Natalie Mei
French author and embroiderer.
Natalie Mei, a graduate in philosophy and sociology from the Université de Vincennes –where she enrolled when it opened in 1969 – is the mother of two children. In 1972 she joined the Women’s Liberation Movement Psychanalyse et Politique, and participated in meetings as Tranchesur-Mer and Vieux-Villez. She is the author of books of interviews with painters and in 2001 co-founded the contemporary art and human sciences publication Area. After having begun embroidering, she connected with DMC, the leading manufacturer of thread in France since the 19th century. She became the artistic director for a collection of books dedicated to contemporary embroiderers for the DMC edtions.
She embroiders threads very tightly, giving density and intensity to the created material in abstract patterns of volutes, undulating, changing curves, and shimmering, vibrant colours. In 2012 N. Mei organised the exhibition Brodeuses en liberté, with her creations and those of five other embroiderers at the Galerie des femmes.
© Éditions des femmes – Antoinette Fouque, 2013
© Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, 2020
