Young Masters: For the Love of Art History

Jemma Gowland

b. 1965, UK

Jemma Gowland’s work explores the way that girls are constrained from birth to conform to an appearance and code of behavior, to present a perfect face, and maintain the expectations of others. The use of porcelain, or of stoneware with layered disrupted surfaces, denote value yet describe the vulnerability beneath. Her most recent work draws on the traditional history of the figurine, from Meissen to the present; echoing the white unglazed finish with gold lustre. Current themes build on this tradition, with its symbolism of the female figure as ornament and object, to highlight issues of growing up female in the modern world. View a Catalogue of the new work.

Jemma Gowland trained for a BSc in Engineering Product Design, working in industrial design and architectural model making before becoming a teacher of Design and Technology, a career she followed for many years. She transitioned from teaching in 2014 to pursue ceramics full-time. Her growing fascination with ceramics prompted her to pursue further studies, earning the City Lit Ceramics Diploma in London and graduating in 2019. Awards and exhibitions include: Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2023), Royal Cambrian Academy of Art Open Exhibition (2023), Collect Open (2022), Bevere Graduate Award (2019-20), and Potclays student award, Art in Clay (2019). In 2024, Jemma’s work was featured in the Newstead Project, celebrating the Byron bicentenary at his home, Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. That same year, she made her debut at Collect with the Cynthia Corbett Gallery and was showcased at the prestigious British Art Fair, marking another major milestone in her artistic career.

Jemma Gowland was Highly Commended for the Young Masters Emerging Woman Artist Award in 2023.

Daisy Mcmullan

b. 1985, UK

Daisy McMullan is an artist making richly layered paintings that document the natural world; inspired by magical realism and the ever-changing soul of the landscape, her paintings use expressive colour and mark-making to create otherworldly interpretations of the everyday. Her shimmering work captures the glimmers of hope and joy to be found in the natural world, should we choose to look closely enough.
Each painting embodies the natural world and is reflected in the Romantic ideals of returning to nature, individual spirituality, and treading ancient paths to commune with the metaphysical. Influenced by Dutch Golden Age still life and forest floor painting, the Abstract Expressionist works of Joan Mitchell and Lee Krasner, and Albert Durer Lucas or Lucien Freud's approach to painting plants. Daisy’s distinct palette captures plant life with texture and movement, while techniques like underpainting and tonal layering adds luminous depth, reminiscent of screenprints.

Daisy trained as a fine artist at Wimbledon School of Art and Camberwell College of Arts, receiving a BA (Hons) in Painting in 2007. She later studied for a Masters in Curating at Chelsea College of Art and Design and was awarded a two-year Research Fellowship in 2012 at Chelsea Space, a public gallery at the College. Daisy works now as an artist, educator and curator.
Daisy’s notable solo exhibitions include: Observed Imagined Remembered, Cass Art Kingston (2022), and Rewildings, Dorking Museum (2022). She has exhibited in group shows including HERO, Great West Gallery (2024), Abstract Worlds, Croydon Art Space (2023), Winter Group Show, Folkestone Art Gallery (2023), and theYoung Masters Invitational Exhibition, The Exhibitionist Hotel (2023/24). Daisy made her debut at the British Art Fair at the Saatchi Gallery with Cynthia Corbett Gallery in 2023 and has return with a new body of work on linen in 2024. She was also shortlisted for the SAA Artist of the Year People’s Choice Award in 2022. Daisy works from her studio in Brixton, south London, creating paintings and exhibitions that reflect on nature and place.

Daisy McMullan is an Exhibiting Artist with Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

Josie Love Roebuck

b. 1995, USA

Josie Love Roebuck is an interdisciplinary artist from Rising Fawn, Georgia. Her process addresses the contemporary complexity of identifying as biracial through symbolizing pain and triumph, exclusion, and acceptance. The act of Roebuck sewing together portraits has allowed her canvas to become her paper and her needle to become her pen, in order for Roebuck to draw upon the past and present to convey a story of her experiences and her family’s experiences. Past series have focused on her lived experiences as a biracial woman reflecting on her own childhood to convey stories of her life and that of her family’s. Roebuck received her M.F.A (2021) at the University of Cincinnati and her B.F.A with an emphasis in drawing and painting, from the University of Georgia (2019). She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Northern Kentucky University.

Roebuck has exhibited her work internationally and nationally at NADA House, NY with LatchKey Gallery, Denny Dimin Gallery, NY, Christie's at Rockefeller Plaza in collaboration with 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair. Additional exhibitions include Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati, OH (2024), Kunstheille Krems Art Museum, Austria (2022) and Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH (2021). Her work is part of numerous private and public collections most notably, A. Boafo, Accra, Ghana, T. El Glaoui, London, UK, Jimenez-Colón Collection, San Juan, Puerto Rico Beth Rudin DeWoody, Florida, A. Shariat, Vienna, Austria, C. Shen, Brooklyn, NY and Espacio Tacuarí, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Josie Love Roebuck has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Carolyn Tripp

b. 1962, UK

Carolyn Tripp graduated from Camberwell Collage of arts in 1998 with a degree in ceramics. Whilst raising her family Carolyn taught ceramics within a mental health setting and became lead tutor for Studio 306 Collective an organisation that supports mental health recovery through creativity. In 2018 Carolyn returned to her own practice and currently works out of a studio at Wimbledon Arts Studios in South London.

On first observation Carolyn’s work sits within the blue and white ceramic tradition with the surface pattern and recurring curves, necks and bellies all thrown in porcelain. Up close the jewel like surface reveals the hidden visual diary that she collects. Overheard phrases, lyrics, flowers, patterns and memory, are recorded in photography and drawings, leading to the creation of sheets of story. Printed onto paper and then torn or cut to disguise them (so that she retains ownership and privacy of some very personal memories,) each piece is placed individually onto the surface of the vessel. This creates a new “story” each time, full of refences that may connect with the viewer, so sparking imagination and memory.

In 2020 Carolyn was selected for the Hot House programme with the Crafts Council and she has gone on to show her work in galleries throughout the UK as well as selling work overseas. Her recent exhibitions include The Whitehouse Gallery in Scotland, Future Icons Selects for London Craft Week at Barge House Oxox Tower Wharf, and the Spring Exhibition at the Bevere Gallery. Carolyn has completed several commissions including a series of works for the Norwegian Cruises newest ships Prima, Viva and Aqua and she is also a trustee of Studio 306 Collective. Carolyn was a trustee of London Potters Charity from 2019-2024.

