The Love You Left Behind is an immersive introduction to the distinctive and deeply evocative world of textile artist Livia Papiernik.

A Franco-British mixed-media textile artist, Papiernik is renowned for her extraordinary skill as an embroiderer and her ability to transform cloth into powerful narrative environments. Working primarily with intricate hand embroidery and felted textiles, she creates surreal, story-laden spaces that blur the boundaries between dream and reality. This exhibition invites visitors to step inside those spaces — to wander, pause, and become absorbed in their texture, colour, and quiet magic.

Presented by BATSFORD GALLERY

Curated by Tally de Orellana

20-22nd February 2026

solo show

The works on display reveal Papiernik’s mastery of traditional embroidery techniques alongside her experimental approach to scale, surface, and installation. Drawing on folklore, mythology, emotional memory, and landscape, her practice explores themes of identity, grief, wellbeing, and reconnection in response to an increasingly fragmented and digitised world. Each piece functions as a kind of portal: at once beautiful and unsettling, tender and powerful. As well as offering a visually immersive experience, the exhibition provides a rare glimpse into Papiernik’s creative practice. From drawing and writing to intuitive mark-making and painstaking stitch, visitors are invited to engage with embroidery not only as a craft, but as a deeply emotional and sensory medium capable of storytelling, reflection, and care.