Playfully subverting meaning and making, her work disrupts notions of knitting as
passive and benign. Freddie studied at Middlesex Polytechnic (1984-87), and the Royal College of Art (1987-
89), where she is now Professor of Textiles. Recent exhibitions include History in the Making: stories of
materials and makers, 2000 BC – Now, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, If Not Now, When? Generations of
Women in Sculpture in Britain, 1960 – 2022, The Hepworth Wakefield & Saatchi Gallery, London and I Put a
Spell on You – Magic and Mysticism, Art Exchange, University of Essex. In 2024 she was co-curator of
Thread Count – an exhibition of contemporary textile practice with The Art Station, Saxmundham, Suffolk.
In 2025 she is the Ostrow Visitor at Reed College and Cooley Gallery, Portland, USA. Freddie has received
grants from Arts Council England/National Lottery, British Council, Crafts Council and AHRC (Arts &
Humanities Research Council). Her work is held in private and public collections including the Government
Art Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, Crafts Council and Museum and KODE – kunstmuseene i
Bergen, Norway. Freddie lives and sometimes works with her husband, artist Ben Coode-Adams, in a 16 th
century timber framed barn that they converted into their live/work home on a working farm in North
Essex. From here they run the informal organisation, The Blackwater Polytechnic, combining construction,
farming, forestry, art, craft and collecting.
Freddie Robins
Freddie Robins is an artist committed to textile materials and processes. She uses knitting to explore contemporary issues of the domestic, gender and the human condition, questioning conformity and notions of normality.
