Olivia Fry (b.1992, United States) Olivia Fry is a painter and interdisciplinary artist whose figurative works confront themes of loss, vulnerability, and the raw edges of lived experience. Their paintings are charged with intensity, often balancing dark emotional undercurrents with moments of stark tenderness. Fry’s imagery draws from observation and memory, collapsing intimate realities into psychologically dense compositions that feel both deeply personal and universally resonant. Fry’s practice is transatlantic in scope: they exhibited widely across the Pacific Northwest and completed a residency in Brooklyn, New York before relocating to London.

 Kyle Cottier (b. Louisville, KY 1993) is a visual artist based in Knoxville, Tennessee. Their interdisciplinary practice merges traditional basketry and woodworking techniques with sculpture, installation, and photography. Through immersive installations, Cottier explores intersections of the natural, constructed, and digital worlds, with a focus on transformation, repair, and survival in contemporary culture. Cottier holds an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. They attended the New York Studio Residency Program in Brooklyn and have been an Artist-in-Residence at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts in the Smoky Mountains and Stove Works in Chattanooga, Tennessee.​Their work has been exhibited nationally, including Vessel: Embodiment, Autonomy, and Ornament in Wood at The Museum for Art in Wood, Modular at Manifest Gallery, and Transformation: Contemporary Works in Wood at Contemporary Craft. Cottier has received recognition from the International Sculpture Center, including the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, and their work has been featured in Sculpture Magazine. They are a recent recipient of a CERF+ Get Ready Grant and have previously completed a body of work supported by Tri-Star Arts’ Current Art Fund Project Grant.

Rain is a visual artist and researcher who lives and works between London and Newcastle. They graduated with a degree in Sculpture from Camberwell University of the Arts in London in 2013. They also hold an MA in Fine Art (2018) and an MA in Queer History (2021) from Goldsmiths, University of London. They are a final-year PhD candidate funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) within the Performance Cultures and Contemporary Art Research clusters at Northumbria University. Rain has exhibited their work extensively across the UK and Europe. In 2013, they exhibited their undergraduate degree show exhibition as part of Saatchi's New Sensations Award. They received the 2018/2019 Goldsmiths and Acme Studio award, supported by Jane Hamlyn. Their work has been featured in various creative outlets, including "Fleisch," a book celebrating queer artists (Germany, 2019). As a researcher, Rain contributed to "Queer Pandemic," a video-based oral history project that captured stories of LGBTQI+ people in the UK during the pandemic, which was later exhibited at Queer Britain 2022. In addition to their creative work, Rain is a passionate advocate for LGBTQI+ rights and regularly works as an advisor and independent writer championing inclusivity. They are also an associate lecturer on the BA (Fine Art) Sculpture Degree at Camberwell University of the Arts in London.

For the past decade, Hautala has studied self-taught and visionary artists, underground comix, and museum collections to understand how symbols carry meaning across time and cultures. His work investigates consumption, digital culture, and the tension between the handmade and the mechanical, explored through printmaking, carving, and functional objects

My practice sits in the quiet middle ground where things are made, unmade, and sometimes held together by the faintest thread. I work with mycelium as a way of thinking through loosened structures. Decentralized forms, soft ruptures, and the slow work of repair guide me far more than any fixed category of art or design

Birds migrate thousands of miles into the unknown together, trusting there are better conditions ahead. When I stand on the shore of Lake Michigan and the only other people around me are birds, I learn that my animal body has this same instinctual wisdom. So I draw with curiosity, rather than control. Like my body knows what to do…..

Tania Pourashraf is an emerging artist and recent Fine Art graduate from Kingston University. Deeply influenced by her personal experiences of living in Iran under a restrictive regime and the people closest to her, Pourashraf transforms these traumas into powerful artistic expressions. Her multifaceted work spans drawings, performance, sound, and recently, poetry, now that she has the freedom to. Her art serves as a voice for the oppressed, highlighting the brutal reality faced by those struggling under the dictatorship in Iran….

Saniya Farooq, a visual artist from Pakistan, currently based in the UK. Completed her Masters in Fine Arts, with a Distinction from UCA. She is a painter with a multidisciplinary approach, and explores the dynamic interplay of traces, motion, and subjective perceptions. She is interested in the transformative process, repurposing of surfaces and distorting the familiar; creating a point where the seen and suggested converge. Statement Her ongoing series of work "Transception" is an exploration of how static forms can embody movement through the layering of surface, material, and subjective experience within the field of painting….

My occupation as a gardener is heavily influencing my current work. I am often engaged in the meditative process of collecting sticks, rocks, and leaves which is reflected in the little bits of fabric that I collect and compose to form pictorial spaces. I employ the imagery of windows and fences in my paintings as frames for overgrown plants escaping and reclaiming their environments. The question of viewership is also addressed as we can peer through frames and windows, and occasionally the paintings and the natural world seem to perceive us back. The bones, stones, and seeds that comprise a natural environment can be combined into something greater than the sum of their parts. They contain many lives and possibilities and their appreciation often depends on the empty space between them. The negative space in my paintings gives the impression of a mosaic or stained glass windows but also of a forest canopy, the shattering of rocks, and the magical intermixing of all of nature’s elements….

I am a Pakistani-Canadian artist born in Milton, Ontario. I now reside in Vancouver, British Columbia. I have recently completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. I am currently pursuing my Master of Fine Arts at Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. My art reflects my interest in humanity’s intangible thoughts and feelings. In my practice, I explore elements of abstraction through painting, drawing, and mixed media collage. Abstraction is a style that I think is very important, as it challenges the notion that representational artwork is the peak of art. Unfortunately, the general public sees this type of work as the most impressive, and this leads to the perception that all modern art is bad. I want to challenge the misconception that abstraction is pointless, and encourage people to give it a second chance. Colour, line, and shape are the most prominent aspects of my work, and I often get told that my art is simplistic. However, I believe it is beneficial to learn to appreciate the conceptual aspects of an artwork over its technical qualities….

 I’m Luca, a London based visual artist working with painting and mixed media through movement and somatics. I make large scale paintings and site specific installations. My practices range from fine art to textile art and performance. I was always curious of the merge between different disciplines and mediums in connection to the human body.

Bryn McConnell is a visual artist whose work spans mixed-media collage, textile creations, and abstract painting, often incorporating and transforming found objects. With a keen eye for pattern recognition and material composition, Bryn constructs visually layered artwork that weaves relationships between seemingly disparate elements….