Liz Rideal

Liz Rideal is a Professor in the Painting Department at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, where she has been teaching since 1992. Her work spans painting, photography, film, and writing, with a focus on drapery, portraiture, and pilgrimage. She holds a BA in English and Fine Art from Exeter University and a PGCE from the same institution.

Rideal's research explores the elastic interplay between self-portraiture, textile studies, and visual culture. Her photo-booth collages evolved into extensive scholarship on self-representation, resulting in exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery and Tate Britain. Current projects examine drapery's emotional resonance through Roman architectural contexts and Indian textile traditions. Her publications analyze portraiture from historical and contemporary perspectives, including the internationally successful How to Read Painting (translated into 7 languages).

Her awards include a Leverhulme Fellowship for Splicing Time: Rome and the Roman Campagna, an Art Fund grant supporting National Gallery lectures, and a British Academy Grant for documenting India's cotton industry. Recent major projects include the permanent installation MirrorBlooms-MindMirrors at Guys Cancer Centre and the film projection Light Curtain for Manchester's Cotton exhibition.

Rideal actively contributes to the Slade's curriculum development and has organized significant events like the Slade Women symposium. She maintains a robust exhibition schedule with recent shows at Ken Art Space (2024), Compton Verney (2020), and Rome's 4m2 Gallery (2020), while her works are held in major collections including Tate, the V&A, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.