Alice Thompson is an artist working with the medium of knit. She references transitional moments in our lifetime, such as maternity, when clothing can be temporary, stretched, outgrown and cast aside.
In the frame series of 2021-2024, knitted panels are stretched and stitched over handmade oak frames. She references ideas of containment and expansion when the body grows and stretches clothes like in childhood, knitting on a loose tension so the physical line of the knitted row is seen and traced around the surface of the work. The knitting is comprised of colour combinations that merge and overlap to evoke snippets of memory.
Intarsia is a knitting technique that is commonly used in her work. She transforms found imagery into pixel drawings and knits poetic equivalents. Alice’s work seeks to reframe expectations of knitting as a medium.
Alice lives and works in London and is a Technical Instructor in the Textiles Yarn Resource at the Royal College of Art and Tutor in Machine Knitting at Working Men’s College.
EDUCATION
BA Textile Design, Chelsea College of Arts, London, 2019
International Student Exchange Program: Textile Design, Tama Art University, Tokyo, 2017
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Camberwell College of Arts, London, 2015
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025
Knoll Yarns, Pitti Immagine Filati, Florence, Italy
Seven Rows, 81 King’s Road, London, UK
Disobedient Objects, Electro Studios Project Space, St Leonards on Sea, UK
The Fabric of Being, Seeing Loud Gallery, London, UK
2024
Textile Junction, Electro Studios Project Space, St Leonards on Sea, UK
2023
Threads - A Celebration of Textiles, Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds, UK
2022
The Knot, 146 Bethnal Green Road, London, UK
Happy Go Lucky, Bow Arts, London, UK
The London Open: Artists Takeover, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
Artists for Ukraine, 16 Nicholson Street, Glasgow, UK
Assemble, V.O Curations, London, UK
2020
Pride Muse, Online Resource by Reece Higham
2019
BA Degree Show, Chelsea College of Arts, London, UK
Material Solutions, Nike World Headquarters, Beaverton, Oregon, USA
WORKSHOPS
2025
Lead Facilitator, Colèchi, You Can Knit With Us (YKWU) X Upgrade Yourself Festival,
Somerset House, London, UK
2023
Lead artist: Loop by loop, stitch by stitch: Knitting Workshop, Whitechapel Gallery, London
What Now? The Graduate Survival Guide, Sarabande Foundation, London, UK
2022
Lead artist: Colèchi, YKWU (You can Knit With Us), The Lighthouse & Gardens Stratford, London, UK
Colèchi, YKWU X Saatchi Gallery: Designers at Work, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
PRESS
Objects of Desire, Scenery, Number Four, p. 113, 2025
Room & Board: A visit to decorator Marshall Neve’s apartment in New York City’s Chinatown, Will Brodie Davidson, Scenery, Number Three, p. 58-71, 2025
Guest Edit: Melanie Raines, AucArt, August 2023
Guest Edit : Alison Damote, AucArt, June 2023
V.O Curations - Assemble, London Art Round Up, Issue 04, January 2022
Mycelium Books by Joacim Jorba Nilsson, First Edition, 2022
TALKS
Mayfair Art Weekend, V.O Curations, London, UK - July 2023
TEACHING
Technical Instructor in Textiles Yarn Resource, Royal College of Art, London - 2024 to present
Tutor in Machine Knitting, Working Men’s College, London - 2023 to present
Fashion and Textiles Technician, Working Men’s College, London - 2023 to present
Photo by Olivia Blyth, 2024