Biography
Nigel Hurlstone (b. 1970) studied for a BA in Embroidered Textiles at the former Manchester Polytechnic where he was awarded a first-class honours degree. He then gained a MA (distinction) in textiles and was one of the first graduates to be a awarded a Ph.D. with practice by Manchester Metropolitan University in 2000. He has worked simultaneously as a practitioner, writer and senior lecturer for the past thirty years and in 2014, established a studio in Ffynnongroyw, North Wales, where he now lives and works.
In 2023, Hurlstone was awarded the prestigious Fine Art Textile Prize, an international juried competition that recognises and celebrates artists using textiles, cloth and thread as their primary medium. Judge Jo Hall comments that, “…the work is a meticulous marriage of concept, execution and approach. The artist’s investigation of concepts around identity and imagined lives blurs the boundaries between real and projected images of the self, whether in personal or wider narratives. The virtuosity in conveying this concept sets it apart.” Hurlstone was also awarded the Embroiderers Guild Beryl Dean Award for Excellence in Embroidery in 2018, an Arts Council Wales, ‘Create’ grant in 2022 and a bronze medal at the International Tapestry Biennial in Lodz, Poland, 2016. His work has been shown at ‘Collect’ (Saatchi Gallery, 2019), and as part of the National Gallery Masterpiece Tour in 2022. In 2023, key pieces were acquired and accessioned to The Government Art Collection. Two portraits of Vera Brittain and Shirley Williams were commissioned by the Gladstone family in 2023, forming part of an exhibition of new art at Hawarden Castle, Flintshire. A copy of the portrait of Vera Brittain has since been acquired by Somerville College, Oxford. Hurlstone’s writing can be seen in various publications including, ‘The Erotic Cloth: Seduction and fetishism,’ Bloomsbury 2018 and ‘Hand Stitch Perspectives,’ Bloomsbury 2012.