Lydia Gifford


Lydia Gifford (b.1979 Cheltenham, UK) lives and works in London. She received her MFA from The Royal College of Art, London (2008). Renowned for her deeply tactile and process-driven works Gifford’s approach is rooted in materiality and the quiet drama of surface. Mining the hazy divide between painting and sculpture, Gifford uses oil paint to transform a wide array of textiles. Gifford’s paintings are marked by a raw, physical intensity that resists minimalism. Deeply expressive, they reflect intimate records of touch, tension, and time.

She has exhibited widely staging solo shows including “Undercurrent” at Tristan Hoare, London; “Low Anchored Cloud” at Alma Pearl, London; “Poreuse” at Gilles Drouault Galerie, Paris, “I Am Vertical” at the Centre International d’Art et du Paysage, Ile de Vassiviere, France; Galeria Alegria, Barcelona; Micky Schubert, Berlin; Laura Bartlett Gallery, London; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel and David Roberts Art Foundation, London.

Recent group exhibitions include “You”, Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; “Abstract Colour” Marlborough Gallery, London; “Black Hole, Art and Materiality from Informal to Invisible”, GAMEC, Bergamo; “Clearings: Lydia Gifford, Anna-Bella Papp and Clementine Keith Roach”, Blue Projects, Blue Mountain School, London; “Clinamen”, Fold Gallery, London; Women’s Art Society II, Mostyn, Llandudno; “Real Painting”, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester; “Prairies”, 3rd Edition of Les Ateliers de Rennes: Biennial for Contemporary Art, Rennes and “Minimal Myth”, Museum Boijmans, Rotterdam.





 “Poreuse” Gilles Drouault Galerie, Paris

Oil paint, oil pastel, acrylic, ink, fabric dye, cotton scrim, glue on board.
“Untitled (saddening)”, 2024
Oil paint, oil pastel, acrylic, ink, fabric dye, cotton scrim, glue on board.

70 x 39 x 7 cm
“Borrowing cover”, 2020
Lead, paper, gauze, paint, oil paint and fabric dye

211 x 56 x 24 cm
“I Am Vertical" Centre International d'Art et du Paysage, Ile de Vassiviere, France

Medium-paper pulp, cotton, glue, oil paint.
“Lasting/sinew”, 2022
Dyed cotton gauze, oil paint, clay, paint, ink, pigment, dirt, glue, steel, magnets

130 x 110 x 12 cm
“Sink in sink down” L21, Barcelona
“Poreuse” Gilles Drouault Galerie, Paris

Oil paint, oil pastel, acrylic, ink, fabric dye, cotton scrim, glue on board.
Installation View, “Frictions”, 2024, L21 Gallery Palma
Installation View, “Frictions”, 2024,  L21 Gallery Palma
“Poreuse” Gilles Drouault Galerie, Paris

Oil paint, oil pastel, acrylic, ink, fabric dye, cotton scrim, glue on boa