Part of the New Light Prize Exhibition 2020

Born in the North East, Teresa Lawler studied painting first at the University of Northumbria and then at the postgraduate school at the Slade UCL. After this, she joined BBC television and since leaving has worked both in Productions Design in TV and theatre, and in higher education first in Singapore and then at Kingston University where she was Course Director for MA Production Design in Film and TV until 2013.

Teresa's design work has strongly influenced the painting and drawing that she now focuses on and which she has widely exhibited. Screen imagery is frequently referenced, both in terms of creating scenic, architectural structures and in the use of deeply contrasting lighting to create a dramatic effect. Her most recent work imagines a space where stylised contemporary buildings are inserted into the landscape creating a have or refuge outside of the city.