Carolyn Tripp has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Deborah Azzopardi

b. 1958, UK

Deborah Azzopardi has had a four-decade long career painting her distinctive, iconic images. Her work is published by Rosenstiel’s worldwide. Her Limited Editon silk screens and original paintings have been represented by The Cynthia Corbett Gallery for the past 15 years.

'America has Lichtenstein, we have Azzopardi!’ - Estelle Lovatt FRSA

Her book ‘SSHH…’ (2014) has an introduction by art critic, historian and journalist Estelle Lovatt FRSA, Angus Granlund, from Christie’s London and David Roe, Executive Chairman at Rosenstiel’s London. It showcases Azzopardi’s work and features more than 100 of her celebrated images. Behind-the-scenes supplement includes studio photographs by Cristina Schek.

Lovatt goes on to comment: “Sometimes you just want to curl up under a blanket. With a good book. A piece of chocolate. A man. This is what Deborah Azzopardi’s pictures make me feel like doing. They are me. They remind me of the time I had a red convertible sports car. I had two, actually. And yes, they are you, too. You immediately, automatically, engage with the narrative of Azzopardi’s conversational visual humour. Laughter is the best aphrodisiac, as you know. ... There’s plenty of art historical references from... Manet’s suggestive ‘Olympia’ … to Fragonard’s frivolous, knickerless, ‘The Swing’. Unique in approach, you easily recognise an Azzopardi picture. ... Working simple graphics and toned shading (for depth), the Pop Art line that Azzopardi sketches is different to Lichtenstein’s. Hers is more curvaceous. Feminine.”

The world is familiar with Azzopardi’s artworks, as many of them have been published internationally. Her original paintings, such as the Habitat ‘Dating’ series (2004/08), the iconic ...One Lump Or Two? (2014) and Love Is The Answer (2016), created by the artist at the request of Mitch and Janis Winehouse as a tribute to their daughter, are in great demand.

Deborah Azzopardi was awarded the Young Masters Focus On The Female Art Created During Lockdown Award 2021 for her work ‘Unabashed’.

Deborah Azzopardi is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery.

Lissie Baldwin

b. 1969, UK

Lissie Baldwin is a Bedford-based artist recognized for her distinctive approach to embroidery and collage. She creates 3D artwork by stitching together layers of old and unusual items. Many of her pieces feature strong protagonists, reimagining and retelling stories that might otherwise be forgotten.

Lissie earned her Master of Arts degree at Central Saint Martins in 1994 and initially pursued a career as a fashion designer. In the early 2000s, she transitioned to creating fine art. However, in 2006, she took a career break to become a full-time mother to her two boys, while living in China and Mexico from 2010-18.

Since returning to the UK in 2019, Lissie has re-engaged with her art and drawn inspiration from her travels. She had a solo show in 2021 with Turner Art Perspective Gallery. In 2022, Aindrea Emelife selected her work for the Discerning Eye exhibition. Recently, she exhibited with Woolff Gallery at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea. This year, Lissie has been selected to exhibit at the Worshipful Company of Borderers’ Exhibition at Bankside Gallery.

Lissie Baldwin has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Alexandra Baraitser

b. 1971, Cape Town, SA

Alexandra Baraitser is a London and Cambridge based artist and curator. Her paintings are a celebration of contemporary design and architecture and are based on images she selects from vintage magazines. Through painting she hopes to invite discussion of the relationship between ‘high art’ abstraction and iconic design.

Baraitser’s work was selected for the ArtCan Open (2018) and the Cambridge Show, Kettle’s Yard (2019). She has been the recipient of the Abbey Scholarship in Painting (prize winner), the British School at Rome (1997). She has shown solo at Willesden Gallery, Hirschl Contemporary Art, Mark Jason Gallery & AMP and curated many mixed shows including A Pull Or A Push at Thames Side Studios Gallery and Then & Now at Terrace Gallery. In 2002/3 she was awarded an Arts Council England, and Commissions East Arts Awards for mentoring with Rachel Thomas, now Curator of The Hayward Gallery. Her work is in the Clare Hall Art Collection, University of Cambridge. Her paintings have been in numerous prize exhibitions, including the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2024), John Moores Painting Prize (1995), the Natwest Art Prize (1998), the Tasmanian Wood Design Centre Exhibition Prize (2007) and the Mostyn Open (2004).

Alexandra Baraitser has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Claire Carroll

b. 1962, UK

Claire Carroll is an award winning local photographer, one of whose passions is wildlife. She recently went to Japan to photograph the courting rituals of the Japanese Red Crowned Crane.  What struck her most about these beautiful black and white (with a little red!) birds was the abstract shapes they made against the snow white background. She has pushed the contrasts to emphasise the abstract quality of the images so that the end results are visual art rather than wildlife, design rather than realism.

Carroll's work was recently shown in a solo exhibition, Cranes of Japan, at Atelier 8, Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire in August 2024. She has also been the recipient of multiple awards, including, the Royal Photographic Society's VAG 2024 Print Exhibition and Summer Print Exhibition 2023.

Additionally, her work, Woman Shoots Man, was awarded the Amelia T Clemente Family Best in Show award at The Feminist Movement in Art exhibit at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA, May 2014, juried by Amanda Jiron Murphy. Claire Carroll received the Juror's Award for the 2014 Student Photography and Media Show at NOVA for her works Swans over the Susquehanna 2 and Partners in Flight.

Claire Carroll has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Emilia Momen

b. 2001, UK

Emilia Momen is a figurative oil painter based in London. Her work documents the people she encounters, drawing from her upbringing in London among painters, where she developed a deep understanding of light and colour. Momen attended Fine Arts School in Hampstead and her first oil painting at 17 was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. She went on to study at Camberwell, then Charles Cecil and Polimoda in Florence.

She had her first solo show at 21 with Ronchini Gallery in Mayfair and has since exhibited internationally at art fairs such as Dallas and Miami. Momen has been in exhibitions such as Behind the artist Open Call – Virtual Exhibition 2024, Sound & Vision exhibition Bomb Factory Marleybone 2023, I Rossori Dell’arte (The Redness of Art) Ronchini Gallery 2023, and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2021.

