Liz Atkin is an artist and educator. She reimagines her Compulsive Skin Picking and anxiety into drawings, photographs and performances. Liz is a mental health advocate and raises awareness for the disorder around the world. She has exhibited and taught in the UK, Europe, Australia, USA, Singapore and Japan. Her work is permanently held in the Wellcome Collection, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, Derby Museum, and Bethlem Gallery Collection supported by the Peter Sowerby Foundation and National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, she gave away more than 18,000 free #CompulsiveCharcoal newspaper drawings to commuters on public transport in London, New York, San Francisco, Singapore, Cologne and more.
Liz teaches art in schools, hospitals, hospices, prisons, arts venues and universities. She is an ambassador for The Big Draw, the world’s largest drawing festival, focusing on the role of creativity for health and wellbeing.
Liz received the Unstoppable Spirit Award for Outspoken Advocacy at the TLC Global Conference for Skin Picking and Hair Pulling Disorders in San Francisco in 2018, and was a finalist in the Janey Antoniou Award with Rethink Mental Illness in 2018. Her work has featured on TEDx, BBC News, Woman’s Hour, Vice, Women’s Health USA, Huffington Post, Channel News Asia, Metro, AlJazeera and more.
AWARDS
Winner Unstoppable Spirit Award for Outstanding Advocacy, TLC Foundation, San Francisco USA 2018
Finalist Rethink Mental Illness Janey Antoniou Award 2018
Winner Phoenix Diversity Award, UCLAN 2016,
Winner SAFTA Southwark Arts Forum Emerging Artist Award 2015
Honorable Mention New Artists Fair Summer Exhibition 2012
Judges Favourite British Women Artists 2012
Winner British Women Artists - National Competition 2010
Winner London Paper Self Portrait Award with the Affordable Art Fair 2008
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Bethlem Gallery Acquisition of artwork into permanent collection, supported by Peter Sowerby Foundation 2025
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Acquisition of artwork into permanent collection 2022
Wellcome Collection Acquisition of artwork and archive of advocacy for skin picking disorder 2019
Derby Museum Acquisition of drawings for permanent collection 2019
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Liz’s work is held in private collections in the UK, Australia, USA, Japan and Germany
INTERNATIONAL AND UK SOLO EXHIBITIONS
‘Above Water’ Appleby Gallery Oct - Nov 2025
‘Whitstable in Charcoal’ St Margaret’s House, London Jan – Feb 2025
‘Whitstable in Charcoal’ The Sportsman, Seasalter Kent Oct – Nov 2024
‘Whitstable in Charcoal’ The Sportsman, Seasalter Kent March – May 2023
‘Curdled’ UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine Los Angeles USA Oct – Dec 2015
'Curdled' Anxiety Festival 2014: Solo exhibition and site specific performance commissioned for ORTUS Building
'My Singular Fascination' solo exhibition and public talk, Funded by Maudsley Charity 2013
Akiyoshidai International Art Village Japan Sept 2011
Blackheath Halls South London May - June 2010
Camden Peoples Theatre London Sept - Oct 2008
APT Gallery Creekside, London May - June 2007
INTERNATIONAL AND UK GROUP EXHIBITIONS
‘Dry Lines’ The Gallery Holt, Norfolk, July – Sept 2025
Summer Exhibition West End House Gallery, Aug- Sept 2025
‘Six’ Horsebridge Arts Centre, Whitstable Kent June – July 2025
‘Ebb and Flow’ Fishslab Gallery Whitstable March 2025
‘Return to the Future’ Akiyoshidai International Art Village Gallery, Japan Oct - Nov 4, 2024
‘Six’ Horsebridge Arts Centre, Whitstable Kent June – July 2024
‘Six’ Horsebridge Arts Centre, Whitstable Kent May – June 2023
‘A Place of Safety’ The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, Canterbury Kent April – June 2022
‘Our New Normal: Ubiquitous Viewpoints 3’ Yamaguchi Institute of Contemporary Art Japan Dec 2021
‘Ubiquitous Viewpoints 2’ Yamaguchi Institute of Contemporary Art Japan Dec 2020
‘Constraint/Restraint’ commissioned for National Justice Museum Nottingham, Feb 2020 – Feb 2021
‘The Drawing Show’ Bridewell Studios and Gallery Liverpool, Feb 2020
‘Uncertainty and the Unknown’ Institute of Mental Health City Arts Nottingham June – Sept 2019
‘Disordered States’ Fringe Arts Bath June 2019
‘No Boundaries’ National Rail UK Exhibition Aug – Nov 2018
‘Towards Each Other’ Chapel Walk Gallery Sheffield July 2018
‘A Caroming’ Centre for Recent Drawing London April 2018
‘The Vulnerable Body’ CBK Zuidoost Amsterdam Feb – March 2018
‘Beyond Anxiety’ Menier Gallery London with London Brain Project, Feb 2018
‘Rethink Mental Illness’ The Forum Norwich Feb 2018
‘Scratch the Surface’ The Herbert Coventry Oct 2017
‘Finding Lines’ Derby Museums July – Sept 2017
‘The Obsessive Compulsive Practice’ Fringe Arts Bath June 2017
‘Pouring Mountains’ Performance drawings at Royal College of Nursing Psyche on The Skin launch 2017
‘The Art of Mentalizing’ Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, Oct 2016
‘Letting in the Light’ Daily Life Ltd, public art on lightboxes, curated by Bobby Baker, London 2016
‘Dreams: Hope, Hurt and Happiness’ Institute of Mental Health City Arts Nottingham 2015
‘Pain’ LRG Gallery at the David Geffen School of Medicine Los Angeles 2014
‘Skin’ Gallery Show Skin and Cancer Foundation, Melbourne, Australia 2013-2014
‘Recovery’ Institute of Mental Health City Arts Nottingham 2014
‘Finders Keepers Losers Weepers’ Conway Hall South London Women Artists Nov 2014
Impact Art Fair Creative Futures London July 2013
‘Fragmentary’ Photomonth London, 2013
BETHLEM GALLERY - COMMISSIONS / EXHIBITIONS
Bethlem Gallery Collection Launch Feb – July 2025
Bethlem Art Fair, Winter 2013 - date
‘Unable to Think Without Touching’ 21 June – 17 Sept 2021 ORTUS Maudsley Charity Building
Restorative Drawing for Estuary Festival Cement Works, Kent, June 2021
‘It’s How We Bounce’ 20th Anniversary exhibition with Grayson Perry and 15 Bethlem Artists, Sept – Oct 2017
'The Work in the Work of Art' Artist, speaker and workshop leader for inaugural exhibition launch Feb - Apr 2015
‘Making Visible’ Southbank Centre Dec – Feb 2015
'Compassion Project' Anxiety Disorder Residential Unit Lead Artist for 8 week photographic project for adult patients, curating a site-specific exhibition and memento book, Sept 2014
'Sanctuary in Art' Dragon Cafe Site-specific performance of 'Curdled in Colour' Sept 2014
Affiliated artist, 2013