Threading the Future: 5 Emerging Textile Artists Bending the Art Market in 2025
- Bianca Mafodda
- Jun 2
- 3 min read
Once relegated to the realm of “craft,” textile art has officially entered the high-stakes contemporary art market. No longer confined to the margins, emerging textile artists are commanding attention from major institutions, high-end galleries, and serious collectors. With the material’s tactile intimacy and conceptual depth, textile-based works have become some of the most coveted—and competitively priced—entries at art fairs and auctions.
Here are five emerging textile artists whose bold, boundary-pushing practices are reshaping how the market values fiber-based art in 2025:
Kira Dominguez Hultgren (USA/India/Philippines)
A former academic-turned-textile visionary, Kira Dominguez Hultgren’s woven works combine historical techniques with postcolonial theory and personal narratives. Her dense, colorful tapestries often reference colonial textile routes and diasporic identity. Her recent solo show at a major San Francisco gallery, the Eleanor Harwood Gallery, garnered international attention, with several pieces entering both institutional and private collections.
Market Insight: Museum acquisitions and her academic background offer long-term investment security. Price points are rising with every show.
Igshaan Adams (South Africa)
Working at the intersection of performance, sculpture, and weaving, Adams blends Islamic geometric design with South African craft traditions. His intricate tapestries incorporate beads, shells, nylon rope, and found materials to explore race, sexuality, and spirituality. With representation from prominent galleries in Europe and North America, Adams is becoming a mainstay on the global fair circuit.
Market Insight: His textile works are increasingly in demand among collectors focused on decolonial aesthetics and African contemporary art. Early acquisitions have doubled in value.
Melissa Cody (Navajo Nation, USA)
Melissa Cody’s vibrant, large-scale weavings fuse traditional Navajo textile motifs with digital-inspired “glitch” patterns. Her use of Germantown yarn (a historical material linked to the forced assimilation of Navajo people) adds layered political commentary to every piece. Cody’s work has recently entered the permanent collections of MoMA and LACMA.
Market Insight: Institutional validation and critical acclaim are pushing prices higher. Market-watchers see her as a pivotal figure in contemporary Indigenous art.
Hangama Amiri (Afghanistan/Canada)
Hangama Amiri uses textiles to explore themes of home, memory, and gender identity, particularly through the lens of her Afghan heritage. Her large-scale fabric collages mimic intimate interiors—bedrooms, salons, storefronts—and are constructed using culturally resonant materials like silk, cotton, and embroidery. Her work addresses displacement and belonging, creating rich narrative tapestries that are as political as they are personal.
Market Insight: Amiri’s rising presence in U.S. and Canadian galleries, and acquisitions by major institutions like the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, signal a growing collector base for her tactile, narrative-driven textile practice.
Suchitra Mattai (Guyana/USA)
Suchitra Mattai repurposes vintage saris and colonial textiles into lush, multidimensional installations and wall hangings. Her work reframes domestic labor, migration, and feminine memory through bold fiber assemblages. Based in Denver and represented internationally, Mattai has been included in shows at the ICA San Francisco, The Armory Show, and Art Basel Miami.
Market Insight: As her profile grows among institutions focused on diasporic and feminist narratives, Mattai’s textile work is being positioned as a key long-term investment.
Textile art has become a powerful locus of innovation, identity, and investment. These five artists are not just creating beautiful work—they’re reshaping the global art economy with every stitch. As collectors look beyond the canvas for depth, tactility, and narrative power, textile-based art is no longer on the fringe. It’s now at the center of the conversation.
Sources:
https://eleanorharwood.com/exhibitions/137-kira-dominguez-hultgren-our-daily-parenthetical/overview/
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