Emillia Momen has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

James Robert Morrison

b. 1979, Scotland

James Robert Morrison graduated from Central Saint Martin’s in 2002 and worked in the cultural sector for 17 years before returning to an active art practice in 2019. From drawings on cigarette papers to paintings and collages embellished with embroidery - James approaches his use of media in a playful way with complete openness, while consistently maintaining quality and cohesion, making it deeply personal.

Since returning to his art practice, he has been shortlisted for the Bridget Riley Fellowship (2023-24), RBSA Drawing Prize (2023), and Derwent Art Prize (2022), was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2021), won the Mervyn Metcalf Purchase Prize at the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition (2021), and was awarded a special commendation at the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize (2020). His work is held in the UK Government Art Collection, Neal Baer Collection, and private collections in the UK, USA, and China.

James Robert Morrison has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Lesley Wood

b. 1956, UK

Lesley Wood is an award-winning mixed media textile artist from Durham in the U.K. Initially trained as a painter she now creates work with fabrics and threads. Her belief is that textile art is a fine art and equal in status to other disciplines. Figurative historical art is a source of inspiration as is the materials themselves. The marks and stains on domestic and vintage fabrics left by earlier makers and owners spark Wood’s imagination. By hand stitching these reclaimed fabrics Wood merges, the traditional with the contemporary to create new narratives from the biography of the cloth. Lesley Wood exhibits work across the U.K. and abroad and has received several awards including the Hand & Lock Open Textile Award 2021, The Madeira Threads prize 2023 and The Embroiderers’ Guild Margaret Nicholson Award 2023.

Lesley Wood has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Lucy Newman

b. 1984, UK

Lucy Newman is a London-based hand embroidery artist who blends traditional craftsmanship with contemporary innovation. Her work explores themes of climate change and the profound impact of human intervention on the natural world. Through intricate thread paintings, Lucy reimagines botanical life as glitched, mutated forms, reflecting a future shaped by environmental and technological disruption.

Lucy studied Printed Textile Design at Central St Martins School of Art and has developed a distinctive practice that celebrates the craft of hand embroidery as a contemporary artistic medium. Her work has been recognised with accolades such as the Hand & Lock Prize for Embroidery (2022) and short-listings for the Fine Art Textile Award and Share Prize (2023), as well as the Waverton Art Prize (2024). Her works has been in group exhibitions such as The Waverton Art Prize Exhibition, London, Contemporary Art Textile Exhibition, London, and upcoming shows Bound Embroidery Exhibition and Broderers Exhibition in London.

Lucy Newman has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Matilda Baxendale-Kirby

b. 2000, UK

Matilda Baxendale-Kirby is a London-based artist and recent graduate from the Royal College of Art. Known for her contemporary Renaissance-inspired work, she seamlessly bridges the past and present, using modern-day settings to reinterpret classical narratives. She explores the complexities of today’s society with her practice, often examining the position of women in the present day, using classical, personal, and historical references to confront and challenge perspectives on the female form. Through her camera and multidisciplinary approach, she crafts images and installations that provoke thought and dialogue on gender, power and societal norms.

Her most recent project includes a handcrafted mirror ball meticulously adorned with glass tiles depicting The Rape of the Sabine Women by Picasso. This sculpture cast reflections that serve as a stark reminder of the persistence of sexual violence within nightlife settings, drawing a direct parallel to the historical atrocities depicted in the paintings. This connection underscores the alarming continuity of such violence from the past to the present. Matilda’s work has been featured in prominent exhibitions and publications, including the Royal Academy and the British Journal of Photography. Recent exhibitions include Paintings in the Sky at XOYO (London, 2024) and Fabric Nightclub (London, 2024).

Matilda Baxendale-Kirby has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Ruby Taglight

b. 1993, UK

Ruby Taglight, based in Cockpit Studios, London, uses the ancient process of lost wax casting to create sculptural jewellery and objet d’art, exploring the importance of adornment. Drawing on themes such as medieval alchemy, bestiaries, myths, and art history, Ruby aims to highlight the magical tales that decorate our past, through a female lens.

​Traditionally, over-ornamentation in design was criticized for detracting from functionality, with styles like Rococo deemed ‘too feminine’ compared to the ‘masculine’ practicality of classicism. In our increasingly technological world, where progress is equated with machinery, we risk becoming ornaments ourselves. Casting a wax form into metal brings myth into the present, telling a story through the piece’s details. Interactions like turning a key or fastening an earring revive historical narratives, integrating them into daily life.​

Ruby trained as a fine artist at the Glasgow School of Art, creating life-sized, heavily embellished sculptures. During then she discovered a deep connection with adornment and subsequently moved to New York to earn a Graduate Gemmologist Diploma from the Gemmological Institute of America. Ruby began her self-taught journey into jewellery by taking short courses, namely at the London Jewellery School, and Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School, Florence. Alongside her studies, Ruby worked for Pippa Small Jewellery, where she was introduced to the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, who invited her to teach a summer program on jewellery design, over zoom, to the students in Kabul, Afghanistan. She has exhibited her work in multiple exhibitions across London, and was awarded ‘Stars in the Making’, by the Goldsmiths’ Centre, 2021 as well as debuting her first collection of interior objects at Future Icons, London, 2024. In 2023, Ruby was awarded "Jewellery Designer of the Year" by Stephen Webster, in association with Skydiamond.

Ruby Taglight has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Steven Morant

b. 1945, UK

Steven Morant was born in Leeds. He studied Architecture and Fine Arts at the University of Cambridge and an M.A. in Architecture at the University of London before returning to Leeds to study for a Part-time Postgraduate Diploma in Town Planning at Leeds Polytechnic and spending a year at the British School at Rome as a Rome Scholar in Architecture.

He worked as an architect, in various capacities, in the employment of Leeds City Council and, thereafter, as a Senior Lecturer (in Architecture) at Leeds Polytechnic and Leeds Metropolitan University. He is interested in the integration of the arts. His work has been exhibited widely and is included in private and public collections.

