Jennifer Lauren Martin is a British-American writer/director and visual artist whose work grapples with questions of interpersonal belonging. Their practice spans fine art, film and writing. Lauren Martin graduated from the Royal College of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art.

Their UK solo exhibitions were held at Kingsgate Workshops, Primary and Turf Projects. Lauren Martin’s works have been exhibited and programmed across the UK and internationally, including at Tate Britain, ICA London, LUX Moving Image, Somerset House, South London Gallery, The Showroom, The Douglas Hyde Gallery (IRE) and Olympia Arts (USA). Their upcoming performance ‘Relations in the Ditch’ will feature as part of Somerset House Studios AGM during Frieze Week 2025. Lauren Martin is a resident of Somerset House Studios.

They were awarded as a Film London Lodestar Artist Filmmaker 2021 and are a BAFTA member. Their work has received support from Arts Council England, the Stuart Croft Foundation, the Elephant Trust, and Durham Wharf Foundation. Lauren Martin is an alumnus of Momentum (We Are Parable x Channel 4) and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (USA). Additional residencies and fellowships include the FLAMIN Fellowship, Hospitalfield, Kingsgate Workshops, Chisenhale Studios, Fundación Botín (ES) led by artist Julie Mehretu, and British Council for Qatar UK Year of Culture (QA).

Their films have screened at festivals in competition internationally, including Alchemy Film and Moving Image, BlackStar (USA), British Shorts Berlin (DE), European Media Art Festival (DE), Kasseler Dokfest (DE), Montréal International Documentary Festival (CA), and S.O.U.L Fest. They won Best Screenplay at S.O.U.L Fest 2021 and were nominated for Best Experimental Film at BlackStar 2021. Martin is a co-director of not/nowhere, a black and POC-led analogue filmmaking cooperative, and a Senior Tutor at Ruskin School of Art (University of Oxford).

CV

Education:
2020 - 2021     PGCert in Art & Design Education, Royal College of Art, London
2016 - 2018     MA Photography, Royal College of Art, London
2011  - 2012     Erasmus in Time and Space, Academy of Fine Arts (Kuvataideakatemia), Helsinki
2009 - 2013     BA Fine Art, Slade School of Art, University College London, London

Solo exhibitions:
2022     Under the pink of my tongue, I found love, Kingsgate Workshops, London
2019     TEETH, Primary and b.Dewitt Gallery, Nottingham
2019     Channel 6, Turf Projects, London

Recent Performances:
2025     Somerset House AGM, Somerset House, London
2024     A---Z, Always Coming Home, Chapter 4, Matt's Gallery, London
2023     Diasporas Now, UK Tour, NN Contemporary Art, Northampton
2023     The Voices of a Tempest, Act III: You Make Me Feel, Somerset House Studios, London
2019     Racialised Interiority, Royal College of Art, London
2019     Look, but don’t Look, Turf Projects, London
2019     Reading, Cypher Billboard, London
2017     Now Facing, Lychee One, London

Awards and Honours:
2025     Arts Council England Develop Your Creative Practice
2021     Film London Lodestar, Artist Filmmaker
2021     Best Screenplay, SOUL Fest
2021     Nominated for Best Experimental Film, BlackStar Film Festival
2019     Arts Council England Project Grant
2019     Elephant Trust Grant
2019     Shortlisted for the junges dokfest: A38-Production-Grant Kassel-Halle
2018     Stuart Croft Foundation Education Award
2018     Dissertation Award, School of Arts & Humanities, Royal College of Art
2017     Durham Wharf Foundation Award

Residencies & Fellowships:
2024     Studio Resident, Somerset House Studios, London (Ongoing)
2022     Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Skowhegan
2022     William and Louise Greaves Seminar, BlackStar Film Festival, Philadelphia
2022     Momentum Programme, We Are Parable x Channel 4
2021     Hospitalfield Autumn Residency, Arbroath
2019     Kingsgate Workshops Artist in Residence, London, UK FLAMIN Fellowship, London
2017     Chisenhale Studio 4, Chisenhale Studios, London
2015     Visual Arts Workshop, led by Julie Mehretu, Fundación Botín, Santander
2013     Artists’ Exchange, Qatar UK Year of Culture, British Council, Doha

