Anya Paintsil, Neigh, 2023
Anya Paintsil’s character-filled textiles are inspired by her childhood, culture and mythology.
The Chester-based textile artist’s rugs are not to be stepped on, but to be closely observed like any other work of art.
It seems as though artists can’t escape creating work that reckons with the good, the bad and the ugly. Many present us with oeuvres that expose what truly makes them tick – from culture to societal pressures and the home – allowing us to interpret and hopefully appreciate. In the Chester-based artist Anya Paintsil’s textile-rich practice full of rugs and tapestries, she deeply weaves autobiographical themes that speak to her background at our feet. “I pull references from all over the place – I often work with folk tales and mythology from Wales and Ghana,” she tells us. “As someone who didn’t really study art formally until my mid-twenties, a lot of influences came through the art I was exposed to in my home in Wales. There were a lot of Ghanaian art books and ephemera that kept me and my siblings connected,” she adds.
