Contact
Camila Barvo (b. 1996, Medellín, Colombia) lives and works in London. She holds an MA in Textiles from the Royal College of Art. Barvo’s soft sculptures, installations ans textile pieces address the knowledge held in the body: the gestures, rhythms and materials through which memory is carried and passed on. Drawing on braiding, knotting, embroidery and dyeing, her work translates everyday gestures into sculptural forms and environments, where structure and softness, tension and release are in constant dialogue.
Rooted in her Colombian heritage and Latin American textile traditions, fique, jute and coffee dyes appear not merely as raw materials but as living symbols of Colombia’s textile legacy. Since moving to the UK, she has been working with local wool fibres, extending this material research and questioning how memory and identity shift when a material changes place.
Her process is led by craft and repetition. Each knot, braid and stitch is made by hand, and decisions emerge in dialogue with the behaviour of the fibre: how it holds, yields, resists or unravels. The resulting forms carry the trace of both the artist’s gesture and the material’s response. This tension between structure and gesture, intention and resistance, is central to her practice.
Rooted in her Colombian heritage and Latin American textile traditions, fique, jute and coffee dyes appear not merely as raw materials but as living symbols of Colombia’s textile legacy. Since moving to the UK, she has been working with local wool fibres, extending this material research and questioning how memory and identity shift when a material changes place.
Her process is led by craft and repetition. Each knot, braid and stitch is made by hand, and decisions emerge in dialogue with the behaviour of the fibre: how it holds, yields, resists or unravels. The resulting forms carry the trace of both the artist’s gesture and the material’s response. This tension between structure and gesture, intention and resistance, is central to her practice.
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Camila Barvo (n. 1996, Medellín, Colombia) vive y trabaja en Londres. Es Máster en Textiles por el Royal College of Art. Sus esculturas blandasm, instalaciones y piezas textiles abordan el conocimiento que habita en el cuerpo: los gestos, ritmos y materiales a través de los cuales la memoria se transmite. A partir del trenzado, el anudado, el bordado y el teñido, su trabajo traduce gestos cotidianos en formas y ambientes escultóricos, donde estructura y suavidad, tensión y liberación estan en constante diálogo.
Arraigada en su herencia colombiana y en las tradiciones textiles latinoamericanas, su obra otorga a los materiales un significado propio. El fique, yute y tintes de café aparecen no solo como materia prima, sino como símbolos vivos del legado textil de Colombia. Desde que se mudó al Reino Unido, trabaja con fibras de lana locales, ampliando esta investigación material a través de geografías y preguntándose cómo cambian la memoria y la identidad cuando un material cambia de lugar.
Su proceso está guiado por el hacer manual y la repetición. Cada nudo, trenza y puntada surgen en diálogo con el comportamiento de la fibra, cómo sostiene, cede, resiste o se deshace. Esta tensión entre estructura y gesto y resistencia, es central en su práctica.
Arraigada en su herencia colombiana y en las tradiciones textiles latinoamericanas, su obra otorga a los materiales un significado propio. El fique, yute y tintes de café aparecen no solo como materia prima, sino como símbolos vivos del legado textil de Colombia. Desde que se mudó al Reino Unido, trabaja con fibras de lana locales, ampliando esta investigación material a través de geografías y preguntándose cómo cambian la memoria y la identidad cuando un material cambia de lugar.
Su proceso está guiado por el hacer manual y la repetición. Cada nudo, trenza y puntada surgen en diálogo con el comportamiento de la fibra, cómo sostiene, cede, resiste o se deshace. Esta tensión entre estructura y gesto y resistencia, es central en su práctica.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026 ‘Entanglement’ Wyn Wine Collaboration at General Assembly, London, UK
2025 ‘The Filaments of a Memory’. Solo Show. Sarabande Foundation, London, UK
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Echo Soho, Curated group show by Soho Revue at Artists House, London, UK
2026 ‘Sorge’, Curated by Senem Bilgin-Keys at Vision Gallery, London, UK
2026 ‘invasive species’ Curated group show by Danielle Mezh at Hypha Studios, London, UK
2026 ‘Anatomy of a Map’, Greatorex St Gallery, London, UK
2026 ‘A line has time in it’, Carta Magna, 65a Charlotte St, London, UK
2026 Collect Art Fair, UK Crafts Council, Somerset House, London, UK
2026 ‘Mundane Shrine II’, One Paved Court Gallery, London, UK
2026 The John Ruskin Prize, Shortlisted Artist’s Exhibition, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, UK
2025 Made in Bed Magazine Featured Artist Exhibition, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, UK
2025 Minor Attractions at Mandrake Hotel, House of Bandits Gallery, London, UK
2025 ‘Finalist’s Exhibition,’ ACS Studio Prize x Gurr Johns, Group Show, West End, London, UK
2025 ‘Sincerely,’ Curated exhibition at Sarabande Foundation, London, UK
2025 ‘Embroidered Realities’. Curated exhibition, London Craft Week + BOUND Embroidery, London, UK
