NEW BLOOD ART EMERGING ART PRIZE
In the video above Sarah introduces the 24 shortlisted artists. Each artist is featured for approximately two minutes, offering an overview of their work. Below, you will find links to their individual gallery pages on New Blood Art.
Degree: MA Ceramics & Glass
University: Royal College of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
Damaris Athene’s practice focuses on exploring how the human form is evolving in response to shifts in technology, materiality, and our environment. Her work examines the concept of a new human form—one that reflects the merging of organic and synthetic elements. By engaging with Posthuman theory, Athene challenges anthropocentric views, presenting the body not as fixed but as fluid, porous, and open to transformation. In her series Fruiting_Bodies, Athene envisions forms that blur the boundaries between human and non-human, suggesting speculative futures for the body. Using airbrushed fabric and glass elements, she creates structures that evoke parasitic growths, alien-like portals, or biological microcosms. These works raise questions about adaptation and interdependence in a world increasingly shaped by technology and environmental change. Her Padded Paintings further explore the relationship between the digital and physical. These tactile sculptures bring digital collages into the material world, combining neoprene and airbrushed surfaces to explore themes of touch, transformation, and the tension between digital perfection and human imperfection. Athene’s practice imagines how the human body might adapt and transform, challenging traditional perceptions of identity and materiality.
Degree: MAFA Fine Art
University: Edinburgh College of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
Georgia Boardman’s artistic practice stands out for its meticulous exploration of form, light, and materiality, with the circle at the core of her conceptual framework. This simple yet profound shape represents continuity, connection, and infinite potential, which she interprets through repetitive processes and evolving explorations. Boardman’s work transcends the mere act of creation, inviting viewers to engage with the transformation of materials—such as glass and metal—into dynamic, almost living entities that interact with light and space. Boardman references the work of artists like Anish Kapoor, who also explores the interplay of material and perception, and Rachel Whiteread, who delves into the unseen spaces that objects and forms occupy. These influences are evident in Boardman’s ability to evoke deep contemplation through minimalistic yet powerful installations. What makes Boardman a compelling emerging artist is her ability to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Her art is not just about the final object, but about the process and the dialogue between the viewer, the material, and the surrounding space. Her innovative approach to displaying these materials, manipulating light, and her thoughtful engagement with the philosophical implications of form, positions her as an artist with a unique voice and a promising future in contemporary art.
Degree: Photography (BA)
University: Edinburgh College of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
Charlotte Buckley’s work explores the tension between control and chaos, asking us to confront the boundaries we create to make sense of the world and ourselves. By bringing together objects and textures we wouldn’t expect to find in the same space, she creates new visual meanings that blur the lines between what we show and what we hide, what feels familiar and what feels strange. Her message is rooted in a critique of the ways we impose rigid structures on ourselves—both in how we categorise the world and in how we define our own value through completeness or functionality. By creating surreal, hybrid realities that feel simultaneously unsettling and liberating, Buckley questions these systems and suggests an alternative: a celebration of ambiguity, imperfection, and the spaces where categories collapse. Through her work, she invites us to reflect on our inner voices and our compulsion to control outcomes, asking whether we might find more freedom in embracing fluidity and process over rigid expectations. Her art becomes a visual representation of unfiltered humanness, where meaning is found not in answers but in exploring the nuances of existence
Degree: Fine Art
University: Aberystwyth University
Graduation Year: 2024
Tilly Cooke’s paintings transform everyday moments into quiet celebrations of intimacy, focusing on the connections she shares with the women closest to her. Through smooth layers of oil paint mixed with linseed oil, she creates luminous surfaces that invite the viewer into spaces of calm observation and understated care. Her portraits focus on human connection and the quiet complexities of identity, capturing unguarded moments that feel both deeply personal and universally familiar. In her latest series, Cooke turns to swimmers and the act of bathing, presenting water as a metaphor for fluidity and transformation. These works reflect on the body’s relationship with its surroundings, offering a contemplative exploration of ritual, change, and the quiet power of stillness.
