Lily Lavorato [b. London, 1995], currently living and working in Glasgow
email me at >>> lilylavorato@outlook.com
instagram >>> @lilylavorato

[EDUCATION]
2022 - 2023: Into the Wild (alternative artist development programme), Chisenhale Studios, London
2014 - 2019: BA Fine Art, University of Leeds

[RESIDENCIES/AWARDS/DEVELOPMENT]
(upcoming): Group Residency at Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Lumsden, Scotland
(current): A-N Artist Bursary
(current): Visual Arts and Craft Makers Award, Glasgow
(current): Emerging Strategies (alternative artist development programme), Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh
2025: Patricia Sutcliffe Residency, The Art House, Wakefield
2024: Short-term residency at The Field, Derbyshire
2023: Interdisciplinary residency at Hospitalfield, Arbroath
2023: Into the Wild residency at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire
2022-2023: Developing Your Creative Practice grant, Arts Council England
2022: Yorkshire Sculpture International Sculpture Network, Yorkshire
2021: Winter Residency at Yonder Gallery, Slaithwaite
2020: The Art House Graduate Residency, Wakefield
2019: Alan Mohun Memorial Prize, awarded by University of Leeds, School of Fine Art

[EXHIBITIONS/PROJECTS]
2025: Salon Traders, Embassy Gallery Members Show, Edinburgh
2024: The Field is Forever, Two Queens Studio, Leicester
2024: Carving Our Way, March - September, Creative Recovery (Your Voice), Greenock, Scotland
2024: Summer Camp, Eastside Projects, Birmingham
2024: Touch me (I'm Trying), group show, SERF, Leeds
2024: The Garden Show, group show in my garden, Glasgow
2023: Mud Kitchen as part of Into the Wild's 'Tiny Interventions', GROW Hackney, London
2021/22: Building Warmth commissioned as part of SAFEDI, Social Artists for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion an AHRC fellowship led by MMU, SAN, & Axis working with social artists, marginalised communities and policy makers to rethink what inclusion in the arts means
2021: A Passing Place, duo show with Amelia Frances Wood, Assembly House, Leeds
2021: Vivavuci, Viaraffineria, Catania, Sicily
2020: Possible All Along curated by Gill Crawshaw, Online Exhibition
2020: Anharmonic Online Film Festival, International
2020: Between the Slime: The Art House Graduate Residency Showcase, Wakefield
2019: Cut the Mustard, Free Range Shows, Truman Brewery, London
2019: Cut the Mustard, University of Leeds Degree Show, School of Fine Art, Leeds
2019: Spread the Mustard, Freehold Projects, Leeds
2019: This is a gift to, The Brunswick, Leeds

[PRESS]
2021: Review - A Passing Place by Holly Grange

[WRITING]
2023: *always come home with something, featured in ‘t u r n i n g s’ a publication exploring the term ‘residency’
2023: Letter response to Emma Bentley Fox’s exhibition ‘Confessions of a Party Mom’

Lily’s practice cracks to reveal shaky roots in a mountainous village in Calabria, prone to earthquakes, secrets, ritual and slow time. With an amorphous gargle of languages and dialects swirling around their head, sculpture and writing gives form to complicated feelings of leaving, returning and belonging and embodies their urge to dredge up matter that has settled on their family history.

Consistently scraping away debris in the hope to carve a place for themselves in their ancestral landscape, their works are fragile, hollowed out or carved, barely standing but just about holding on. Collected matter, such as clay and ash, is often passed from project to project, echoing the urge to reuse and transform which grounds their family’s way of living.