1. Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures
  2. School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies
  3. Your portfolio

Your portfolio

About your portfolio

As part of your application to study Fine Art at the University of Leeds, you may be invited to submit a digital portfolio showcasing your visual skills, creativity and ability to develop a contemporary Fine Art practice.

What are we looking for? 

At the University of Leeds, we are interested in developing your artistic concerns through conceptual and practical experimentation. We encourage you to think about your practice, make work, take risks and collaborate. 

In your portfolio, we want to see not only finished pieces, but works-in-progress (things you are currently working on) and artworks that perhaps did not turn out the way you had initially planned. Your portfolio will be assessed on the following criteria: 

  • Visual language skills:
    • how do you choose to communicate ideas and concepts in your art?
  • Visual literacy and awareness: 
    • do you understand how art and visual culture contribute to our experience of everyday life? 
  • Content and development:
    • what is the basis of your work and how do you see this developing? 
  • Contextual understanding:
    • how do you understand your work within the broader sphere of art, visual culture and media?

How do I present my portfolio? 

There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way of presenting your portfolio. We are interested in seeing you and your art, so think carefully about how you might structure your work to showcase your ideas. 
Your portfolio should be contained in one single PDF document with a maximum document size of 30MB. Please include a cover page that contains your full name and course applied for. Your portfolio can contain up to 17 images/pieces of work. If you happen to be working with moving images, up to three of the 17 can be links to videos on YouTube or Vimeo. These should each be singular works or works-in-progress and not video versions of other supporting material or show-reels of multiple works.
We recommend that you keep text to a minimum, but make sure to include captions that include the title, year, media and size of your work. For example: 

  • Improvisation with Drumsticks, 2008. Etching on paper. Six etchings, 50 x 35 cm each 
  • Many Chambers, Many Mouths, 2012. HD video, two-channel, colour, 5.1 surround sound, 24 minutes 
  • The Reversing Machine, 2012-14. Self-reversing gearbox mechanism, mixed media and electronics:  still from video, work in progress, 2019 

How do I submit my portfolio?

Once you have received a request for your portfolio you will also be given a deadline for its submission.

What happens next? 

After you have submitted your portfolio, you should expect to receive an offer decision, via UCAS Track, within three to four weeks of submission. If you do not, please contact the Admissions Team at finadm@leeds.ac.uk to make further enquiries (making sure you quote your name, course and UCAS ID number).