Sarah Lightman is an award-winning fine artist, comics researcher, curator and arts journalist.

Sarah is creating The Book of Sarah. The Book of Sarah is made of Diary Drawings and paintings of her life that intertwine words and images and Sarah has been working on this project for 15 years.You can read about The Book of Sarah in Sarah's recent interview with Leah Berkenwald in Jewesses with Attitude. You can watch Sarah talk about her work in this documentary on Women in Comics by Art Sync.Sarah was recently featured on Channel 4 News, and in Naamat Magazine (pg 27) and contributed to The Jewish Chronicle.

Sarah studied at The Slade School Of Art (UCL), for her BA and MFA, where she won numerous scholarships including The Slade Prize, The Slade Life Drawing Prize and The William Coldstream Sessional Prize for Excellence. Sarah has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad, and her most recent solo show was In Memoriam at The New Hall Art Collection, at the University of Cambridge. Sarah presented her work at The International Auto/Biography Association Conference, University of Sussex in June 2010. Sarah's self-portrait was selected for The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Competition,  at King's Place Gallery, London (2011), and her sketchbooks were displayed at "The Moment of Privacy has Passed" at The Usher Gallery, The Collection, Lincoln. Sarah's art work and curatorial projects have also been featured in The International Journal of Comic Art, Time Out, The New York Times, The Toronto Star, The Independent, J weekly, San Francisco Weekly, The Forward, Haaretz, The Chicago Jewish News, The New York Jewish week, Hampstead and Highgate Express, Animation Insider, The London Jewish News and The Jewish Chronicle.

Sarah is researching a PhD in Autobiography in Comics at the University of Glasgow, where she was featured on the School of The Arts Website and also on the University of Glasgow Research Prospectus (2011). She has given papers internationally including, Northampton University (2008),The Graphic Medicine Conference, Institute of English Studies (June 2010), The California College of The Arts, San Francisco (October 2010), Birkbeck College, London (November 2010), Northampton University (November 2010), University of Hertfordshire (December 2010), Bournemouth University (February 2011) McMaster University, Canada, (February 2011), Roehampton University (October 2011) and , University of Glasgow(November 2011),

Sarah has written on Bobby Baker and Gabrielle Bell for Studies in Comics Journal, published by Intellect Publishing. Sarah's other writings have been published in The International Journal of Comic Art  and Critical Engagements Journal.Sarah contributed to 1001 ComicsTo Read Before You Die (Quarto) edited by Paul Gravett.

Sarah chairs the annual Women in Comics Conference, which celebrates and examines women's contribution to comics. The first Women in Comics conference was held at The University of Cambridge in October 2009 and was reviewed in The International Journal of Comic Art. Women in Comics II was held at Leeds Art Gallery, on November 18th 2010 and was reviewed in The Times Higher Education Supplement.

Sarah is Director  of Laydeez Do Comics with Nicola Streeten, a comics forum open to all, that explores autobiography and domestic drama in graphic novels and comics.

Sarah is curating Graphic Details, Confessional Comics by Jewish Women with Michael Kaminer. The show opened at  The Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco in October 2010, and has been reviewed  internationally. The show toured to The Koffler Gallery Off-Site Presents at The Gladstone Hotel in February 2011 and opened at Yeshiva University Museum, New York in  September 2011.Sarah was invited to talk on a selection of images from the show at NorthEastern Modern Languages Association Convention, Montreal in March 2010. Sarah is editing a book on the show with Michael Kaminer to be published by McFarland in 2013.

Sarah's previous curatorial projects include Diary Drawings, at The Centre for Recent Drawing and The University of Northampton, as well as a number of contemporary art exhibitions at Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museum of Art.

Sarah has written for The Artist, Artrabbit, The Jewish Chronicle, Haaretz and Haaretz.com. She has recorded series of interviews with artists and curators for Resonance FM, including Marcus Coates, Meryl Doney, Maryclare Foa and Catherine Yass. Her most recent interview was with Rachel Dickson and Sarah MacDougall.

Click here to view artist's statement >>