Mapping a practice: Positioning your work in the art world

How do contemporary painters, photographers and performers use art history to shape their creative practice? Which artworks and ideas resonate and connect with your own developing work as an artist? And how can you express these influences with clarity and confidence to others?

Join artist Tom Lovelace for this one-day workshop exploring how artists develop their own creative identity and communicate the ideas behind their work. Through active looking, group discussion and practical writing exercises, you will consider how connections with the wider landscape of visual culture can help shape and enrich your practice.

Drawing on his ‘Living Pictures’ series and doctoral research, Lovelace will share how he brings together art history, artists, writers, places and spaces to inform his approach. Using the National Gallery Collection as a starting point, you will reflect on your influences, consider how your work relates to the broader art world, whatever form it may take, and develop new ways of describing and presenting your ideas.

This workshop will also examine how artists use language to frame their work, from titling to artist statements. You will refine your approach to presenting your practice with clarity and confidence, helping others engage with the thinking and intentions behind what you create.

Suitable for anyone seeking inspiration, renewed focus or creative direction as a practicing artist, both amateur and professional. We particularly encourage recent graduates across the creative industries as well as those who wish to take their creative practice more seriously.