Biography

Born in Yorkshire in 1973, Tessa Asquith-Lamb studied MA Fine Art (Hons) at Edinburgh College of Art and Edinburgh University, graduating in 1998.

She has exhibited at many galleries across the UK, including a featured show in Leeds Craft Design Centre in 2016, and featured show at Tweeddale Gallery 2017.

Solo exhibitions include Callendar House 2019, The High Street Gallery, Kirkcudbright and The Peter Potter Gallery, Haddington.

Her work has also been regularly exhibited in the RSA and SSA Annual exhibitions, and at The Morley Gallery London, The Atlantis Gallery, London, The Compass Gallery, Glasgow and Leeds City Art Gallery Craft Centre and Design Gallery, and Number Four gallery, St Abbs.

Her collaborative project, Fox Gospel, which features her illustrations to writer Rafael Torrubia’s poems and stories reflecting on fox legends has been exhibited three times in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

In 2016 she was commissioned to produce a giant paper-cut pop-up book for the V&A Dundee in collaboration with designer Martin Baillie. This was launched at the Edinburgh International book festival before going on tour to other venues alongside a children’s pop-up book kit workshop designed as part of the commission.

In 2017 she featured in the beautiful ‘Out of The Woods’ show at the Tweeddale Gallery Peebles, and was commissioned to create mural panels for Rabble Hotel, Frederick St Edinburgh.

Asquith-Lamb lives in East Lothian and also works as a freelance art educator for venues including The V&A Dundee, The National Galleries of Scotland, The City Art Centre, Lauriston Castle, The National Library of Scotland and Museum of Edinburgh.

In 2018-19 She curated a solo show at Callendar House, Falkirk entitled ‘Drawn from the Past – The Museum Mind of Tessa Asquith-Lamb. It incorporated her personal collection of antique objects alongside the etchings they feature in, and artworks from national collections and objects from the House’s own collection.

During lockdown she has completed a series of twenty-two paintings which combine her love of antique symbolic objects, natural forms and deeply personal narratives.

In 2023 She was commissioned by the National Trust for Scotland to create a series of hand cut silhouettes with watercolour backgrounds to illustrate the life of Artist Sir Henry Raeburn for the exhibition ‘Raeburn’s Edinburgh’ at the Georgian House, Edinburgh.

Three of her large etchings were purchased for the collection of East Lothian Hospital in 2024 to enhance the wellbeing of patients and staff.

Three of her etchings were purchased for the National Collection of the City of Edinburgh, and her etching; ‘Broken and Mended’ was exhibited in ‘Incoming – New Acquisitions’ at the City Art Centre, 2022