Selected screenings and festivals (in competition*):
2025     History Reverberates, Tate Britain, London
2025     Portraits of Identity, Tate Britain, London
2024     Conference Call: Moving Image, Lost in Translation, Skowhegan Alumni Exhibition, Olympia Gallery, NY

2023     Momentum Day, We Are Parable, Brixton House, London
2023     Bournemouth University, Bournemouth

2022     British Shorts Berlin*, Berlin
2022     South Bank University, London
2022     Common(ing) Thread, First Cut x New Flesh, online screening, NL
2022     The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin
2022     Royal Academy Schools, London

2021     Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival*, Hawick
2021     BlackStar Film Festival*, Philadelphia
2021     SOUL Fest*, London
2021     Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York
2021     AKI ARTEZ University of the Arts, Enschede
2021     TRANSMISSIONS in partnership with Somerset House, online screening
2021     See My World Festival, in partnership with We Are Parable, Manchester

2020     Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal (RIDM)*, Montréal
2020     B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, Frankfurt
2020     Screening Room: TEETH, LUX, online screening
2020     Selected 10, Videoclub, touring online programme

2019     Kasseler Dokfest*, Kassel
2019     European Media Art Festival*, Osnabrück
2019     B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, Frankfurt
2019     Creating Interference Sankofa, Regent Street Cinema, London
2019     Homage and Diversion, North Norwegian Art Centre, Svolvær

2018     Inner/Outer, Art Licks Weekend, London
2018     Inner/Outer, PAF & NCSU, Prague

Selected group exhibitions:
2019     Aesthetica Art Prize, York Art Gallery, York, UK
2019     Atropelos, curated by Daniel Rourke & Luiza Prado, arbyte Gallery, London
2018     Fig. 1 Limelight, curated by Alex McNamee, Switchboard Studios, London
2017     Live at Lychee One, curator and participating artist, Lychee One, London
2016     A Process 2.0, curated by DER GREIF, Kraków Photomonth, Kraków
2015     Guest Room, curated by Katrin Weber, Galerie f5,6, Munich

Public Art Projects:
2019     Britain Been Rotten, Cypher BILLBOARDS, Domino Houses Billboard, London
2017     Gaze: Utterance, Commissioned by Durham Wharf Foundation, ICA, London
2017     Gaze: Navigating the Veil, Comm. Durham Wharf Foundation, South London Gallery, London
2017     Gaze: On the Verge of the Visible, Comm. Durham Wharf Foundation, Showroom, London

Recent Teaching:
2022 - present  Senior Tutor, BFA/MFA/DPhil Fine Art, Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford

2023 - 2024      Lecturer, BFA Film and Photography, Kingston University
2021 - 2022       Visiting Tutor, BFA/MFA Fine Art, Ruskin
2021 - 2022       Coordinator of Professional Development Programme, Ruskin
2021 - 2022       Lecturer in Fine Art, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford
2019 - 2021        Visiting Lecturer, MA Critical & Historical Studies, RCA Visiting
2019 - 2021        Lecturer, School of Art and Humanities, Royal College of Art
2018 - 2021        Associate Lecturer, BA Photojournalism & Doc Photo, LCC
2019                    Visiting Lecturer, BA Fine Art Mixed Media, University of Westminster
2019                    Adjunct Professor, BA Visual Culture, Syracuse University London

Selected Press: 
2022  “Jennifer Martin: 15th British Shorts, Berlin 2022.” n.d. The New Current. https://www.thenewcurrent.co.uk/jennifer-martin.

2021  Martin, Jennifer Lauren, and Isabel Wang Pontoppidan. 2021. “Performing Identities Conversation”. Edited by First Cut. 2021. https://www.firstcut.nl/performing-identities-conversation/.

2021  “Camberwell Director Wins London Film Prize.” n.d. Southwark News. https://southwarknews.co.uk/news/culture/camberwell-director-wins-london-film-prize/.

2021  Diaspora, Team. 2021. “BlackStar Film Festival Kicks Off; Celebrates 10 Years of Black, Brown and Indigenous Artists.” DIASPORA. August 3, 2021. https://thediasporatimes.com/2021/08/03/blackstar-film-festival/.