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Liz Sergeant

St Albans
Socially engaged British artist, exploring the artist’s role as a catalyst for change, through interventions, installations and playful disruptions.

My practice explores the artist’s role as a catalyst for change, through interventions, installations and playful disruptions. Working across a variety of media, including performance, my practice is discursive and collaborative.

I explore the ways in which art can be encountered and experienced – in galleries, public urban spaces, woodland, workplaces, heritage sites or schools – and test the notion of art as a participatory outcome, a shared experience and/or a collaborative event.

The themes I explore are often contemporary social issues, as diverse as the contribution of older women to society, ethical concerns in the clothing industry’s supply chain, slavery, climate change and deforestation. My work is often text-based, inspired by my love of language, nurtured during previous careers as a linguist, language teacher and recruitment manager for a global consultancy firm.

Frequently inspired by people and places, my creative process begins with detailed research.  Then, from a particular story, location or detail, I embrace more general, universal themes, creating a body of work that I hope has relevance and resonance for a wide audience. 

 

Qualifications and Training

2016 - Arts Award Adviser (Bronze, Silver), Trinity College London

2012 - Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts), University of the Arts, London, Central Saint Martins

Solo exhibitions

2019 - Flowing Free Installation in St Johns Church Harpenden, part of Cultivate Arts Festival

2018 - In & Out of Order Installation in St John's Church Harpenden, part of Cultivate Arts Festival

2015 - Please hold the line (while we try to connect you) The Old Curiosity Box, Potters Bar, Herts

2012 - Liz Sergeant@Rayden's Solicitors, St Albans, Herts

2011 & 2012 - Herts Open Studios

Residencies

June 2017 – Artist in Residence, St Albans Diocese Leadership Conference, Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire

January 2014 – The Psychotropic House, with XAP. Awarded a month’s residency at Yinka Shonibare’s Guest Project Studios, Andrews Road, Hackney E8, supported by funding from Arts Council England.

May 2010 – Spinach, Islington, London N1

May 2009 - Valentine's Mansions, Ilford, Essex

May 2008 - Trinity Buoy Wharf - London E14

Selected exhibitions/performances 

Sept 2023 - Tied 3 with XAP, Totally Thames, Thames Festival Trust

2023 & 2021 - A Wandle Wonder Wander with XAP, Wandsworth Arts Fringe Festival, London

June 2021 - The Water Replies, The Estuary Festival, org. by Metal & Cement Fields

May 2019 - Campaigning for Charlotte Wandsworth Arts Fringe Festival, London

March 2018 - Fighting Talk SheFest, Sheffield, S Yorks

Dec 2017-Jan 2018  Snap to Grid  Los Angeles Centre for Digital Arts, California, USA

October 2017 - Virtuality/Mortality with XAP at Ugly Duck, Tanner Street, London SE1 3PL

October 2016 - Tied on the Thames with XAP, Art Licks Weekend, Bankside, London

Sept - Nov 2016 - The Runaway Fingers, Pushkin House, 5a Bloomsbury Sq, London WC1A 2TA

June 2016 - Tied with XAP. Whitstable Biennale Satellite Programme, Whitstable, Kent

May 2016 - Daylight Saving with XAP. Geddes Gallery, 26 Caledonian Rd, London N1 9DU

March 2016 - Moving Image Margate - POW!Thanet Festival, Margate House, High Street, Margate, Kent, CT9 1DX 

Jan 2016 - Snap to Grid, Los Angeles Centre for Digital Arts, California, USA

April 2015 – The Other Garden, with XAP, Nancy Victor Gallery, Charlotte Place, London W1T

January 2014 – The Psychotropic House, with XAP. Guest Project Studios, Andrews Road, Hackney E8. Including a Symposium, family drawing workshop, school visits and performances

January 2014 - Living Painting Performance - three performances at The Psychotropic House, Guest Project Studios, Hackney, E8

October 2013 – Feminism in London Conference  Speaking of Charlotte: the Spirit of Activism 

September 2013 – Get Culture, with Re:kindle Public Arts, Queens Wood, London N6

April 2013 – Dirty Linen, with XAP at the Curious Duke Gallery, London EC1

September 2012 – Growth with Re:kindle Public Arts, Queens Wood, London N6

July 2012 – No Now! Space Station 65, Kennington, London SE11

June 2012 - Central St Martins Fine Art Degree Show, Kings Cross, London

September 2011 – XAP at Oxo-2, London SE1

June-September 2010 – Displacement, Spinach, Islington, London N1

December 2009 – 20:20:20:20, Central Saint Martins, London WC2

May 2009 - Valentine's Uncovered, Valentine's Mansions, Ilford, Essex

September 2009 - 2009.75: A Point in Time, Lewisham Arthouse, London SE14

November 2009 - Chateau D'If, Shoreditch Town Hall, London EC1

May 2008 - Trinity Buoy Wharf - London E14

Artist Educator

Sept 2021 - present - Guest lecturer ‘Making sense of Modern Art’, delivery of courses to local organisations in and around Hertfordshire

June 2019 - Visiting Artist, High Beeches School, Harpenden, Herts

October 2108 - Visiting Artist, St Nicholas Primary School, Harpenden, Herts

October 2017 - July 2018  Visiting Artist, Crabtree Junior School, Harpenden, Herts

Artist / Project Assistant

 April 2018  - Processions 2018  - Content expert on suffragist Charlotte Despard, as part of the Processions Live Art project organised by Artichoke to celebrate Women’s Suffrage with marches through London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast on June 17th 2018. Assisted artist Ruth Ewan with a workshop with women from Nine Elms to develop a banner for Charlotte Despard.

March 2014  - Yinka Shonibare’s team  - Preparation of ‘The British Library’ for Brighton’s HOUSE Festival

October 2013 - Scarabeus Aerial Theatre -  performance of Paradise Lost? off Archway Tower London N1

Jan - March 2013 - Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design Assistant to commissioned artists as part of  A Million Minutes, an Islington Council project organised in conjunction with Central Saint Martins, funded by the Arts Council England and AIR

Supported artist Sarah Cole in Care Full as part of Hostings - A Million Minutes

Supported musician Clare Connors in The Music Room, one of the Windows projects for A Million Minutes

Media

June 23rd 2018 – Interview for Wandsworth radio’s ‘Finding Charlotte’ documentary by Lesley Strachan.

June 17th  2018 -  Interview on BBC Three Counties radio Sunday Breakfast about Cultivate Arts Festival.

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