Amelia Cross (b. 1995) is a British artist, born and based in London. Following an early career in tailoring and womenswear design, her practice focuses on uncovering confessions through her primary mediums of painting, pattern-cutting and sewing.

Guided by questions surrounding interiority, uniforms and rules - specifically self-imposed restrictions - Cross studies the unspoken systems of how we construct identity through garments. This research of the clothed form is examined by introducing the craft of pattern-cutting to the painted canvas, resulting in a new form of trompe l’œil defined as the ‘Sewn Painting’:

sewn painting (n.) “that which surface is painted on and constructed by means of needle and thread”

These works occupy a space in-between the binary conditions of the painterly and the sculptural: not quite a painting but not quite a garment. Their real shadows merge with painted ones, forming a new way of tricking of the eye. Cross uses a limited palette on exposed natural linen to control the representation of herself, yet also, strangely allows it to control her.

She investigates sartorial rules, both self-inflicted and societal, removing traces of the figure to explore the psychology of garments and the choices we make every day by wearing them. Drawing upon clothing from her personal archive and popular culture, each work offers up a potential secret - at times dark, at times humorous. These sewn paintings establish the significance of life’s uniforms, the clothes that give us a place from which to speak or hold authority, at the cost of having a bodily presence.

EDUCATION

2025 - MA in Painting - Royal College of Art

2024 - FHEA Fellowship - University of Arts London

2016 - BA in Bespoke Tailoring - University of Arts London

AWARDS

2024 - The RCA President and Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship

2024 - Hesketh Hubbard Bursary

TEACHING

2023 to current - University of Arts London