Steven Morant has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Olga Morozova

b. 1972, Kyiv, Ukraine

Olga Morozova received a master's degree in painting from the National Academy of Arts and Architecture in 1998. She has participated in more than twenty solo exhibitions and over one hundred group exhibitions and international projects. In 2019, Morozova represented Ukraine in Dubai at the exhibition ‘Women Artists from 100 Countries’; in 2022 she took part in the exhibition of Ukrainian artists as part of the Venice Biennale; and in December 2022 she will represent Ukraine at the Asian Art Biennale in Bangladesh.

Morozova consciously chose the Fauvist palette, adopting the strong colours and fierce brushwork style. Working intuitively, Morozova boldly layers colours to create eye-catching compositions. The powerful temperament of an outwardly fragile woman is embodied in the graphic focus on the motif, in expressive and improvisational writing, in ornamental and decorative solutions. In her works, there is a sensual Dionysianism, which is wonderfully combined with her manner of painting. Morozova’s paintings are impressive, like stained glass windows, and create a luminous aura around them.

Olga Morozova collaborated in November 2022 with artist and jeweller Phoebe Walsh on the exhibition Flowers From The Front Line. Flowers From The Frontline Series was on show at the Archivist exhibit, in the Garden Museum, from November 12th to December 22nd 2022. After touring, the series will be auctioned individually to raise money for Artists in Ukraine: https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/ In addition, filmmaker Carmela Corbett is currently working on a feature length documentary entitled Flowers From The Frontline, which will explore the artist’s life and the power of art created during war.

Olga Morozova has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Cristina Schek

b. Transylvania

Cristina Schek is the photosensitive kind. She thinks in pictures; her imagination is always in focus. A Transylvanian Surrealist now rooted in London, Schek crafts conceptual work that explores identity and the nature of representation, with literature, films, and art history as her muses. Her true passion lies in storytelling; venturing into the unknown, layering, and crafting images into creative compositions.

Her 'Diving Upwards' Series is deeply tied to the theme For the Love of Art History through its homage to Surrealism the transformative power of imagination. Inspired by André Breton's Surrealist Cabinet of Curiosities. The work reinterprets historical surrealist ideals, celebrating the movement’s fascination with the boundaries between reality and imagination, blending iconic art history references—like Titian's red hues—with themes of resilience and transcendence. The miniatures invite viewers to embrace the unexpected, celebrate imagination, and explore art history as a source of inspiration and innovation.

"Everything real begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the Universe. Imagination is 'Diving Upwards'! And you can get better at it. It's the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows. Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists. To be an optimist you don’t have to ignore the multitude of problems that arise, you just have to 'Dive Upwards' and imagine how much your ability to solve problems improves." Cristina Schek

Schek's portfolio is celebrated on a global scale, highlighted by prestigious exhibitions and art fairs such as the London Art Fair, Art Miami, NY Art Fair, LA Art Show. Notable achievements include Young Masters 'Focus On The Female' Art Created During Lockdown Award 2021 for her work 'Florence Lightingale', receiving recognition at Phillips Auction House with the BFAMI Art Exhibition 2022 and winning the W4 Fourth Plinth with 'The Ceiling In The Sky' monumental 4x4m public art installation in 2023. This recognition follows in the footsteps of Sir Peter Blake, whose artwork was the inaugural work on display.

Cristina Schek has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Blair Martin Cahill

b. 1965, USA

Blair Martin Cahill uses thread as a bridge between art and emotion, weaving connections that feel as tangible as they are profound. Her embroidery transforms thread into delicate lines and textures, each stitch infused with intention and care. Through her work, thread becomes more than a medium; it becomes a storyteller, conveying feelings that words often cannot. Her stitches reveal a deep empathy and understanding, inviting viewers to engage not only with the visual beauty of her pieces but also with the emotions that they evoke. In Cahill's hands, thread serves as a link between artist and observer, creating a shared experience that resonates beyond the surface of the fabric.

Blair Martin Cahill obtained her BFA from California Institute of the Arts and then attended the University of Arts London, Chelsea for her MA in Fine Art. She has shown in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition twice and is a prize winner for the 2024 Hand and Lock Prize. She has also had the honour of lecturing at the International Sculpture convention and the Collage Artists of America. Her works has been featured in exhibitions such as her ongoing solo show at The Atlantic Gallery and her upcoming show The Broderers’ Exhibition: The Art of Embroidery at the Bankside Gallery.

Blair Martin Cahill has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Carlton Scott Sturgill 

b. 1971, USA

Carlton Scott Sturgill was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati (B.A. Hons 2002) and Chelsea College of Art and Design (M.A. Fine Art 2005) in London, United Kingdom. His multidisciplinary body of work includes painting, sculpture, collage, and installation and incorporates a wide variety of materials, with a particular emphasis on repurposed everyday objects. His site-specific floral installations created using second-hand button-down shirts have been displayed in settings as diverse as the Drifter Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, Pegasus Bank in Dallas, Texas, and as part of the New York City Arterventions public art program, through which he was awarded a grant to create works to be displayed along the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.

His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums both nationally and internationally, including the Cornell Museum of Art in Delray Beach, Florida, Temple Bar Gallery in Dublin, Ireland, the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, and the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art in New York City. After living in Ohio, London, and Brooklyn, Carlton relocated to New Orleans in 2015, where he is represented by Ferrara Showman Gallery. His third solo exhibition with the gallery will open in February 2025.

Carlton Scott Sturgill has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Claudette Forbes 

b. 1963, UK

Claudette Forbes is an award winning ceramicist. Her work is deeply rooted in her experiences as the child of Jamaican parents growing up in inner-city Bristol. As a teenager the race riots in her neighbourhood in 1980 made a lasting impression on her. Her curiosity about the government's attempts to fix things led to her pursuing her first career tackling inner city deprivation. These experiences now inspire her art. She often gathers her ideas by observing scenes in her adopted neighbourhood of Peckham, London. She seeks to test interpretations of the present day whilst producing tangible objects that contain a certain beauty and references the past.

She adorns her work with her illustrations which are a contemporary twist on the traditional blue and white willow pattern. She describes her work as provocative and humorous.

Her ‘Poor Cow’ collection, featuring fashion & fast food branded cows and illustrated milk bottles, was inspired by a family trip to Jamaica. Montego Bay’s first McDonald’s restaurant had just opened. Next to it was a field with a solitary cow in it, a scene which she found hilarious. The collection has won many plaudits. The ’Banksy Thieves, Rye Lane, Peckham, London’ is the latest addition to her 'Poor Cow' collection. Forbes has been selected as Showcase Award winner for the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, won 2nd place prize at Brixton Art Prize, and Selected for New Ashgate Gallery Rising Stars.