Degree: BA (Hons) Painting
University: Edinburgh College of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
Esther Castle's art practice is a reflection on a past childhood illness and a process of ‘fictioning of reality’, where she creates worlds where peculiar things can grow. She feels the need to reflect on this experience as a way of processing her own disability which she acquired due to her illness, as well as questioning what the ‘disabled’ body’s place in society is, but in a peculiar and explorative way. The blobby figures she creates are both survivors of an illness but also the illness itself, inspired by the way cancer cells were often described to her as unexplained, curious growths that took control. Through investigating the garden space, she aims to draw comparisons with how non-normative bodies are unruly in similar ways to weeds, which are often extricated by ‘gardeners’ due to their ‘undesirable’ nature. Esther also aims to create ‘stage set’ spaces, where multiple paintings can interact with sculpture and installation, creating an ambiguous and layered world.
Degree: MA Fine Art
University: University of East London
Graduation Year: 2024
Carl Engmann’s work is defined by his unwavering focus on the interiors of trains, a subject he approaches with near-obsessive dedication. Through his paintings, he transforms these transient, functional spaces into vibrant studies of colour and movement. Engmann’s compositions capture the dynamic interplay of shifting forms and tones, offering a deep exploration of how light, structure, and colour interact in these confined environments.
Degree: MFA
University: Royal College of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
Allison Gretchko, a recent Royal College of Art graduate, is a photographer whose work explores themes of care, consumption, and memory. Through the use of analogue photography and natural light, she creates images imbued with a tactile, nostalgic quality. Her work examines the connections between people, places, and the objects we inherit, focusing on the fluid and ephemeral nature of photographic images. Gretchko’s process embraces imperfection, using film to capture subtle, atmospheric scenes shaped by light and shadow. This approach gives her work a timeless quality, evoking memories and emotions through a romantic interplay of texture and tone. In her project Who drinks your tears?, Gretchko turns her lens on a generational family home, exploring domestic spaces as repositories of shared memory and materiality. Her photographs reflect the psychological weight of inheritance, presenting scenes of light and life shaped by absence and presence. Her work invites viewers to reflect on the transient yet enduring connections that shape our understanding of time, place, and belonging.
Degree: MA Contemporary Art Practice
University: Royal College of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
Canaan J. Brown’s practice engages deeply with the cultural and historical legacies of the Black Atlantic, using magical realism and Afro-surrealism to transform personal and collective narratives into layered, otherworldly works. By blurring the lines between reality and myth, his work explores the themes of displacement, resilience, and the evolving nature of cultural identity across diasporic experiences. Brown’s choice of media plays a critical role in this exploration. Working across digital prints, painting, and installation, he combines traditional and contemporary practices, reflecting the fluidity and hybridity central to the Black Atlantic. His digital prints, in particular, allow him to layer and manipulate imagery, creating compositions that feel fragmented yet interconnected—mirroring the shifting, multifaceted histories he examines. Meanwhile, his painted works ground his practice in materiality, with the richness of colour and form evoking memory and mythology. This interplay between media invites comparisons to artists like Peter Doig, whose poetic and ambiguous spaces similarly explore identity and memory through mythological imagery. Brown’s vibrant and immersive works continue this dialogue, offering an imaginative rethinking of history, cultural heritage, and the enduring impact of the Black Atlantic.
Degree: MA (Ceramics & Glass)
University: Royal College of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
Alexandra Kim’s practice explores the tension between tradition and subversion, creating ceramic works that balance the human-like and the abstract, awkward and graceful. Working primarily with clay, Kim employs hand-building techniques such as coiling to craft her sculptures. This method involves building up forms layer by layer with rolled coils of clay, which provides both structural stability and the freedom to create large-scale, organic shapes without the constraints of moulds or machinery. Her hands-on approach allows her to work intuitively, shaping each piece directly, imbuing her work with a physicality and presence that connects deeply to her themes. Her sculptures draw viewers in with curvaceous edges and inviting openings, reminiscent of bodily forms, only to disorient them with unexpected asymmetry and unpredictability. This dynamic interplay reflects her broader exploration of femininity, womanhood, and societal expectations. Kim’s work pays homage to, while also reimagining, the Korean stone fertility statues of Jeju Island, known as “dol hareubang.” By referencing these symbols of life and creation, her pieces articulate themes of fertility and rebirth while challenging traditional roles and constraints placed on women. Her sculptures evoke a sense of duality—comfort and unease, beauty and awkwardness—highlighting the complexity of the female experience. Through her use of clay and the physical act of building, Kim’s art becomes a conversation between cultural heritage and contemporary identity, merging the personal and the universal. By embracing both the welcoming and the disruptive, her work invites viewers to engage with its tactile, sculptural presence and the deeper narratives it embodies.
