University Technical Demonstrator to unveil thought-provoking solo photography exhibition

The MA Socially Engaged Photography graduate, who works with our BA Fashion Image Making & Styling team, will debut her new collection at the historic venue from 8 March until 19 May.

Her new showcase follows on from her award-winning entry into Warrington Arts Festival’s Open Exhibition in 2022 for her photo of herself with baby daughter Esme and was also shortlisted for the Portrait of Britain Prize last year.

Lāsma said: “I am incredibly grateful to return to Warrington Museum for my first ever solo show after winning the Warrington Contemporary Festival prize. This is a very significant opportunity and a huge milestone in my life as an artist and a mum.”

Her photographs, hailed by judges as "powerful, honest, and confronting," offer a glimpse into the evolution, and recovery inherent in the experience of becoming a parent.

The graduate was also awarded an arts commission from the Manchester hub of ‘Mothers Who Make’ and her work has also featured in the globally distributed book Eye Mama: Poetic Truths of Home and Motherhood.

Lāsma said she feared that her emerging career in photography would be hindered when she became a mum in 2022.

Lāsma has previously worked with Diffusion: Cardiff International Festival of Photography, Open Eye Galley in Liverpool and has completed a residency at Outlandia in Fort William, Scotland. She was previously Arts Outreach Coordinator at LOCWS International in Wales. 

Paulette Brien, from Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, is the exhibition’s guest curator. She added: “I feel something when I look at the work of Lāsma Poiša. Some of what I feel, I can put into words – challenged, charmed, confronted.

“However, some of what I feel resists being described – it hovers somewhere between a thought and a sensation, and stays with me long after I have left the images behind.”