Welcome, wonderful wanderers
About Me
My name is Lauren Emmy Bowman, Edinburgh based artist, creative play and learning practitioner and eternally over enthusiastic weirdo.
Born and raised in the cosmopolitan suburban wilds of England's East Midlands, I moved to beautiful Edinburgh in 2010 to attend Edinburgh College of Art, and refused to ever leave. After graduating I featured in multiple graduate shows, was awarded the Prudential Award for Young Artists in 2014 and was shortlisted for the inaugural W. Gordon Smith Painting prize. In 2016 I had my first solo show 'Resolutions' at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh.
I'm also a social arts practitioner with a focus on joyful learning, creative play, performance and installation.
Copyright: Claire Burnett
copyright: Claire Burnett
Visual Art
I create highly decorative contemporary miniature paintings, populated by playful protagonists of an often anthropomorphic persuasion. Characters throughout my painting parody the many small joys and every day mundanities of human experience, creating nonsensical narratives to which I lend a sense of significance via obsessive and elaborate ornamentation. I see my practice as much a kin to written fiction as visual art; separate works follow a continuous divergent narrative with events and characters in individual paintings referencing the wider fiction via links to fabricated history and inferred ancestry.
Social Practice
I have worked within the arts for 10 years, as a practising artist, teacher, facilitator and in the context of running and supporting creative events. During this time I have been lucky enough to work with a diverse range of communities. These include schools and early years programmes within the UK and abroad charities, creative oriented social care organisations and as a freelance arts, performance and play practitioner. The core values of my practice are playfulness, storytelling, joy, curiosity and wonder.
Image of 'We Grow Together', an ambitious installation-based art exhibition across sculpture, music, sound and lighting design, project let by me alongside UPMO, a Lothian's based creative social care organisation.
More questions? Interesting stories? Exciting project ideas for which you seek colourful collaborators? Please don't hesitate to get in touch!