Degree: BA (Hons) Fine Art
University: Falmouth University
Graduation Year: 2024
Hanna Kojima Boyd’s practice transforms the urban environment into a site of mystery and imagination, focusing on the interplay of light, reflection, and perception. Her work draws inspiration from fleeting phenomena, particularly the “molten windows” of city architecture—reflections on building facades that seem to flicker and melt under sunlight. Boyd describes these as portals to hidden worlds, using her paintings to explore the surreal and transient dimensions of these moments. Through layered compositions, she bridges observation with invention, creating images that hover between the real and the fantastical. Her ability to evoke the subtle magic of urban spaces invites viewers to reconsider the ordinary, drawing them into her vision of the city as a place of wonder and transformation. Her paintings balance precision and fluidity, offering a glimpse into the poetic possibilities of the world around us.
Degree: Intermedia
University: The University of Edinburgh
Graduation Year: 2024
Evie Mae Harding’s practice embraces imperfection as a source of beauty and meaning, finding new ways to challenge traditional ideas of value—both in materials and in the self. Working with techniques like Scagliola and Raku firing, she creates objects imbued with a raw, tactile presence. Raku, a process celebrated for its unpredictability and the organic imperfections it produces, mirrors Harding’s broader exploration of vulnerability and transformation. These imperfections, formed during the rapid cooling of ceramics, become metaphors for the fragments of her own experiences that she incorporates into her work. By embedding deeply personal materials, such as shredded pages from her diaries, Harding aligns her artistic process with the philosophy of Raku: embracing what is imperfect, unpredictable, and profoundly human. The cracks and textures of the material resonate with the emotional weight of themes such as trauma, grief, love, and recovery. Just as Raku ceramics are valued for their flaws, Harding’s work finds worth in the messy, unresolved aspects of life, transforming them into forms that feel timeless yet deeply personal. Through her hands-on techniques and conceptual depth, Harding creates sculptures that ask us to reconsider how we define worth—whether in an object, a material, or ourselves. Her practice offers a powerful reminder that imperfection is not something to hide but something to celebrate, presenting the fragile and the vulnerable as sources of strength and beauty.
Degree: Fine Art
University: City and Guilds of London Art School
Graduation Year: 2024
Degree: Print MA
University: Royal College of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
Sean Pearl’s practice uses printmaking to explore the tension between historical reference and contemporary life, questioning how cultural motifs and everyday objects take on exaggerated significance. With recurring British imagery, such as Union Jacks and references to tea and café culture, Pearl’s work critiques the ways in which banality is elevated through design, nostalgia, and abstraction. Pearl’s approach to printmaking is as multifaceted as his concepts. He combines traditional methods such as etching, silkscreen, letterpress, and embossing with unconventional materials like coffee stains and burns. This experimental layering reflects his broader critique of historical processes, which he describes as “meticulous medieval regressiveness.” By repurposing these techniques, Pearl embraces their imperfections and unpredictability, allowing him to disrupt traditional notions of refinement and authenticity. Pearl has described objects like a mug with a tea bag tag as a “rudderless vessel,” suggesting a familiar object reimagined as something unanchored, floating in a sea of abstract meanings. This metaphor reflects his broader interest in how objects are used to evoke a sense of history or identity, even when their connection to origins has become detached or distorted. Through his inventive use of printmaking, Pearl examines how media borrows from history to frame contemporary life. His work highlights how reproduced imagery can serve as both unreliable markers of reality and magical approximations of daily life, blurring the line between authenticity and fabrication. By transforming the mundane into layered narratives, Pearl’s prints invite viewers to reflect on the ways cultural references are constructed, abstracted, and reimagined in modern contexts.
Degree: Fine Art
University: City and Guilds of London Art School
Graduation Year: 2024
Ted McKenzie (b.1999, United Kingdom) is an artist based in London, where he has been painting landscapes from direct observation since his graduation. His approach to painting is deeply rooted in the belief that nearly every scene he encounters holds the potential to be transformed into a work of art. For McKenzie, the act of painting begins with a literal translation of what he sees, exploring the subtle nuances between life and paint. He views this process as a form of transformation, where each brushstroke brings the subject into a new, emotive existence. Working in front of his subject in focused, singular sessions, McKenzie’s paintings are influenced by a variety of conditions, including the time available, his emotional connection to the subject, and most notably, the ever-changing specifics of light and weather. His works often surprise him with their thematic depth, emerging organically as a byproduct of his practice. Ultimately, McKenzie hopes that his paintings capture and clarify the unique emotions and beauty inherent in their subjects.
