Kate Blee RDI (b. 1961, UK) is an internationally recognised artist and designer, celebrated for her pioneering work with textiles, colour and material. A passionate materialist and colourist, she has developed a distinctive practice that moves between painted cloth, tapestry, rug design, sculpture, ceramics, glass, paper and architectural commissions.
Blee studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1980 to 1984 and established her London studio in 1986. Since then, her work has become known for its bold use of colour, tactile surfaces and physical engagement with process. Her paintings onto textiles have been exhibited internationally and translated into rugs, tapestries, screen prints, woven fabrics and wallpaper.
Her practice is concerned with movement, forces and interactions. Working with processes such as folding, dyeing, soaking, drying, friction and gravity, Blee allows materials to retain evidence of their making. The resulting works are robust, tactile and active: rooted in gestural abstraction, attentive to nature, and alert to the expressive possibilities of cloth, colour and surface.
Blee has a longstanding relationship with architectural and domestic space. She has worked on major public and private commissions, often collaborating with architects, manufacturers and institutions to bring colour, rhythm and material presence into buildings. Her commissions include projects for the Wellcome Trust, Portcullis House at the Palace of Westminster, Girton College Cambridge and NHS Trusts. She was commissioned as Lead Artist for the Welcome Space at University Hospitals Sussex, where her ceramic tile work Wrapped brings colour and rhythm to the entrance columns of the Louisa Martindale Building in Brighton.
Her work is held in significant public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Crafts Council Collection; the Contemporary Art Society; The Arts Society; and the Financial Services Authority. In 2015 she was awarded the title Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts, one of the UK’s highest honours for designers, recognising sustained excellence and influence in her field.
The Scottish Gallery has exhibited Blee’s work over many years, including Unpredictable Life in 2023, which brought together painted cloth, tapestry and sculpture. Her work continues to occupy an important position within contemporary British textiles, expanding the language of cloth through colour, process, architecture and material intelligence.
