MA, Sotheby’s Institute of Art-London
Viv Lawes is an author, journalist, lecturer and curator with over 25 years’ experience in the art market, combining an extensive hands-on career in art business with academic research and teaching in Higher Education, Continuing Education, and public-facing organisations. Viv studied History at York University and graduated with an MA in Fine and Decorative Art from Sotheby’s Institute in 1997, where her thesis focused on the textile trade between England and India/China in the 17th and 18th centuries. Viv is course leader for the 12 week Art History Professional Certificate program and contributes to the MA in Art Business. She has delivered bespoke projects for SIA in collaboration with partner institutions, including the Global Art History public programme at the Diriyah Biennale in 2022 and MiSK in Riyadh 2021-2022. Additionally, she teaches at renowned institutions across the UK, such as University of the Arts London, the City & Guilds of London Art School, SOAS (University of London), and Imperial College London. She is also a NADFAS-accredited lecturer and an accredited lecturer for the international organisation The Arts Society, travelling widely across the globe. As of 2025, Viv is also teaching at the University of Warwick, where she is completing doctoral research on 19th century sculpture.
Since 2011, Viv has been Senior UK Consultant to Larasati Auctioneers (Jakarta/ Singapore) and One East Asia Gallery (Singapore), curating many exhibitions of Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art. She has also written for numerous publications, including The Art Newspaper, the Antiques Trade Gazette and The Guardian newspaper. She has written many artist catalogues, including a major essay for the acclaimed Chinese watercolourist Yang Ming-yi’s retrospective at Suzhou Jinji Lake Art Museum (June 2021). The catalogue won a publishing prize in China in 2023.
