Wish You Were Here
By Laura Lees

Friday 29th May to Saturday 18th July

Laura Lees is a force of nature and thread. The Edinburgh-born and based textile artist is herself the daughter of two artists. Laura’s parents both taught art at her school, which you could believe might have been enough to turn young Laura away from life as an artist. Instead, she has woven her own journey in tapestry and embroidery.

Laura studied at DJCAD in Dundee then moved to London where she worked with fashion designers including Giles Deacon and Luella whilst running her own cult fashion label, which was stocked in Topshop at the very peak of its heyday. In 2019 Laura returned home to Edinburgh with her family. Today she works from her studio in Summerhall, collaborating with a global roster of clients and studios on bespoke artworks and interior commissions. And postcards. She renders her preferred architecture, views and emblems of Edinburgh in thread.

Laura has a wicked wit and a lyrical tongue. She devours high and low pop culture simultaneously, and skewers it all in a beat. Five minutes of chat romps across the following: Norris McWhirter’s Record Breakers, Findus Crispy Pancakes, Katy Grand and Katharine Hamnett, Scottish Presbyterian prudence and the glory of Palladian architecture, WWF – wrestling not wildlife – Courtney Love and Shavers’ Weekly, Burberry and Julie Burchill. Her brain is encyclopaedic and her heart is huge. Perhaps it’s no surprise for an artist who uses thread as their principal medium that connection is at the heart of Laura’s magic.

We have been spellbound by Laura’s world and skills since Penny Martin, editor of The Gentlewoman, introduced us soon after we opened Bard. Laura pours all of herself into all of her work. She describes her embroidery as ‘painting in thread’, which is charming, but only captures a fraction of the value of what she does. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture conjured from a thousand threads has so much more to say.

View the works