2025 House of Bandits Gallery at Selfridges. Hosted by Sarabande Foundation, London, UK
2025 ‘An Embroiderer’s Story’. Curated by BOUND Collective at The Brixton Department Store, London, UK
2024 ‘and so the broken mend themselves’. Somers Gallery + LATAMesa, London, UK
2024 ‘Innovative Sustainability’. Curated exhibition for Blackdot Gallery, London Design Festival, UK
2024 ‘Crafting Identities’. Curated exhibition at The Royal College of Art, London, UK
2024 ‘Textiles in the Making’. Upper Gulbenkian Gallery. Royal College of Art, London, UK
2024 ‘Sustain Lab Annual Exhibition’. Upper Gulbenkian Gallery. Royal College of Art, London, UK
2021 ‘Volaran’. Sala de Exposiciones Julio Mario SD, Los Andes University, Bogotá, Colombia
2018 ‘Andando’. Sala de Exposiciones Julio Mario SD, Los Andes University, Bogotá, Colombia
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026 ‘Entanglement’ Wyn Wine Collaboration at General Assembly, London, UK
2025 ‘The Filaments of a Memory’. Solo Show. Sarabande Foundation, London, UK
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Echo Soho, Curated group show by Soho Revue at Artists House, London, UK
2026 ‘Sorge’, Curated by Senem Bilgin-Keys at Vision Gallery, London, UK
2026 ‘invasive species’ Curated group show by Danielle Mezh at Hypha Studios, London, UK
2026 ‘Anatomy of a Map’, Greatorex St Gallery, London, UK
2026 ‘A line has time in it’, Carta Magna, 65a Charlotte St, London, UK
2026 Collect Art Fair, UK Crafts Council, Somerset House, London, UK
2026 ‘Mundane Shrine II’, One Paved Court Gallery, London, UK
2026 The John Ruskin Prize, Shortlisted Artist’s Exhibition, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, UK
2025 Made in Bed Magazine Featured Artist Exhibition, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, UK
2025 Minor Attractions at Mandrake Hotel, House of Bandits Gallery, London, UK
2025 ‘Finalist’s Exhibition,’ ACS Studio Prize x Gurr Johns, Group Show, West End, London, UK
2025 ‘Sincerely,’ Curated exhibition at Sarabande Foundation, London, UK
2025 ‘Embroidered Realities’. Curated exhibition, London Craft Week + BOUND Embroidery, London, UK
2025 House of Bandits Gallery at Selfridges. Hosted by Sarabande Foundation, London, UK
2025 ‘An Embroiderer’s Story’. Curated by BOUND Collective at The Brixton Department Store, London, UK
2024 ‘and so the broken mend themselves’. Somers Gallery + LATAMesa, London, UK
2024 ‘Innovative Sustainability’. Curated exhibition for Blackdot Gallery, London Design Festival, UK
2024 ‘Crafting Identities’. Curated exhibition at The Royal College of Art, London, UK
2024 ‘Textiles in the Making’. Upper Gulbenkian Gallery. Royal College of Art, London, UK
2024 ‘Sustain Lab Annual Exhibition’. Upper Gulbenkian Gallery. Royal College of Art, London, UK
2021 ‘Volaran’. Sala de Exposiciones Julio Mario SD, Los Andes University, Bogotá, Colombia
2018 ‘Andando’. Sala de Exposiciones Julio Mario SD, Los Andes University, Bogotá, Colombia
RESIDENCIES
2026 Soho Revue Studio Residency, London, UK
2025 House of Bandits x Selfridges, invited one-day residency, London, UK
2024/25 Sarabande Foundation: Est. by Lee Alexander McQueen, London, UK
2026 Soho Revue Studio Residency, London, UK
2025 House of Bandits x Selfridges, invited one-day residency, London, UK
2024/25 Sarabande Foundation: Est. by Lee Alexander McQueen, London, UK
AWARDS
2026 John Ruskin Prize, Shortlisted Artist
2025 Artist Collecting Society Studio Prize. Finalist
2025 Visual Arts Open, Longlisted Artist
2024 UK Textile Society. Postgraduate Award, Highly Commended
BURSARIES & FUNDING
2026 John Ruskin Prize, Shortlisted Artist
2025 Artist Collecting Society Studio Prize. Finalist
2025 Visual Arts Open, Longlisted Artist
2024 UK Textile Society. Postgraduate Award, Highly Commended
BURSARIES & FUNDING
2025 Professional Development Programme. New Platform. Art
2025 The Eaton Fund
2025 The Eaton Fund
PUBLICATION
2025 Sarabande Foundation, Studio Interview for ‘The Filaments of a Memory’ Solo Show
2025 Made in Bed, Sotheby’s Institute Magazine, Camila Barvo Emerging Artist Interview
2025 Revista Exclama, Exclama Presenta video feature and article, ‘Los Filamentos de una Memoria’ Exposición Individual de Camila Barvo en La Fundación Sarabande’
2024 Embroidery Magazine Vol. 75 Nov/Dic Issue. ‘Meet The Bound Collective’
2025 Diario El Clarín, Revista N. ‘La mesa como una instancia de reunión: redes de artistas lationamericanos en Londrés’
2025 Sarabande Foundation, Studio Interview for ‘The Filaments of a Memory’ Solo Show
2025 Made in Bed, Sotheby’s Institute Magazine, Camila Barvo Emerging Artist Interview
2025 Revista Exclama, Exclama Presenta video feature and article, ‘Los Filamentos de una Memoria’ Exposición Individual de Camila Barvo en La Fundación Sarabande’
2024 Embroidery Magazine Vol. 75 Nov/Dic Issue. ‘Meet The Bound Collective’
2025 Diario El Clarín, Revista N. ‘La mesa como una instancia de reunión: redes de artistas lationamericanos en Londrés’
EDUCATION
2024 Master in Textiles. Royal College of Art. London, UK
2021 Major in Design. Universidad de Los Andes. Bogotá, COL
Minor in Textile Design. Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá, COL
2024 Master in Textiles. Royal College of Art. London, UK
2021 Major in Design. Universidad de Los Andes. Bogotá, COL
Minor in Textile Design. Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá, COL