My interdisciplinary practice includes photography, installation, mark making, and digital media, with a socially engaged focus. I collaborate with people from all walks of life, especially those who are underrepresented in the arts, and proactively address a wide range of access needs to enhance inclusion. My practice explores questions such as: how does art function in the world? How is art related to, and distinct from, other forms of social and cultural production? Is it desirable (or even possible) for art to create social change? And crucially, what makes someone an artist?
I am currently researching how learning disabled artists are informing contemporary art through a practice-led PhD supported by a VC Scholarship at Manchester Metropolitan University (2018 – 2024), where I also lecture on the Fine Art programme. From my studio at the artist-led Assembly House in Leeds, I have recently been establishing how the material/aesthetic strategies in my personal practice – such as layering, erasure, and duplication – provide a distinct visual answer to the collaborative motivations behind my work. I am also a member of Proximity, a collective of six artists based across the North of England who explore the social and spacial dimensions of practice-as-research.
Organisations I have worked with include: Pyramid, Leeds (2015 – present); Venture Arts, Manchester (2018-present); Manchester Art Gallery (2022); Rogue Studios, Manchester (2022); Abingdon Studios, Blackpool (2021); Creativity Explored, San Francisco (2020-2021); Paradise Works, Salford (2019); Islington Mill, Salford (2019); Leeds 2023 (2018); BEYOND Learning Disability & the Arts in Leeds (2017 – 2018); East Street Arts, Leeds (2014 – 2017); Yorkshire Dance, Leeds (2016-2017); Leeds Playhouse (2017); The Rocket Artists, Brighton (2016); North Yorkshire Libraries (2015); The Tetley, Leeds (2013-2015); Yorkshire ArtSpace, Sheffield (2014); Yorkshire Visual Arts Network (2014); Leeds Art Gallery (2009).