BOBBY LLOYD

Bobby Lloyd is a visual artist, art therapist and activist based in Hackney, east London who works both independently and collaboratively. Using diverse media, her art practice engages with people, communities and landscapes often in the throes of contestation or disruption, and aims to make visible the deep traces of place. She is also interested in ideas and socio-political themes that emerge out of these processes and in examining these both individually and collectively. She has worked on numerous projects and interventions in the public realm and has exhibited in galleries and site-specific settings in the UK and internationally over three decades.
Through the privilege of extensive collaborations with other artists, Bobby has co-led two contemporary arts projects based in East London: On Site Arts (2004-12) and the drawing shed (2010-18).
She has worked as artist-in-residence on two London development projects, working with architects, technicians and builders to site a number of significant public art works: St Andrews housing development in Bromley-by Bow (2007-14), and at Enderby Wharf (2018), site for telecommunications cable construction since the mid 1800's.
Alongside her art practice, Bobby is also an UK HCPC registered art therapist, writer, researcher and educator.
Since the early 1990’s she has worked in NHS child and adolescent mental health, inner city schools and community settings both in the UK and internationally. Under Art Therapy Initiative (ATI) set up in 1994, she co-led projects, consultation and training in contexts of political conflict and social upheaval.
A trustee for 8 years of Art Refuge Bobby became its first CEO in 2016 and leads its freelance team of art therapists and artists in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of people who are displaced due to conflict, persecution, poverty and climate change, both in the UK and internationally. Through this work she has become increasingly interested in the roles of socially engaged art and art therapy in relation to displacement, community, crisis support and social justice.