Dr. Ferren Gipson is an art historian, artist & cultural storyteller.

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Ferren works at the intersection of art history, storytelling, and creative expression to explore how visual and material culture is shaped by our inner lives and shared histories.

Whether through books, exhibitions, broadcasting or lectures, Ferren explores how images and objects function in society and investigates how they convey meaning and operate within changing cultural contexts. Her work engages with themes of modernity, materiality, craft, iconography, and identity, with a particular interest in overlooked and under-loved subjects.

Ferren’s textile practice is deeply intuitive and led by research, making, human connection, and experiential learning.

At its heart, her work asks how images and objects hold power to affirm, challenge, heal, and connect us to something larger than ourselves.

Have a Listen

The Object Podcast

Ferren hosts this narrative podcast about the meanings and histories behind the imagery and cultural objects we encounter every day. Object explores visual and material culture, offering a lens on how images and objects help shape the way we see and experience the world.

Listen on Substack, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify

Selected Work

  • 'The New Bend' Exhibition

    View Ferren’s work exbhited in ‘The New Bend’ exhibition at Hauser & Wirth, curated by Legacy Russell.

  • Women's Work

    An award-winning book celebrating the work of modern and contemporary women artists working in textiles and ceramics.

  • Azurest Blue: The Life and Legacy of Amaza Lee Meredith

    Ferren contributed an essay titled ‘Amaze Lee Meredith: A Voice Drawn from Vision’ to the journal. Creative directed by Solange Knowles, produced by Saint Heron.

  • 'Within + Without' Exhibtion

    An exhibition at Unit London—curated by Ferren—of 12 contemporary textile and ceramic artists exploring representations of our inner and outer worlds.

  • Liberty – The Patchwork Collective

    Working with the iconic Liberty store on content and to create a patch for a community-made quilt celebrating their 150th anniversary.

  • 'Object' Video Series

    A YouTube series hosted and produced by Ferren featuring the work of interesting artist-makers working in rare, specialised, and/or endangered art forms.

  • The 'Art Matters' Podcast

    The 'Art Matters' Podcast

    A podcast hosted and produced by Ferren that explores the interesting ways art history intersects with popular culture and everyday life.

  • Esquire Magazine Interview

    Ferren interviews Josh O’Connor and Jonathan Anderson for the Esquire Townhouse @ Your House event.

  • The Art Book for Children

    Ferren contributed 30 new artists to this combined and revised edition of a Phaidon classic.

  • Tschabalala Self: Make Room

    Ferren contributed a chapter titled ‘A Sense of Self’ to Tschabalala Self’s first monograph, offering a detailed biography of her life and practice to date.

  • What is Surrealist Design?

    Voice work and writing for The Design Museum for a video in connection with the ‘Objects Of Desire: Surrealism and Design’ exhibition.

  • The Ultimate Art Musem

    An imaginary art museum in a book, spanning 40,000 years of art history and over 300 beautiful artworks.

Watch what’s happening

See some videos of Ferren in action. Choose your own adventure by watching an episode from her YouTube Series or check out her TED Talk…

Subscribe to Ferren’s Substack for stories about fascinating people, images & objects from the worlds of art and visual culture.

Check it out

A little light reading

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A little light reading 〰️ 

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BIO

Ferren Gipson is a British-American art historian, artist, writer, and broadcaster.

Named one of Apollo Magazine’s ‘40 under 40,’ her art research spans a wide range of themes, including popular culture, craft, modernity, politics, and identity. She is an award-winning author of Women’s Work and The Ultimate Art Museum, and as a dynamic storyteller, has contributed to the Financial Times, hosted the Art Matters podcast, and currently hosts and produces the Object podcast.

Ferren holds a PhD in the History of Art from SOAS, University of London. She has previously taught for the Courtauld Institute and SOAS, and has delivered numerous talks for museums including Tate Modern, the National Gallery, the National Museum for Women in the Arts and more, as well as guest lectures for institutions like the Royal Academy of Art and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

Within her art practice, Ferren explores themes of spirituality, materiality, and matrilineal ties through textiles. For her, making is both research and ritual, and is deeply tied to ancestral legacies. She has exhibited her work with Hauser & Wirth, UNIT London, Paul Smith Gallery, and more.

She is based in London.

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