Sarah Lucas
Sarah Lucas (b. 1962, London) has over the course of the last three decades become recognised as one of Britain’s most significant contemporary artists. The body, in its many guises, is Lucas’s prevailing subject. Spanning sculpture, photography and installation, her work has consistently been characterised by irreverent humour and the use of everyday ‘readymade' objects to conjure up corporeal fragments.
She has exhibited internationally, with major solo exhibitions including most recently at National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2021); New Museum, New York (2018, touring to Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2019) and recently curated the group exhibition BIG WOMEN at Firstsite, Colchester (2023). This Autumn, Lucas presents a major career-spanning exhibition Happy Gas, at Tate Britain, London.
Emma Edmondson
Emma Edmondson is an artist from Southend-on-Sea. She studied and graduated during the 2008 financial crash so alternative economies, precarity and utopian community are at the centre of her research. She works with sculpture, print, text and education and is interested in how recessions and austerity shape how we survive creatively.
In 2016 she set up TOMA an accessible artist-run education model which is currently the only postgrad-ish level art programme in Essex. It was set up in response to the rise of tuition fees and the commodification of education. She has shown her work in spaces around the UK and been awarded commissions from Focal Point Gallery, AHRC, Metal and Artquest. She teaches art in community spaces, schools and universities to support her practice, often on precarious contracts.
Ellie Pennick
Director and Founder of Guts Gallery, Ellie Pennick is one of the youngest gallerists navigating the art world today. As a working-class, queer Northerner with no art background, Pennick's footing in the art world started with their frustrations at the lack of meaningful opportunities for people like them. After being unable to accept a place at a renowned institution due to their financial status, Pennick began to question the wider, social austerity within the arts. They launched Guts to create a fair art-business model (which has "far more importance to them than a piece of paper with a Masters grade on it") and to champion emerging artists. They made it their mission to help artists demand the respect - and ownership - they deserve.
Pallas Citroen
Pallas Citroen is an artist whose practice is split between sculpture and painting. She is the Founder and Director of The Bomb Factory Art Foundation (BFAF), which was established in 2015 with the aim of creating a new, inclusive type of studio model. Since then, BFAF has expanded from its original site in Archway to 5 Central London locations; supporting over 140 artists with affordable studio spaces, an extensive exhibition programme and free residency and education opportunities for young people.
