Louisa Chambers
Louisa Chambers’ current practice begins in the everyday - suburbia, boredom, routine and overlooked wild spaces at the edges of urban environments. Drawing from both observation and memory, she explores shifting relationships with self, space and environment through a childlike lens of curiosity and unease. Figures emerge in these imagined spaces, peeping, morphing, watching and alongside a recurring bird-like creature. The character can be deemed an alter ego born from her experience of matrescence, the transformation of becoming a mother. Recently, her practice has embraced intuitive mark-making within drawing and painting processes, allowing imagined worlds to surface such as hybrid spaces between the familiar and the fantastical. Ultimately, her work reframes the mundane into something strange and otherworldly.
She has exhibited both nationally, internationally and worked on public site-specific commissions.
Selected exhibitions include: Grounded, Barber Lopes (London, 2026), Drawing Closer, Royal Drawing School (London, 2026), Primates, Manchester Contemporary 2025, (Manchester, 2025), Flat Volume, APT Gallery (London, 2025), Flat, Primary (Nottingham, 2025), Objects, Axel Obiger (Berlin, 2023), Maquette, No Show Space (London, 2023), Telling Tales, Platform Projects, Athens (Greece, 2022), Thru’ These Architects Eyes, PAPER Gallery, Manchester Contemporary 2021, Criss-Cross, Angear Visitor Centre, Lakeside Arts Centre (Solo - Nottingham, 2021), Enough is Definitely Enough, Pineapple Black (Middlesbrough, 2020) and Manuscript – Letter Home, CAA Arts Museum, Hangzhou (China, 2018-2019).
Education
2025 — Online Drawing Development Year, Royal Drawing School, London
2012 — PGCE (Post-Compulsory Education), Institute of Education, UCL
2007 — MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London
2005 — BA (Hons) Fine Art, First Class, UCA, Farnham
2002 — BTEC Diploma in Art & Design, Distinction, UCA, Farnham
Selected Exhibitions
2026
Grounded, Works On Paper 2026, Barbara Lopes, London
Drawing Closer, Royal Drawing School, London
2025
Flat Volume, APT Gallery, London
Flat, Primary, Nottingham
2023
Objects, Axel Obiger, Berlin
Maquette, No Show Space, London
2022
Telling Tales, Platforms Project, Athens
Nothing Has Changed, Everything Has Changed, Beep Painting Biennial, elysium gallery, Swansea
Colour-flex, Terrace Gallery, London
On Paper, PAPER Gallery, Manchester
2021
Thru’ These Architects Eyes, Manchester Contemporary (with PAPER Gallery)
Criss-Cross, Angear Visitor Centre, Lakeside Arts, Nottingham (Solo)
THIS YEAR’S MODEL, Studio 1.1, London
2020
Beep 2020, elysium gallery, Swansea
Enough is Definitely Enough, Pineapple Black, Middlesborough
Still Life, Axel Obiger (affiliated with PAPER Gallery), Berlin
Enough is Definitely Enough, Oceans Apart, Salford
2019
Expanded Studio Project, PS2 and Primary, Belfast & Nottingham
Paint, PS Mirabel, Manchester
Enough is Definitely Enough, General Practice, Lincoln
Pacific Breeze, White Conduit Projects, London
2018
Twice as Nice, PS Mirabel, Manchester
Transcendence, The Cello Factory, London
2017
Manuscript – Letter Home, China Academy of Arts Museum, Hangzhou
Veneer, Wirksworth Festival (Co-curated)
A Table of Elements, Greystone Industries, Suffolk
Flag Commission, The Usher Gallery, Lincoln
Line and Fold, PAPER Gallery, Manchester / CAMPBASEL Revisited, Basel
Precision of Thought, SE9 Container Gallery, London
Only Yours Dear, Gallery No.1, Derbyshire (Solo)
2016
Razzle Dazzle, Transition Gallery, London
New Room, Classroom, Coventry
Paper Cuts, Transition Gallery, London
Drawn For Something Else, Rogue Project Space, Manchester
Wham, Transition Gallery, The Manchester Contemporary
Wish You Were Here, Estuary Festival, Metal, Southend
BAD SIGNS/Adjustments, Atkinsons-Kram Gallery, London
Now For Tomorrow II, Nottingham Castle
Razzle: All that Jazz, The Harley Gallery, Nottinghamshire
Awards / Competitions
2022 — Beep Painting Prize, Elysium Gallery
2015 — Nottingham Castle Open (Purchase Prize)
2014 — Creekside Open, APT Gallery
2008 — John Moores 25 Contemporary Painting Prize
Press / Publications
2026 - Drawing Closer, ODDY25, Royal Drawing School
2023 — Maquette, No Show Space (Robert Moon)
2022 — Telling Tales, Platforms Project
2018 — Manuscript – Art Letter Home, China Academy of Arts Museum (CAA Press)
2017 — The Times, “Artists are schools' latest big draw” by Greg Hurst
2014 — (detail), Transition Editions
2012 — “Are Louisa Chambers' paintings abstract?”, Garageland 13, Ruth Solomons
2009 — Migration, Garageland 9
2008 — John Moores 25, Exhibition Catalogue
Teaching
2017 – Present
Senior Lecturer in Fine Art (0.5), School of Art & Design, Nottingham Trent University
2023 – 2027
External Examiner — BA Fine Art, Southend-on-Sea
2020 – 2025
External Examiner — BA Fine Art, Cardiff Metropolitan University
2014 – 2019
Visiting Lecturer — BA Fine Art programmes at:
Cardiff School of Art, Cardiff Metropolitan University, De Montfort University, Leicester, UCA, Farnham, University of Nottingham, Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, Nottingham Trent University and Loughborough University
2012 – 2016
Artist-in-Residence / Teacher — Repton School, Derbyshire
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