Claudette Forbes has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Ella Shepard 

b. 1993, UK

Ella Shepard is a painter, drawing on personal and collective memories to create works that deeply connect with time, flux and the instability of a moment. Moments shift, memories evolve, and lights flicker, transforming our perception into something fragmented and altered. Like reality, the paintings are fractal, unfolding across multiple planes. Figures emerge from layered, fractured veils of oil paint, existing in a state of flux between their forms and dream-like surroundings. The process of layering marks and building recollections reaches a point of abstraction, where the scenes are confused and distorted, as Shepard believes that life is experienced like that of a collage. She describes the process of painting as trying to remember; it is a search for clarity and the concurrent negation of that clarity; Like recalling a fragmented dream which is simultaneously collapsing in on itself. In an internal world they are teetering on the edge of dissolve, with a psychological resonance towards poetic space and quiet intimacy. They borderline illusion and reality, in a collaged dialogue between construction and deconstruction and abstraction and figuration.

She studied Fine Art at Oxford Brookes University (2016) and received an MA in Painting from Arts University Bournemouth (2023). Over the years she has exhibited in many group shows with galleries and museums like Modern Art Oxford, The Ashmolean, Thompson’s Gallery, Tart Gallery, Zuleika Gallery and more. She has worked alongside BiC pens and created pieces in collaboration with Parkinson's UK and during lockdown she was commissioned by The Arts Council. Her recent solo presentations include ‘The Infinite Now’ (2023) at Pen Gallery and ‘Out of Body’ (2023) at Paragon Gallery. As well as being featured by Paint Britain her work has been purchased for private collections and her paintings can be viewed as a permanent part of Oxford’s Public Art Collection. Awards include Jorge Aguilar-Agon National Artist Award, Bath Art Prize, Lena Fritsch’s Selection Award (The Ashmolean Museum), The Eaton Fund and Jackson’s Painting Prize Longlist (2023). She has taken part in Art on a Postcard Auction, she has been included in ‘One’s to Watch’ 2024. Shepard's painting was selected by Tracey Emin for the Margate Art Prize shortlist last year.

Ella Shepard has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Eveline Kieskamp 

b. 1977, The Netherlands

Eveline Kieskamp is a Dutch visual artist best known for her ceramic sculptures. She takes inspiration from historical art-traditions and symbolism. She uses motifs that have their origins in classical movements, such as vanitas painting from the 16th and 17th centuries, which focused on the transience of life. She translates this into a contemporary context through ceramic sculptures that refer to vanity and the illusion of perfection. Kieskamp combines these references with a modern perspective, in which she not only seeks beauty in vanity but also takes a critical look at the value we place on external excess. Her work invites reflection, uniquely bringing together historical aesthetics and contemporary questions. Kieskamp works mostly figuratively, with recurring images of young women. Her sculptures have a slightly surreal and fairy-tale feel and often contain references to vanitas symbolism, reminding the viewer of the transience of life.

Kieskamp graduated from ArtEZ Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Arnhem in 2002 and began her career experimenting in various materials. She eventually found her artistic voice in ceramics, where she combines her technical skills with a strong narrative style. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the International Ceramic Festival in Mino, Japan, and in Dutch museums and galleries Through her art, Kieskamp prompts viewers to reflect on life and death, finding beauty in decay. Her works combine craftsmanship with philosophical depth, making her a unique voice in contemporary ceramic art. Kieskamp has been honourable mentioned at International Ceramics competition in Japan, nominated Maylis grand ceramic prize in London, and nominated for the National Dutch Ceramic award.

Eveline Kieskamp has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Gail Altschuler

b. 1957, South Africa

Gail Altschuler is a ceramic artist whose work merges creativity, observation, and innovation, blurring the boundaries between fine art and craft. Known for her unique porcelain and ceramic vessels, Altschuler draws inspiration from art history, her personal experiences, and her detailed sketchbooks filled during visits to museums and galleries. Her work reflects a deep fascination with Cubism, African art forms, and the human experience.

Growing up in South Africa, Altschuler developed an appreciation for the influences of African art on Western modernism. Cubism, with its simplification of forms and multiple perspectives, profoundly inspires her work. This connection is evident in her sculptural vessels and wall-hanging plates, which feature patterns, etched figures, and vibrant colours that tell stories of artists, musicians, families, relationships, conversations, masks, and refugees. Her use of Goya’s fleeing figures and Picasso’s Kneeling Nude highlights her ongoing dialogue with art history and its relevance to contemporary themes.

Altschuler’s sculptures are metaphors for the multifaceted nature of human relationships—amusing, surprising, and ever-evolving. By using clay and porcelain as her canvas, she creates art that invites viewers to explore the stories, personalities, and histories embedded in her work.

Her work has been exhibited widely in prestigious galleries and art fairs, including the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, British Art Fair at Saatchi Gallery, and Messums Gallery. She has also been recognized with awards such as the 3D Prize at Wales Contemporary and becoming a selected member of the Craft Potters Association. She recently exhibited at The Affordable Art Fair in London.

Gail Altschuler has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Helen Brough

b. 1966, UK

Helen Brough has been painting for over thirty years and holds her BA Honors and MA Sculpture from the Chelsea School of Art, London. In addition to the Prix de Rome (1991) and the Prince Charles Travel Scholarship, the artist is the recipient of funding from the Pollock Krasner Foundation (1992), the Soros Foundation, and the Triangle Arts Association (2004), QEST (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust) 2019 and an Art Council Grant UK in 2020.

Brough’s work is found in numerous private and corporate collections and museums worldwide including the Cantor Fitzgerald Collection, New York, the William Louis-Dreyfus Collection Foundation, New York, The Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, Two Trees, DUMBO, Brooklyn, The National Art Museum, Budapest, Hungary and in London, The Ashurst Collection.

