Dr. Ferren Gipson is an art historian, artist, and cultural storyteller.

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Ferren works at the intersection of art history, storytelling, and creative expression to explore how visual culture is shaped by our inner lives and shared histories.

Whether through books, exhibitions, broadcasting or lectures, Ferren enjoys exploring how images and objects function. She investigates how visual and material culture conveys meaning, holds power, and operates within changing value systems and social contexts. Her work engages themes of modernity, materiality, craft, iconography, and identity, with a particular interest in overlooked and under-loved subjects.

Her textile practice is deeply intuitive and led by research, making, human interaction, and experiential learning. At its heart, her work asks how images and objects hold power to affirm, challenge, heal, and connect us to something larger than ourselves.

Selected Work

  • 'The New Bend' Exhibition

    View Ferren’s work exbhited in ‘The New Bend’ exhibition at Hauser & Wirth, curated by Legacy Russell.

  • Women's Work

    An award-winning book celebrating the work of modern and contemporary women artists working in textiles and ceramics.

  • 'Within + Without' Exhibtion

    An exhibition at Unit London—curated by Ferren—of 12 contemporary textile and ceramic artists exploring representations of our inner and outer worlds.

  • Liberty – The Patchwork Collective

    Working with the iconic Liberty store on content and to create a patch for a community-made quilt celebrating their 150th anniversary.

  • 'Object' Video Series

    A YouTube series hosted and produced by Ferren featuring the work of interesting artist-makers working in rare, specialised, and/or endangered art forms.

  • The Ultimate Art Musem

    An imaginary art museum in a book, spanning 40,000 years of art history and over 300 beautiful artworks.

  • The 'Art Matters' Podcast

    The 'Art Matters' Podcast

    A podcast hosted and produced by Ferren that explores the interesting ways art history intersects with popular culture and everyday life.

  • Esquire Magazine Interview

    Ferren interviews Josh O’Connor and Jonathan Anderson for the Esquire Townhouse @ Your House event.

  • The Art Book for Children

    Ferren contributed 30 new artists to this combined and revised edition of a Phaidon classic.

  • Tschabalala Self: Make Room

    Ferren contributed a chapter titled ‘A Sense of Self’ to Tschabalala Self’s first monograph, offering a detailed biography of her life and practice to date.

  • What is Surrealist Design?

    Voice work and writing for The Design Museum for a video in connection with the ‘Objects Of Desire: Surrealism and Design’ exhibition.

Subscribe to Ferren’s Substack for stories about fascinating people, works, and practices from the worlds of art and craft.

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Watch what’s happening

See some videos of Ferren in action. Choose your own adventure by watching an episode from her YouTube Series or check out her TED Talk…

A little light reading

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A little light reading 〰️ 

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BIO

Ferren Gipson is a British-American art historian, artist, writer, and broadcaster.

Named one of Apollo Magazine’s ‘40 under 40,’ her art research spans a wide range of themes, including popular culture, craft, modernity, politics, and identity. She is an award-winning author of Women’s Work and The Ultimate Art Museum, and as a dynamic storyteller, has contributed to the Financial Times and hosted the Art Matters podcast and the Object video series.

Ferren holds a PhD in the History of Art from SOAS, University of London. She has previously taught for the Courtauld Institute and SOAS, and has delivered numerous talks for museums including Tate Modern, the National Gallery, the National Museum for Women in the Arts and more, as well as guest lectures for institutions like the Royal Academy of Art and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

Within her art practice, Ferren explores themes of spirituality, materiality, and matrilineal ties through textiles. For her, making is both research and ritual, and is deeply tied to ancestral legacies. She has exhibited her work with Hauser & Wirth, UNIT London, Paul Smith Gallery, and more.

She is based in London.

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