LYDIA NEWMAN

I am a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, sculpture, and live art performance. My creative practice is deeply interconnected, with each discipline bleeding into the others—images from live performances often find their way into my paintings, while the forms and themes in my paintings inform the shapes and concepts in my live art.

With a background in creative facilitation within the charity and NGO sectors both in the UK and Africa, I am driven by a desire to connect with people, which leads me to make my work interactive. I strive to activate my audiences, inviting them to engage with my art on a deeper level. My art is a co-creation with those who experience it.

Currently, I am developing a body of work that explores my identity as a Black British woman, reflecting on the oppressions that intersect with race, class, and gender in a broader societal context. Through this work, I seek to untagle the ways in which  my soul has been contorted by these external structures. For me, each piece is like a spell, and this series aims to liberate me—to rewild my spirit and allow my soul to express itself freely. My work is honest and vulnerable, filled with pain and rage and everything in between, and at its core always seeking a  sense of joyfulness.

I hold a first-class MA in Performance Making from Goldsmiths, University of London (2021), and a distinction in Drama from Queen Mary, University of London (2008). Between 2008 and 2020, I focused on creative facilitation, delivering self-development programs to communities in the UK and internationally.

My work begins with personal exploration, delving into the questions that keep me up at night, but I invite you to join in—perhaps together, we can find new ways of being.