Degree: BA Fine Art
University: Leeds Arts University
Graduation Year: 2024
Abby Prior’s work brings the invisible systems of digital connectivity into focus, translating the boundless flow of information into geometric compositions that feel alive with movement and connection. Her practice explores the tension between the precision of digital processes and the imperfections introduced by human touch. Drawing from the iterative techniques of digital media—editing, distorting, and layering pixels—her paintings maintain a tactile and physical presence that anchors them in the material world. The sense of movement in Prior’s work emerges from the interplay of geometric shapes, patterns, and spatial relationships. Repeating forms and overlapping lines create rhythms that mimic the constant motion of information in digital systems, while shifting perspectives evoke an endless flow of connection, extending beyond the edges of the canvas. At the same time, Prior’s manual process introduces subtle imperfections—wavy edges, uneven layers, or visible brushstrokes—that disrupt the systematic precision of her compositions. These imperfections reflect the natural unpredictability of human involvement, grounding her work in the physical world while amplifying its sense of energy and complexity. Through her exploration of The Systems Within, Prior visualises the unseen networks that shape our lives, presenting patterns and structures that invite viewers to reflect on their relationship to technology. By engaging with the concept of the “post-digital,” she examines how technology has moved beyond novelty to become a fundamental, but often unseen, part of how we experience time, space, and communication. By transforming digital processes into physical works, Prior blurs the boundaries between digital and analogue, offering a layered commentary on the systems that underpin contemporary life. Her paintings capture the tension between the seamless and the imperfect, reminding us of the human presence within an increasingly interconnected world.
Degree: Fine Art
University: Arts University Bournemouth
Graduation Year: 2024
Thea Schultz’s work reimagines classical representations of women, reclaiming the autonomy of women who have been cast aside as passive muses. Drawing heavily from mythology, art history, and literature, Schultz creates paintings that elevate her subjects to positions of empowerment and agency. By referencing ancient Greek and Roman statues alongside the symbolic language of European art history, she presents women as active, divine figures inhabiting symbolic, multi-layered worlds. Her paintings engage in a thoughtful dialogue with works like Millais’s Ophelia. Where Ophelia, driven mad by grief, becomes a symbol of fragility and tragedy, Schultz transforms water and natural motifs such as lily pads into symbols of strength, refuge, and renewal. These elements are no longer sites of loss but spaces of empowerment, offering her subjects sanctuary and harmony with their surroundings. In doing so, Schultz subverts traditional narratives, replacing passivity with agency and despair with renewal. Schultz’s subjects radiate in golds and blues, evoking the divine and the contemplative. Through her process-led ink drawings and vivid, spontaneous applications of paint, she explores the transformative potential of these women, embedding them within environments that feel both timeless and relevant. Her work challenges viewers to reconsider the role of women in art history, offering an alternative vision that celebrates their power, autonomy, and connection to nature.
Degree: Sculpture
University: Edinburgh College of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
Christian Sloan’s sculptural practice examines the enduring impact of human activity, imagining the artefacts that might be uncovered in a post-apocalyptic future. Using materials like concrete, metal, glass, and plastic, Sloan creates monumental forms that reflect on the ecological consequences of industrialisation and climate change. Through these works, he challenges viewers to consider: What will remain of us? What story will our materials and structures tell future generations? Sloan’s sculptures evoke speculative futures shaped by environmental degradation or nuclear events, presenting objects that feel like relics of a world transformed by humanity’s excess. Drawing inspiration from architecture, pollution, and industry, he reimagines the monumental scale of contemporary structures as fragile remnants of an unsustainable civilisation. These works are beautifully crafted, their evocative forms carrying a sense of heartbreaking beauty as they contemplate both the destruction and resilience embedded in human history. His piece Debris, composed of plaster, plant fertiliser, recycled steel dust, and salt, exemplifies this approach. It reflects on how discarded materials and waste could form the building blocks of a future narrative. Similarly, his installations recontextualise spiritual practices, embedding ritualistic forms within his vision of a post-industrial world. Through his contemplative and politically charged practice, Sloan invites viewers to reflect on humanity’s environmental footprint and the potential legacy of our material choices. His work transforms industrial remnants into thought-provoking monuments, imagining the stories they might tell in a future shaped by both devastation and resilience.
