The Glasgow School of Art

Jo Barker is a tapestry artist working from her studio in Edinburgh. Jo exhibits her work nationally and internationally including at Collect, Saatchi Gallery; SOFA Chicago and The Scottish Gallery Edinburgh. Her work is in numerous collections, public and private, including the V&A Museum, London; The House of Lords, London and the Scottish Government. She was awarded the Cordis Prize for Tapestry in 2016 and has been the recipient of creative funding awards, including Creative Scotland, Inches Carr Trust and the Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers.

Work is featured in numerous books including Textiles: The Art of Mankind, Mary Schoeser, Thames & Hudson 201 and Tapestry: A Woven Narrative, Black Dog Publishing, 2011.

Teaching experience began at Cumbria College of Art and Design before moving on to The Glasgow School of Art working with first year students in the School of Design. More specifically since 2007 Jo has taught in the department of Fashion & Textiles becoming the Year 1 Cordinator for the BA(Hons) Fashion & BA(Hons) Textiles programmes.

Research interest lies in the meeting points between traditional drawing and painting techniques, digital manipulation as a design tool, and the employment of traditional textiles hand-skills as a method of manufacture. Specifically the Gobelin tapestry weaving technique.

Past subject matter of qualities and patterns of light are currently being explored in combination with qualities of fluidity – inkiness and brush marks. The challenge lies in capturing the spontaneous essence of the gestural marks when slowly translated into hand woven tapestries.