Born: 1975. Nationality: British.

Layla Curtis studied at Edinburgh College of Art and Chelsea College of Art.

In 1999 she spent a year in Japan where she developed her hybrid map series and held her first solo show. Her method was to create collages using maps which juxtaposed fictional associations between cities, towns and roads, making apparently familiar images into puzzling and thought-provoking variations.

Much of her subsequent work involves maps and travel-related records which are used as the basis of exhibitions and installations. In 2005 she spent three months travelling via Madrid, Santiago and the Faulklands Islands to Antarctica, making a continuous line drawing charting her journey and recording longitudinal and latitudinal data from the GPS system onto a website. The following year she was awarded a fellowship by the British Antarctic Survey and the Arts Council to develop an installation on which the work can be accessed.

Layla Curtis’ current practice covers a wide variety of media: prints, video projections, photographs, sound recordings, web pages and iPhone apps. The work features locations across the world and frequently draws on the use of digital technologies including GPS tracking, webcams and thermal imaging.

Since 2000 exhibitions of her work have been mounted regularly throughout the UK as well as at international venues in France, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Canada and Australia.

A Familiar Place