Degree: BA Fine Art
University: Bath Spa University
Graduation Year: 2024
Xia Smith's work delves into the complex realm of dissociation and trauma, exploring how past experiences manifest physically in the body. Through a unique blend of fine art and tattoo culture, Smith creates a powerful visual language that speaks to the fragmented nature of memory and identity.
Degree: Fine Art
University: Cardiff Metropolitan University
Graduation Year: 2024
Aneira Thomas’s work draws attention to the intricate patterns and textures found in the natural world, celebrating details that are often overlooked. Her paintings focus on organic rhythms—such as the veins in leaves, the ripples of water, or the textures of bark—inviting viewers to engage with the quiet yet enduring beauty that shapes our environment. Thomas’s process is integral to her practice, encouraging a sense of slowness and reflection. By making her own paints and materials, she deepens her connection to the work, creating pieces that embody care and intentionality. Working with oil paints and distemper, she builds her surfaces through a careful layering process, allowing textures and repeated forms to emerge gradually. Her use of bold, vibrant colour emphasises these natural elements, while the interplay of pattern and texture mirrors the harmony and complexity of the natural world. Through this approach, Thomas transforms the familiar into something deeply resonant. By honing in on the intricate details of the everyday and embracing a process rooted in slowness and attention, her work inspires a renewed appreciation for the beauty and complexity of the natural world, offering a space for reflection and connection.
Degree: BA Fine Art
University: Duncan of Jordanstone Collage of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
Liberty Thompson, delves into the intimate and often overlooked spaces of domestic life, exploring the theme of separated parents through detailed studies of their living environments. In her latest series, "All My Love," Thompson captures the mundane yet emotionally charged details of her parents' separate homes. These paintings serve as autobiographical portraits, reflecting her unique position between two worlds. The title, inspired by identical phrases in birthday cards from both parents, underscores the shared affection amidst separation. Thompson's vibrant colour palette and soft brush strokes create ambient, sometimes voyeuristic compositions that evoke a dreamlike sense of nostalgia. Her work draws attention to the nuances of domestic life—furniture arrangements, fireplaces, and personal items—inviting viewers to reflect on their own familial experiences. Her approach resonates with the emotional depth found in Howard Hodgkin's abstract evocations of memory and the vibrant, place-focused work of Barbara Rae. Yet, Thompson's focus remains firmly on the internal landscapes of home, offering a poignant and introspective look at the impact of family dynamics on personal spaces. Through "All My Love," Liberty Thompson invites us to contemplate the complexities of family life and the emotional resonance of everyday surroundings, making her work a compelling addition to contemporary art discourse.
Degree: Fine Art
University: Bath Spa
Graduation Year: 2024
Maisy Timney’s paintings are animated by an intuitive energy, where layered marks and painterly gestures create a sense of rhythm and evolving depth. Her work feels grounded in the physicality of paint, celebrating its ability to capture movement and emotion. There’s an immediacy to her compositions—a raw, instinctive quality that draws the viewer into her process. Timney’s practice engages with the traditions of gestural abstraction, but her approach feels personal and exploratory, allowing the act of painting itself to guide the outcome. Each canvas offers a vibrant, open-ended dialogue between control and spontaneity
Kirti Virmani is a multi-disciplinary artist with a focus on photography, print making and ceramic forms. Her work aims to explores a dimension beyond the visual eye, a space of silence, rest and pause.
Degree: Sculpture
University: Edinburgh College of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
In a world grappling with overconsumption and waste, Justine Watt's sculptural practice stands as a powerful testament to the transformative potential of repurposed materials.
University: Edinburgh College of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
Alice Wheeler uses the lens to transport us into a realm reminiscent of fairy tale and myth. Inspired by the dramatic lighting of Italian churches and the hues of stained glass, her images depict visceral figures emerging from darkness.
Degree: MA Sculpture
University: RCA
Graduation Year: 2024
Weng-io (Yoyo) Wong, born in Macao during its transition from Portuguese to Chinese governance, creates works that explore both the personal - how individuals cope and connect - and the collective - how these dynamics shape societies as a whole. Through sculpture, installation, and video, she weaves together fragmented memories, mythology, and architectural elements rooted in her cultural heritage to reflect on how meaning shifts across cultures and time.
