About

Cynthia Corbett Gallery, a London-based Contemporary art gallery, was established by American former economist, art historian and curator Cynthia Valianti Corbett in 2004. The Gallery is an international nomadic art gallery representing emerging and established contemporary artists, and has a broad annual exhibition programme including international art fairs and collaborative projects worldwide. The Gallery’s represented and guest artists come from British, American and international backgrounds, whose works have been published and acquired by major museums, institutions, and private collections. Since its inception, the gallery has championed the work of women artists, queer artists and artists of colour working across a wide range of media encompassing practices at the intersection of fine art and craft.  

The gallery has a remarkable track record of nurturing artists by placing their work in prestigious public collections, notably the V&A, National Museums of Scotland, 21c Museum Hotels, and private collections including Omer Koc and Jorge Perez.    

In 2009, Cynthia Corbett launched the Young Masters Art Prize, a unique, not-for-profit initiative supporting emerging international artists whose work engages with the Old Masters and art of the past. Celebrating artistic skill, innovation and the continuing dialogue between contemporary practice and art history, the Prize is judged by an independent panel of renowned art historians, collectors, curators and art professionals.

Since its launch, six editions of the Young Masters Art Prize have taken place in London. The initiative expanded in 2014 with the introduction of the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramic Prize, recognising the growing significance of contemporary craft, followed in 2017 by the inaugural Young Masters Emerging Women Award. In 2021, the curatorial platform Focus on the Female was developed as an artistic and philanthropic response to the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women.

Over time, Young Masters has evolved beyond the Prize into an ongoing international curatorial platform, creating opportunities for artists through exhibitions, art fairs, awards, collaborations and special projects while remaining rooted in the dialogue between contemporary art and art history.

In 2025, Young Masters presented For the Love of Art History at The Exhibitionist Hotel, South Kensington, bringing together international artists to explore love through the lens of art history and diverse cultural traditions. Later that year, Young Masters marked its 16th anniversary with Sweet 16: Young Masters Retrospective at 67 York Street Gallery during Frieze Week, celebrating over a decade and a half of artistic innovation through past finalists and new talents.

In 2026, Line of Beauty: Young Masters People’s Choice Award Winners Exhibition was presented at The Exhibitionist Hotel, South Kensington. This was followed by Her Court: The Role Wimbledon Played in the Suffragette Movement at Wimbledon Museum, an important museum collaboration bringing contemporary art into dialogue with the museum’s historic suffrage archives.

Today, Young Masters continues to support and champion emerging international artists, connecting new artistic voices with collectors, institutions and audiences while creating fresh conversations between the art of the past and the art of today.