15th July to 26th August 2006. Pictured is Blossom Cape, Emma Neuberg, watercolour and gold foil on rayon and PEVA, 40cm x 70cm, 2006. Photo by Emma Neuberg,…