As well as participation in various art fairs and artist residencies, Brough has been the subject of numerous international solo exhibitions including Urban Movements at Kristen Frederickson, NY USA (2003) Cataclysmic Hypotheses at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art Omaha USA (2006) installation at SCOPE Art Basel Miami (2007) Curiouser and Curiouser at Rebecca Kormind Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark (2008) Nature Interrupted at Chelsea Art Museum New York USA (2009) At Home with Marcelle Joseph Ascot UK (2014) The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition London UK (2015) and British Land commissioned an installation for Shaped By Design at Broadgate London (2017) Solo exhibitions include Lightscapes at Aleph Contemporary (2020) and Bluebell Wood at Avivson Gallery London (2021)

Group shows include We Are Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On at the Cello factory London UK curated by Vivienne Roberts (2021) A Generous Space at Hastings Contemporary UK, (2021) curated by Matthew Burrows MBE, Chinese Ink at Michael Goedhuis Gallery London and Miami Art Fair and AAF in London and USA with Art Movement (2023-2024). In October 2024 she was commissioned by The AAF to produce a large installation in the entrance in the Battersea Fair and was the recipient of the Clear Insurance Prize. Brough is presently represented by Art Movement and in 2024 was awarded The Glass Sellers bursary for a studio at Cockpit Studios Bloomsbury.

Helen Brough has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Keerthana S Kumar 

b. 1993, India

Keerthana S Kumar is a contemporary figurative painter based in India, recognized for her vibrant compositions, bold narratives, and distinctive storytelling. Her work delves into identity, culture, and human experience, serving as a dialogue between history and modernity—where the past informs the present, and the present reimagines the past. Drawing inspiration from historical art, everyday life, and global perspectives, Keerthana creates vivid scenes of realistic fiction that resonate with diverse audiences. Her travels and reflections on culture and consumerism enrich her vision, infusing her work with layered symbolism and dynamic expressions of identity.

Her paintings have been exhibited nationally and internationally at prestigious venues such as World Art Dubai and the India Art Festival. Collectors from India, the US, Europe, and the Middle East have acquired her work, with a collection of 14 pieces housed in an IHG boutique hotel in Dubai and an original painting residing at Chanel India's headquarters in New Delhi.

Keerthana’s art features bold, saturated figures within stylized, graphical environments, capturing universal emotions while remaining deeply personal. Inspired by the multifaceted gods of Indian mythology, her subjects often possess multiple hands, with each gesture adding layers of meaning. Influenced by pop culture, Fauvism, and symbolism, she begins her process with digital collages of found images and personal photographs, which serve as blueprints for her paintings. Her expressive use of colour defies conventions, transforming realism into vibrant fiction and redefining traditional notions of identity and representation.

Keerthana S Kumar has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Liron Kroll 

b. 1980, Israel

For over a decade, Liron Kroll has expanded the boundaries of photographic practice by blending photomontage techniques with innovative technologies. An award-winning artist and MA graduate of the Royal College of Art, Kroll is based in London, where her work spans photography, video art, and immersive installations. Both bold and intimate, her work explores how trends in popular photography shape personal and collective identities. The uncanny compositions she creates challenge traditional perceptions of photography’s relationship with time and space. Through deconstructing and reconstructing visual worlds, she creates evocative realities that uncover profound and unsettling truths. Kroll’s work has been exhibited at prominent galleries such as Eyebeam Gallery N.Y, ‘The Other Art Fair’ London and ‘Fresh Paint Art Fair’ in Tel Aviv as well as a solo show ‘Sand Box’ at Zemack Contemporary Art Gallery.

Liron Kroll has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Munisha Gupta 

b. 1971, India

Munisha Gupta, born in Agra, India, has lived in India, Nigeria, UK and is currently London-based. She previously studied accounting and law, and in the past 12 years has developed a studio painting practice. Her work explores emotionally charged aspects of everyday life, particularly occasions in which challenging situations transpire, or develop over time. While such disturbing events may result in portraits of family or friends, Gupta also addresses these concerns through paintings of the physical location in which a moving or traumatic moment has occurred.

Closely tied to her personal life, each painting is also an open starting point for the viewer’s own reveries, emotions, and ideas. The emotions in Gupta's work are conveyed through the dynamic movement of paint, where memories are processed and reinterpreted. Vivid colours and precise forms create an immersive experience, for both the artist and viewers. Recently Gupta has moved away from an earlier interest in combining representational and abstract elements to now presenting her subject matter in a more direct way. Her work reflects the tension between confronting difficult situations and making them more bearable, using 'pretty' paint to soften the impact while maintaining a dynamic tension between appearance and reality, where melancholy and optimism coexist. The artist has been featured in recent exhibitions such as The Rookery Artist collective at Hoxton Hotel and the What Surrounds You Exhibition at Donne Gallery.

Munisha Gupta has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Sandra Shashou 

b. 1959, Brazil

Sandra Shashou was born in Rio de Janeiro and studied at City & Guilds of London Art School in 2000 for her BA (Hons) in Painting. After her graduation she had portraits commissioned by several prominent British intellectuals and politicians, and in the years following her studies largely established her reputation as a painter.

In 2013, her practice took a major turn into sculpture. By investigating how to work with exquisite Vintage and Antique objects that she was so strongly drawn to, she began to produce a series of focused and intensely personal works that reflect the resilience, fragility, and the conditions of love.

Collecting is an integral part of Shashou’s practice, with a continuous search for handpicked treasures that become part of her creations, and porcelain has emerged as her signature sculpting material, her trademark.

Resilience, a series of sculptures conceived in celebration of joy, love, integrity and balance, that continue to work through the complexities of vulnerability and fragility that were first articulated in her Broken series. Moving beyond traditional tropes of framing and hanging, into a playful sculptural mode. This formal rigour is offset by a lightness and humour that ruptures these codes, and that finds the sculptures stacked or propped against one another in unpredictable and precarious ways.

In recent years Shashou has exhibited in London, Paris, Beirut, Geneva, Gstaad, St Tropez, Dallas, Miami, NYC, and Venice. She has been shown in Art Elysees, Art Beirut, Art Palm Beach, Art Miami, Art Southampton NY, Armoury Antiques NY, Art15 Olympia London, Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips, and has been commissioned for site-specific public sculptures in the US, EU, and UK. Her work has been collected in several important private collections. Shashou lives and works from her studio in Primrose Hill, London.

