Born in Cape Town, I moved to London as a teenager. I graduated in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University in 1994, followed by a year studying art at Central St. Martins in London. This detour led me on an unusual path, including living on a desert island, sleeping with lions, and not least, spending over 20 years making thousands of miniature artworks in Cape Town, Marin and now London.
In 1999, my artist husband Ralph Lazar and I packed in our (relatively) ‘proper’ jobs and moved to the Seychelles for a year. There we worked on projects that became our creative studio, Last Lemon, which is still going strong today.
One day back in London in 2004, I put an architect’s model on a tiny chair, and then inside a wooden box. He was in a triumphant pose - arms upraised - except he had lost both of them above the elbow. But as soon as I put him in the box, he changed from pitiful… to extraordinary! Life was breathed into that little guy and the space in the box opened up to infinity. In that moment, the Glass Cathedrals concept was born.
In 2010 I moved with Ralph and our girls to Marin, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, where I began my ‘labours of love’ projects: The Traveling Bookbox Show, Cinerama, Starstuff, The Swerling Circus of Small and In the Now. There Glass Cathedrals flourished and have now been exhibited at art fairs and galleries, in bookshops and science museums, film and literary festivals all over the world.
Since 2022 I’ve been back in London, which I happily consider ‘home’ (finally!) but… with extended periods spent in Southern Africa, land of my heart.
London has inspired me to new ventures, and in 2026 I curated my first group art exhibition, Heathbound, bringing together seventeen artists to make art about Hampstead Heath. Heathbound 2027 is now in the works.
Lisa Swerling, London 2026
My art retrospective memoir A Life in Miniature comes out in 2027. Read the stories behind the book in twenty letters, here.
