Monica Takvam
Photographer, artist, organiser, curator and lecturer based in London, UK and Norway.
Monica Takvam is a visual artist and photographer based in London and Norway, dividing her time between her own work, research, commissions, curating and lecturing in photography.
Her work is often concerned with how we see, she uses photography, video, sound, text, illustration, tactile materials and installations to explore subjects around perception, blindness, identity, nostalgia, time and language. Through research, collaboration and fieldwork, Monica often develops work based on outcomes and findings from these interactions and collaborations.
Takvam was a research affiliate at University for the Creative Arts, the Assistant Editor of the journal Photography & Culture, published by Routledge and director/managing director of Renaissance Photography Prize. She currently lectures in photography, art and media at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, City of Westminster College and University of Hertfordshire.
Her work has been published and shown in national and international exhibitions. She has been shortlisted for several awards, received honorable mention in the International Photography Award, has been awarded funding for her research and won the Celeste Visible White Photo Prize. Takvam was the 2017 Artist-in-Residence at Watts Gallery, UK, working on a project exploring landscape perception. Her residency project ‘Fieldwork and Other Landscape Stories’ was exhibited in a solo-show at Watts Contemporary Gallery in October 2017. She is currently working on a project incorporating photography, video and archival material examining human relationship with nature and image composition through the Japanese art of flower arranging; Ikebana. The project The Way of Flowers was exhibited in a solo-show in Tokyo, Japan in 2019.
Selected group and solo exhibitions, awards and residencies
2019
Screening of short film at International Photography Symposium "NIDA 2019. Meeting Photography" Projection evening "Futures / Intersections" 13 Sept 2019, Nida, Lithuania
2019
‘209 Women’, portraits of 209 female MP by 209 female photographers, 28 Feb - 14 Apr, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
2019
‘The Way of Flowers’, solo exhibition, 30 Mar - 12 Apr, S.Y.P. Artist Space in Tokyo, Japan
2018
‘209 Women’, portraits of 209 female MP by 209 female photographers, 14 Dec 2018 - 14 Feb 2019, Portcullis House, UK Parliament
2018
‘Field/s ONE’, group exhibition w peer forum artist collective, 8 - 18 Nov, SluiceHQ, London, UK
2018
‘Arrangements’, solo exhibition, screening of artist film, 30 Jul, S.Y.P. Artist Space in Tokyo, Japan
2017
‘Fieldwork and Other Landscape Stories’ – Artist in Residence solo exhibition, 29 Sept – 8 Oct, Watts Contemporary Gallery at Watts Gallery – Artist Village, Compton, Surrey
2017
Awarded 1 year as Artist-in-Residence 2017 at Watts Gallery, Compton, Surrey, UK
2016
Awarded Visible White Award, Winner Best Single Work
2016
’Skin’, Visible White, 13 May - 6 Jun, FSM Gallery, Florence, Italy
2015
Shortlisted for the 2015 LICC London International Creative Competition
2014
Shortlisted for the Visible White award
2014
‘You See Me - Personal Identities in the Digital Age’, 16 May to 16 Jun, FSM Gallery, Florence, Italy
2013
‘Shape Open’ Touring exhibition, 3 - 20 Oct, Nunnery Gallery Bow Arts, London, then Lewisham Arthouse, London, UK
2013
Studio 21 Portraits’, Artist in Residence exhibition, 17 - 22 Sept, The Albert, Queens Park, London, UK
2012
‘Forms’, group exhibition with artist collective Ribbon Machine,14 -18 Nov, Doomed Gallery, London, UK
2012
‘Test’, group exhibition with artist collective Ribbon Machine, 20 Sep - 14 Oct, Stone Space, London, UK
2012
‘Photography and the Contemporary Imaginary’ Research Show, 4 -15 Mar, Well Gallery, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, UK