Louise Todd

I am an Edinburgh-based artist and academic whose work explores memory, material culture, visual imaginaries, and the tourist gaze. Working primarily in oil, I develop my paintings through transparent layers, creating works that evolve gradually over time, in series, and across scale. My practice involves drawing, photography, memory, sightseeing, and lived experience; to consider leisure, tourism, and the ways we encounter and imagine places.

My recent drawings and paintings are concerned with hauntology and mythology where spectral figures appear in non-spaces. A cast of characters perform leisure and tourism in these uncertain places while emerging and fading. They appear to play and perform for the viewer, while returning a curious gaze.

My work explores the interplay of past, present, and future, inviting viewers to reflect upon their own memories and associations while questioning our practices of looking, othering, and representation.

I hold a BA (Hons) in Fine Art and an MPhil from Glasgow School of Art, alongside a PhD in Tourism and Festival Studies from Edinburgh Napier University, where I currently work as a Professor of Cultural Tourism and Festivals and lead the Tourism Research Centre.

Instagram: @louisetodd.art

Website: artademic.co.uk