Lauren McLaughlin is an artist, curator, writer and arts activist based in the North East of Scotland.
Lauren is also the founder and director of Spilt Milk Gallery Cic; a social enterprise whose mission is to support the work of artists who identify as mothers.
‘My practice is rooted in a desire to represent the undervalued and overlooked experiences of mothering, caregiving and gendered work through a feminist lens. Often focusing on subjects which are still considered taboo such as childbirth, reproductive rights and economic inequality, my aim is to spark important conversations around the value structures present in our capitalist society. I work across a range of mediums including collage, photography, sculpture, curatorial and socially engaged projects. I’m drawn to the use of non-traditional materials which can include everything from found paper images, shredded banknotes and hoover dust through to gold leaf and neon signs. Through the subjects I chose to explore, and the materials I work with, my aim is to place value upon that which has been historically undervalued in art and society.’
Lauren graduated with BA (Hons) Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in 2012, and MA Applied Arts & Social Practice from Queen Margaret University Edinburgh in 2021. Lauren’s work has been exhibited throughout the UK and Europe including at the Royal Scottish Academy Edinburgh, The Whitworth Manchester, Lights of Soho London and Palazzo Albrizi Venice. Her work is held in permanent public collections and she has been published in a number of books and magazines and journals including An Artist and A Mother (Demeter Press), OVER Journal (Photo Ireland), Milked Mag, and Wordpower: Language as Medium (Library X). Lauren’s practice has been publicly funded by Creative Scotland, King’s College Cultural Institute, The Hope Scott Trust and most recently, Magnetic North Theatre’s Seed Fund.
Photo by Anneleen Lindsay (2021).
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2021 MA Applied Arts & Social Practice, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh. (Distinction).
2012 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Central Saint Martins, London. (2:1)
2010 HND Contemporary Art Practice; Edinburgh Telford College.
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2023 The Stephen Palmer Travel Bursary
2022 Magnetic North Theatre, Seed Fund Recipient.
2021 John Byrne Award, Quarterly Shortlist.
2018 Creative Scotland Open Project Funding, The Hope Scott Trust, The Eaton Fund and King’s Cultural Institute for Birth Rites Residency Project.
2018 Birth Rites Collection Award for New Work, Winner.
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2024 Game Changer, The Design Museum, Holon (Pulled out of exhibition in solidarity with the people of Palestine).
2023, Formula for Care? Tonic Arts, NHS Lothian Health Foundation at St John’s Hospital, Livingston.
2023 ReProduce, Air Gallery at Cass Arts, Manchester.
2023 ARTIST / PARENT, AIR Gallery Manchester.
2023 Embracing Our Differences, Billboard Exhibition, Florida USA.
2022 Roe V Wade, Anthropology of Motherhood (online exhibition).
2022 (Re)Production: Parenting and the art world, Open Eye Gallery Liverpool.
2022 196th Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy , Edinburgh.
2022 Whose Story Is It? Spilt Milk Gallery, Edinburgh.
2020 ReBuild by Sejin Moon, Participatory performance at Quality Yard Leith, Edinburgh.
2020 Schwitters Army, METZ Gallery, Sanquhar Scotland.
2019 Scotland’s Maternity & Midwifery Festival, Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh.
2019 Leith Late’s Glow Art Trail, Edinburgh.
2019 Womanhouse, Hackney, London.
2019 The M Word One Paved Court Gallery, London. Curated by Desperate Artwives.
2018 oh motHER : Spilt Milk Member Show 18, Custom House Leith, Edinburgh.
2017 Birth Rites Screening of shortlisted works, The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester,
2017 See You Soon, Epoch 8 Gallery, Edinburgh.
2017 G.L.U.E. with Edinburgh Collage Collective, The Tent Gallery Edinburgh.
2016 Darkness Cannot Drive Out Darkness, Only Light Can Do That, Lights of Soho Gallery, London.
2016 Second Self, Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh.
2016 Art 16 Art Fair with Arusha Gallery, Olympia London.
2016 Salonathon Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh.
2015 RSA Open Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy Edinburgh.
2015 Women’s Encounters: Matter, Form and Mind in the Art of Women, Palazzo Albrizzi, Venice Italy.
2014 Site-Seeing (Solo Exhibition), Creative Exchange, Edinburgh.
2014 Draw-In with 2-1-4-1 Artist Collective, St Margarets House, Edinburgh.
2014 Resurgence, The Galley Arts, Carlisle.
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2024 We Can’t Afford to Work for Love, Axisweb (writing commission).
024 Wild With Child - Outlaw Mothers: Feminist Representations of Maternal Power. (Artwork feature).
2023 This is Gender (In)Equality, Global Health 5050 Report.
2023 An Artist and a Mother, Demeter Press. (Short essay and artwork feature).
2022 Unfinished Business, (essay) OVER Journal, Photo Ireland.
2022 (Re)Production: Parenthood and the art world online symposium and zine.
2022 Spilt Milk: Matriarchal Structures for Art World Participation
2021 Cults of Life Zine (Issue 9: ‘Royal’)
2020 ‘The Power of Art to make the invisible visible’, writing commission for Engender (Scotland)’s International Women’s Day Campaign.
2020 Home-works Zine: Artist/Mothers in Quarantine.
2020 Maternal Art Magazine Issue One ‘Stay at Home’
2020 Milked Mag Issue Two: The Portrait.
2019 Wordpower : Language as Medium , publication by Library X.
2018 King’s College London, Artist in Residence Blog.
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2018-2019 Birth Rites Collection Residency, Department of Midwifery, Kings College London
2016-2018 An Artist Residency in Motherhood
2014 AIR ETC - Edinburgh College Artist in Residence.
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Birth Rites Collection, Department of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care, Kings College London.
Schwitters Army International Collage Collection, MERTZ Gallery, Scotland.
Private Collections in the UK, Europe and North America.
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2022 Cartography of Care & Whose Story Is It?, Spilt Milk Gallery CIC Edinburgh.
2021 If Not Now, When? & Acting Balanced (online), Spilt Milk Gallery.
2020 Home-Works (online exhibition & zine), Spilt Milk Gallery CIC.
2019 Re: Birth, Spilt Milk Gallery CIC, Edinburgh Palette.
2018 Oh motHER, Custom House Leith.
2017 G.L.U.E with Edinburgh Collage Collective (co-curator), The Tent Gallery Edinburgh.
2016 Second Self, Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh.
2013 Que Sera Sera, The Old Ambulance Depot, Edinburgh.
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2018- Present: Founding Director of Spilt Milk Gallery CIC.
2023 - present P/T Administrator, Society of Scottish Artists
2019 Heritage Lead (Mat cover) for Unsung Leith with Citizen Curator.
2017-2020 Freelance Educator with Stepping Stones North Edinburgh, Edinburgh Museums, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Feis Dhun Eidann, Edinburgh College Granton and Dr Bell’s Family Centre.
2017 Member of Edinburgh Collage Collective.
2014-17 Programme Manager Arusha Gallery.
2014-15 Founding Member of 2-1-4-1 Collective