Manoela Grigorova
Born in Bulgaria in 1983 and raised among vibrant folk textiles and handmade rugs, Manoela Grigorova grew up with creativity woven into everyday life: “Beautiful rugs adorned walls like paintings in a gallery.”
When her family moved to London in the early 1990s after the fall of communism, those influences came with her. She later studied art, fashion design, and photography, but soon fell out of love with the fashion industry. Pursuing a very different career in animal welfare, art took a back seat.
Everything changed in 2020. Furloughed during the pandemic, Manoela found sanctuary in embroidery, returning to her creative roots while experimenting with alcohol inks, beading, and salvaged materials. The process was grounding—fast-flowing inks balanced by the slow rhythm and texture of stitch—and this contrast defines her work: smooth against textured, delicate against bold, fleeting against lasting. Drawn to contradictions like speed versus stillness, chaos versus order, and permanence versus fragility, her practice comes alive within these tensions.
Inspired by natural forms, from microscopic marine life to fungi, corals, and florals, Manoela builds tactile, layered abstractions that invite curiosity and spark joy. Sustainability runs through her practice, with upcycled textiles, found objects, and leftover beads transformed into vibrant new forms.
Manoela has developed a distinctive style that challenges old perceptions of stitch as “just craft.” A member of the Society for Embroidered Work, she contributes to the movement bringing embroidery into contemporary art. She has sold work internationally and exhibited in the UK, including two stints at the prestigious Broderers’ Exhibition (2022 and 2025), organised by The Worshipful Company of Broderers—one of London’s oldest and most esteemed Livery Companies. This highly selective exhibition is a major platform for contemporary stitched art, placing her work among leading textile artists.
Manoela continues to explore colour, texture, and process in ways that celebrate the handmade and encourage reflection and ‘slowness’ in a fast, throwaway world. In another play on contradiction, and championing fibre art as contemporary practice, she will be presenting her new print collection at the Art Carboot Fair, reproduced from her embroidery works, reinforcing the idea that fibre and stitch are simply another medium.
