Laurence Figgis is an artist, writer and lecturer in Fine Art Painting and Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art. He has previously exhibited work both locally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions. He has disseminated his writing through a number of publications as well as through live public readings. In addition to (and as an extension of) his own creative practice, Figgis has written numerous specially-commissioned texts for individual artists’ gallery exhibitions and catalogues.
He makes paintings and drawings (that often convey literary narratives), alongside works of poetry, fiction and art writing. His accompanying research into art-writing practice, narrative painting, literary fiction and narrative cinema explores how the aesthetic forms through which stories are conveyed shape our understanding and enjoyment of particular narratives. He is especially concerned with genres such as the fairy tale, gothic literature or surrealist art that make their fictional status (their exaggeration and transformation of reality) conspicuous to the reader/viewer.
Practice-based and scholarly research interests include:
-Ekphrasis (the literary invocation of visual art works) in fiction and art-writing
-Text / image relationships in gallery- and book-based visual art
-Surrealist art (history and analysis)
-Collage as methodology in fiction and painting
-Folk and fairy-tale studies (emphasis on visual culture)
-Aesthetics and politics of kitsch
-Anachronism in visual art and fiction
