"For us, Camilla Iliefski’s tapestries are textile paintings. Soft, organic shapes emerge from the hand-tufted pile and lend the works a sculptural dimension. Through the interplay with the bright colors, which blend harmoniously into one another, Camilla Iliefski’s tapestries become lively, abstract compositions that exude warmth and fill every room with their aesthetic presence."
Jennifer Schenk, Galerie Schenk Modern, Munich
Camilla Iliefski began expanding her creative practice to include textile forms around fifteen years ago. This was driven by a desire to add a tangible, physical dimension to the bodiless two-dimensionality of graphic design. In the technique of hand tufting, she found a medium that not only allowed her to work with her hands but also enabled a renewed connection with materials. Since then, she has combined graphic thinking with a profoundly tactile approach, creating textiles distinguished by their subtle use of color and emotive presence.
The choice of high-quality materials is essential to Iliefski. Natural fibers such as wool and flax, which reveal a particular depth and vibrancy, form the foundation of her practice. Yet at the heart of her artistic exploration lies color — both as an emotional means of expression and as a compositional element, indeed “the true driving force behind the creative process.” “Color plays a central role in the tension between harmony and disharmony,” she says.
In her tapestries, she feeds up to five threads simultaneously through the tufting gun, blending shades, layering tones, and creating subtle gradients or striking contrasts. The result is abstract compositions of painterly intensity, inspired by modernist painting, particularly the color sensibility of Paul Klee and the luminous sensuality of Pierre Bonnard. Her works invite both visual contemplation and tactile exploration, oscillating between surface and volume, surface and intuition.
Camilla Iliefski’s approach is process-based and open to discovery. “I move intuitively through the process, mixing and combining hues to create organic, bodily forms,” she explains. This openness to material, combined with meticulous craftsmanship, gives her work a distinctive depth. In a time where textile art is gaining increased recognition, the artist from Gothenburg asserts herself with a unique and sensitive visual language: soft of form, precise in execution — and always with a story told through color and structure.
Camilla Iliefski (b. 1970) lives and works in Gothenburg, Sweden. She holds a Master’s degree in Visual Communication from the School of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg, where she has been active as a lecturer. Her artistic work has been recognized with several Swedish art grants. She regularly exhibits her work in solo and group exhibitions in Sweden and abroad, and her pieces are held in the collections of the Röhsska Museum, the Norrköping Art Museum, and numerous private collections.