Mary Yacoob

Mary Yacoob is an artist based in North London. Drawing is central to her practice and she works in a wide range of media including ink on paper, cyanotypes, etching, large scale vinyl artworks, light-boxes, video animations and sculpture. Mary redeploys and transfigures the visual languages of scientific diagrams, architectural plans, cartography, electrical and engineering schematics, alphabetical systems, and musical notation. By taking scientific and practical diagrams and images out of their original context and reinterpreting them as artworks, Mary seeks to create new connections and dialogues across the arts and sciences. Her works transform functional tools into cyphers for the imagination for wider audiences.

Mary was the recipient of an Arts Council England award for her publication and exhibition Schema in 2020. Solo exhibitions include Bobinska Brownlee New River, Surgery Gallery, Five Years Gallery and the Hospital Club. Commissions include UCL’s Faculty of Life Sciences, Writers Mosaic, Passengers/Camden Council, and BBC/Arts Council England. Artist residencies include OOF Gallery, the North Devon Artist Residency, and AA2A artist residency at Camberwell College of Art. For her practice-based PhD at The Slade, Mary is investigating how applying artistic practices to scientific diagrams, in dialogue with scientists, can explore the aesthetic, speculative and imaginative potential of diagrams. She is an Assistant Lecturer on the BA Fine Art degree at London Metropolitan University. She is co-author of ‘Drawing Analogies: Diagrams in Art, Theory and Practice’ with David Burrows, John Cussans and Dean Kenning, published by Bloomsbury in 2025.