Sandra Shashou has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Sarah Jane Moon 

b. 1982, New Zealand

Sarah Jane Moon is a New Zealand born British painter who specialises in portraiture and figurative painting. Her work explores identity, gender and connection to place. Working at scale, her paintings are suffused with bold colour, dynamic surface and gestural use of her chosen medium: oil.

She has exhibited widely, including with the National Portrait Gallery, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, New English Art Club and the New Zealand Portrait Gallery. As a prize winner in the Queer Britain Art Awards and recipient of the Arts Charitable Trust Award and the Bulldog Bursary for Portraiture her work has consistently been recognised for its ambition and singularity. It has also been featured in Time Magazine, The Guardian, Wallpaper*, Studio International and other publications. She is Chair of the Contemporary British Portrait Painters. In the UK, Moon works in London and Sussex and when in New Zealand she paints in the Bay of Plenty. Her work is held in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Soho House and the James Wallace Trust.

Sarah Jane Moon has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Shiba Huizer 

b. 1972, The Netherlands

Shiba Huizer is a London-based photographer originally from Amsterdam, specializing in fashion and fine art photography. Her work delves into themes of inner conflict and emotional depth, crafting evocative portraits that resonate with powerful storytelling. Shiba builds her own props and styles her models, bringing a unique, hands-on approach to her creations. Inspired by her family’s vibrant visual history of photographs in the Caribbean, she embraces sustainability by framing her fine art pieces in pre-loved, customized frames, each made to be one of a kind.

A graduate of the Rietveld Academy and the London College of Fashion, Shiba’s work reflects her unique vision, showcased in exhibitions and featured in fashion editorials.

Shiba Huizer has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Thomas MacGregor 

b. 1976, UK

Thomas MacGregor is a painter working and living in London. He graduated with a BA (hons) from The Edinburgh College of Art in 1999 and in 2020 he finished the Turps Studio Programme in London. His recent solo exhibitions include Futility Helmets at APT gallery, London; MacGregorETC at Patchworks, London; and the Darbyshire/Turps prize for emerging art at the Darbyshire gallery, London. His recent group exhibitions include 8AM London, Midnight in LA, Turps and Durden & Ray at Thames side studios, London; It rose and it fell, Terrace gallery, London; SSA Annual Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh; Portrait artist of the year, curated by Kathleen Soriano, Compton Verney; and The Elephant in the Room, Durden & Ray, Los Angeles.

Thomas was awarded the Turps/Darbyshire prize for emerging art in 2021, was a finalist on Sky Arts’ Landscape artist of the year in 2022 and won the Saltire Society’s ‘Book Cover of the Year’ Award in 2023. His work is held in private collections in the UK, Europe, USA, and South America.

MacGregor sees painting as an open dialogue with society, a dialogue materialised and forwarded through a process of stark contrasts and heavily textured paint, balanced with lightness and economy. Having studied in Edinburgh in the 90s, he was influenced by the Scottish painters of the time such as Alison Watt and Peter Howson. Beyond Scotland, major ongoing influences include Paula Rego and Philip Guston. Humour is an integral tool in his work. There exists a linear narrative in MacGregor’s art, which interconnects from piece to piece - any individual work is a component part of a larger body of work, which cross-references itself. The larger it gets the more distinctive the character of the body of work becomes.

"The painting can be viewed at face value and on a basic level I am concerned with light and shadow, which I use to create depth, but there is hidden meaning in the way the paint is applied and worked into the painting. The work has to be scrutinised to find it."

Thomas MacGregor has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Yoshihito Suzuki 

b. 1987, Japan

Yoshihito Suzuki, is a Japanese visual artist based in Barcelona. His work explores the intersection of opposing concepts such as the artificial and the natural, the sacred and the profane, and the material and the immaterial.

Suzuki is interested in climate change and mass extinction occurring worldwide, and the main theme of his work is “Approach of the artificial and the natural". He also attempts to bring together other opposing concepts such as the sacred and the vulgar, the past and the present, through works that use ready-made objects found around us as their motifs. Now he is focusing on empty cans among artificial objects as the motif. Dumped empty cans with its mouth open represent "death" and the "emptiness" that contemporary society feels. By fusing this with a stuffed animal that has the life force of children and giving it a form of life, "death" is given a "rebirth" and "emptiness" a "sense of fulfillment. In 2023, held his first solo exhibition “Band-aid for Dinosaurs" at Centro Cívico Guinardó.

After graduating in Intercultural Communication from Hosei University in 2010, studied printmaking at La Llotja in Barcelona from 2012 to 2013 and is now based there. He has participated in group exhibitions and art festivals, mainly in Spain. He mainly exhibits his work at Gallery La Plataforma.

Yoshihito Suzuki has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Jo Holdsworth 

b. UK

Jo Holdsworth is an award-winning contemporary British artist known for her paintings of elongated and reflected figures often in blue and grey tones. Her work has been on book, album and magazine covers and is held in public and private collections.

Often embracing themes such as hope and loyalty, Jo’s life-affirming paintings attract a strong following and are collected throughout the world. Her striking and unique paintings have bold, cinematic appeal as well as being admired for their distinct colour palette and loose, spontaneous brush work.

‘It’s the mixture of calm beauty and ambiguity throughout all of Jo Holdsworth’s paintings that mesmerises the viewer.’ London art critic Tabish Khan writing recently about Jo Holdsworth’s work in World of FAD.

Jo's painting featured in the Young Masters show is part of a new series that delves into her passion for French art, its painters, and its rich history. Each piece is inspired by places that French painters lived or worked in. The paintings also explore colour palettes used by particular painters or art movements and in some of the pieces the painter themselves may appear in one of the shadowy figures. Growing up Jo’s family had a house in Provence and she was enthralled by the views painted by French artists and the magnificent countryside..

Jo’s painting in the Young Masters show, ‘Café, Aix-en-Provence’ explores Jo’s love of Paul Cézanne and features Aix-en-Provence where Cézanne was born. Says Jo ‘I love the colours and atmosphere of Aix and its indelible link with Cezanne and his artistic genius and struggles over the years.’ Her highly successful Solo Show at 60 Threadneedle Street in the City of London finished at the end of January 2024. Oher recent exhibitions include Neptune Wimbledon in July 2024, and Affordable Art Fairs Hampstead and Battersea.

