A new generation of artists in London is capturing the attention of the capital's top collectors, with figures such as Corbin Shaw, Tom Hardwick Allan, and Hettie Inniss among those making waves. Their practices range from traditional crafts and expanded printmaking to painting, sculpture, and performance, reflecting a diverse and dynamic art scene.
Artists on the London scene
Many of these artists express a complex relationship with the city. Corbin Shaw, 28, from East London, works in traditional crafts to make sense of modern English life. He notes that artists in London often get pigeonholed into rigid categories, but he wants his work to feel like a visit to the British Museum, not to be easily summed up.
Tom Hardwick Allan, 30, also from East London, has a background in printmaking but now moves into sculptural territory with carved and cast reliefs. He explores the phenomenon of imprinting, where a newly born animal comes to know itself. He finds the capital's privatisation of time and space deadening, though many amazing things survive despite it.
Okiki Akinfe, 27, uses a 'black lens' to question what is deemed important in history, contrasting traditionalist painting with cartoon imagery and hip hop references. She is particularly interested in black Britishness and hopes her work opens people's minds.
Diverse practices and perspectives
Ella Fleck, 33, from Holloway, works undercover, pretending to be men online in sexual or seduction communities. For Frieze, she took a course for men training to be 'chatters' for female OnlyFans creators, using the alias Elliot. She creates sensory installations with sound, scent, and vibration to replicate those experiences.
Marcus Jefferson, in his mid-thirties, is an anonymous artist who keeps his work domestic and accessible, aiming to interest people from low-income and social housing backgrounds in galleries. Amanda Moström, 35, from Brockley and Albo, is a multidisciplinary artist working with silent choreography and movement-orientated installation, hoping viewers feel welcome and not alienated.
Lewis Hammond, 38, from south-east London, paints figuratively in a traditional manner, often with something slightly askew. Ella Lynch, 33, from Tottenham, makes sculptures using pop iconography and found objects, drawing from her network in the nightlife scene.
Collaborations and residencies
Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings, both 35, work as a collaborative duo in fresco and egg tempera painting, subverting historical structures. Alex Margo Arden, 32, from Croydon, works in research projects across sculpture, performance, and installation, hoping to spark conversations. Mia Wilkinson, 35, from east London, paints figures in a domestic sphere, using humour to address difficult topics.
Ella Turner-Bridger, 28, from Bloomsbury, moved from film to performance art, describing her work as therapeutic and ritualistic. Rene Matić, 29, from south-east London, is concerned with organising images and the modes of care from the margins. George Rouy, 32, from Kent, is predominantly a figurative painter, also working on a dance project with choreographer Sharon Eyal. Hettie Inniss, 26, from Whitechapel, uses painting to liberate herself from identity, examining memory and intuition.
Several of these artists are showing at Frieze, including Akinfe at Ginny on Frederick's booth, Fleck at Ehrlich Steinberg, Moström at Rose Easton, and Quinlan and Hastings at Arcadia Missa. Others have exhibitions and residencies across London and beyond, such as Lynch at Selfridges, Wilkinson at art'otel Hoxton, and Rouy at Hauser & Wirth in New York.
