Honouring the life of Liz Williamson (1949-2024)
Like so many people in the craft and design sector, I am deeply sad to have lost Liz Williamson this past weekend. Liz was a mentor and friend to us all. An exceptional textile artist, weaver, curator, writer, and educator Liz was active and engaged with contemporary craft and design. She did not miss an opening or event at Australian Design Centre and was always there to lend advice and support.
I valued her opinions, her friendship, and her unwavering commitment to creative practice. As Australian Design Centre’s 2007 Living Treasure Master of Australian Craft, she was not only honoured for her weaving mastery but for her lifelong passion and leadership in the craft sector.
In this past 12 months I have had the privilege of working with Liz to present her exhibition Weaving Matter, taking her work to Melbourne Design Fair and seeing her entry in the MAKE Award: Biennial Prize for Innovation in Australian Craft and Design receive a High Commendation. She was extraordinary, generous, elegant, passionate, skilled, talented and prolific.
Read more about Liz’s amazing career on our website and listen to our podcast conversation and watch her film for the 2018 exhibition Obsessed: Compelled to Make.
Australian Design Centre sends our sincere and deep condolences to Liz's family, friends and colleagues at this sad time.
Liz Williamson is an internationally respected textile artist who began weaving in the late 1970s. Her work engages with cultural associations, history and construction of cloth with the relationship between clothing, memory and the body informing her practice. Since establishing her studio in 1985, Liz has designed for industry, created works for major exhibitions and maintained an ongoing studio production. Specialising in hand-woven textiles, her work embraces traditional techniques alongside digital processes with some designs being woven in India. Liz Williamson’s work is represented in most major public collections in Australia including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Powerhouse Museum.
In 2007 Liz was selected for the prestigious Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft series, an award given by Australian Design Centre acknowledging her 30–year contribution to the craft and design sector through practice, education and advocacy. The exhibition Liz Williamson: Textiles opened in Sydney in November 2008 before touring regional galleries nationally during 2009, 2010 and 2011. Dr Grace Cochrane is the author of the publication with the same name.
In 2008, Liz was appointed as Head, School of Design Studies, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney. She regularly presented lectures and workshops in Europe, Asia, North America, with those in Asia being her focus.
Obsessed: Compelled to Make
Obsessed: Compelled to make is an ADC On Tour exhibition of the work of 14 artists from across Australia including Liz Williamson.
Watch Obsessed here.
Series 1: Australia's Masters of Craft | Episode 5: Liz Williamson
Listen to Liz Williamson discuss her favourite ‘magical’ material, how darning and repair informs her work, and how she works with weavers around the world.
Listen to the full episode here.
MAKE Award 2023
Australian Design Centre launched the first MAKE Award: Biennial Prize for Innovation in Australian Craft and Design in 2023 with Liz receiving a High Commendation for her work, 'Listening'.
Read more about the MAKE Award here.
Weaving matter: materials and context, Q&A with Liz Williamson
ADC sat down with curator, weaver and academic Liz Williamson to ask about curating Weaving matter: materials and context, exhibited here in Gallery 2 from 30 March – 24 May 2023.
Read the full Q&A here.
Design Isolate
The journal is a comprehensive documentation of Liz’s research and conceptual sketches for her projects in the coming exhibition Make the World Again. Inspired by reading and listening to the radio, Liz included her samples, experiments, off cuts, and collages in this journal.
View Liz Williamson's Journal here.