Jo Holdsworth has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Zidi Gong

b. 2000, China

Zidi Gong is a contemporary artist specialising in ceramics, metal, and glass, whose work examines the dynamic relationship between human society and the natural world. She recently graduated from the Royal College of Art with a Master’s degree in Ceramics and Glass, building on her background in Jewellery Design at Birmingham City University.

Her multidisciplinary experience enables her to bring the precision, attention to detail, and material sensitivity of jewellery-making into her ceramic sculptures, resulting in pieces that are both conceptually and technically layered. Zidi’s practice is rooted in an exploration of how humans perceive and categorise nature.

Her work delves into themes of contradiction, such as the tension between ‘cuteness’ and ‘cruelty,’ as seen in her ceramic series Cute or Cruel?. Inspired by animals like pufferfish, porcupine, and armadillo, this series reflects on the ethical implications of anthropocentric perspectives and questions humanity’s place within ecosystems. Through her innovative use of form and material, Zidi creates sculptures that provoke reflection and dialogue. With an eye toward fostering cross-cultural connection through craft, Zidi’s artistic practice seeks to inspire a deeper engagement with the natural world.

Her work has received international recognition through exhibitions such as Avenue Studio Murmurations (2024), Slovenian Jewellery Week (2024), and New Designers (2023).

Zidi Gong has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Deniz Kurdak
b. 1983, Turkey
Deniz Kurdak is a London-based textile artist whose free-motion embroidery explores themes of memory, identity, and belonging. Inspired by personal narratives and objects from her past, Deniz’s work bridges traditional craft and contemporary art. By emphasising emotional repair and reconstruction, her textiles challenge outdated and dismissive perceptions of embroidery as mere women’s craft, highlighting its potential for storytelling and self-expression.

Her practice reflects the dualities of the human condition, such as fragility and resilience, belonging and alienation, truth and deception. Deniz aims to highlight these contradictions and tensions by bringing the fragility of porcelain together with the soft resilience of fabric and thread.

After receiving a BFA(Hons) degree in stage and costume design, Deniz worked as an academic staff member at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (Istanbul). She has also led workshops at other universities and institutions in Switzerland, Turkey, and the USA. Her work has been recognized internationally, including as a finalist for the 2022 Women United Art Prize. In 2024, her textiles were showcased in the Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Exhibition, and she has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Turkey, Beijing, and the UK. Currently, Deniz is a resident artist in the Artists Make Space Programme, organized by the Borough of Richmond upon Thames and Orleans House Gallery.

Deniz Kurdak has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Kelsey Shultis

b. 1988, USA

Kelsey Shultis creates sculptural paintings to explore and develop the parts of herself she doesn't yet know, inviting the viewer along on her journey. Her inner landscapes are frequented by abandoned houses, goddesses, moss, goats, rainbows, dark forests, demons, mermaids, rabbits, witchcraft, and her young son. Shultis's work is guided by principles rather than logic, she asks the painting to reveal itself rather than impose meaning or thought onto it. Precisely because her work is created so intuitively, the viewer's unconscious is equally affected as their eye. All her work has the immovability of landscape yet despite its stillness, hums with the same vibration of a living form.

Trekking with her through her personal inner landscapes is no light affair. While the works themselves are ostensibly suitable for a childhood nursery, Shultis's iconography radiates a haunted innocence. Since her work is so achingly personal, the viewer is prompted to draft their own inner map. What haunts me? What do I yearn to keep? What fills me with wonder? Because Shultis answers those questions with wrenching honesty in each one of her pieces, the viewer feels in kind the safety to honestly populate their own internal world.

Shultis received her BFA from the University of Michigan School of Art and Design and studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. She now lives in northwest Massachusetts with her husband, two rabbits, many houseplants, and her perfect three-year-old son.

Kelsey Shultis has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Maxim Burnett

b. 1996, UK

Maxim Burnett is a British and Irish figurative oil painter based in London and a graduate of the City & Guilds MA fine art course. Due to the immunocompromising nature of his cancer diagnosis, Maxim initially trained himself throughout much of his 20’s in clinical isolation. Consequently, his work possesses an outsider quality that’s uniquely his own.

Influences of muralists such as Rivera, symbolists like Blake, alongside echoes of constructivism, futurism, brutalism, purism; though somewhat reminiscent of a mid-century aesthetic, Maxim’s paintings are distinctly concerned in telling a contemporary narrative. Maxim venerates his contemporary themes both materially and pictorially, be it through his expressive and textured handling of traditional materials or his poignant allegorical depictions.

“My paintings […] serve as reliquaries of sorts, they’re vessels within which to guard and convey a reflection of contemporary times. It’s the pursuit of immortalising, visually eulogising the 21st century, and myself, that compels my practice”.

Maxim Burnett has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

Alexa Harris

b. 1970, UK

Alexa Harris is a multi-disciplinary artist, originally from Leeds, living and working in London. Her work titled, 'If I just lay here,' belongs to the series 'Dad loved a field of hay bales,' a cathartic exploration of life, love and loss following the artists father's passing.

Drawing its name from the poignant lyrics of Snow Patrol's 'Chasing Cars,' resonates profoundly. The song became an emotive anthem during the artists husband's cancer diagnosis, the same year as the song's release date, in 2006 and when her son was born, is a year etched in the artist’s shared history as a testament to resilience and hope. As Harris applied the final brushstrokes to the canvas, the words flowed forth, harmonising the act of painting with the music playing.

After discovering two photographs capturing his beloved view of hay bales, Harris felt compelled to recreate it, breathing new life into his cherished memory. The distant sky, devoid of colour, echoes the void of loss, while the rich cadmium and crimson hues in the foreground pulse with the vibrancy of life's tapestry. This piece holds a sacred space within the series. While some works have transcended into pure abstractions, distilled representations of earth and sky, this one remains a poignant homage to a life well-lived and a love that endures beyond the physical realm.

Harris studied Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University gaining a first (BA Hons). She is an Alumni of the National Youth Theatre of GB, where she trained in theatre design. This diverse foundation shaped a kaleidoscopic career spanning TV (production and drama documentaries), theatre and film. Her works has been shown in the M P Birla Millennium Art Gallery’s Relational Dreams Exhibition, The Talented Art Fair 2019, The New Artist Fair 2017, Hampstead Open Air Exhibition 2015 and more.

Alexa Harris has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.