Introducing our Artists in Residence // 2023

Introducing our 2023 artists in residence! We are so excited to introduce the 2023 intake to our artist residency programme.

Each artist will spend a month in our studios, with free use of our screenprinting studios and facilities and dedicated support from our technicians and curatorial team. The culmination of the residency month will be the launch of a new collection of artwork in the online gallery!

We are so excited to to introduce you to this incredibly talented bunch of artists, and we can’t wait to see what they create in the studios. Follow us on Instagram @printclublondon to see their progress.

Valeska Hykel is a painter and printmaker based in Bristol. Her work is an ongoing dialogue between these two practices. Painting directly onto the screen’s mesh she creates monotypes that toy with the boundaries of painting within print. In these works, she embraces the hand of the artist — through expressive brushwork, visible pencil from drawing on the screen and allowing the scars of the process (for example, the textual components of canvas or screen-bed) to add to their narrative. Going beyond the first pull of the monotype, she often finds the finished work in the ghost print. The resulting works, with their muted colour palettes, degradation of image and echoes of the proceeding pull, are haunted versions of the originals, ingrained with their textures and history.

Valeska was awarded the Rebecca Smith Prize for Printmaking. In 2022 she was selected as a ‘Top Pick’ from the Curated Hang by the directors of Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair.

Jemima Sara is a multi-disciplinary artist addressing self-expression and aspects of mental health.  Her approach to drawing is enriched by a background in puppetry and plays on the fluidity of everyday life.

Merging diaristic texts with the figurative, her practice derives from the ‘nitty gritty’ and day-to-day. Predominantly word and image, these pieces mostly need little explanation as they are, to some extent self-identifying. In recognition, the viewer is invited to question their response and positionally if they desire.

A form of personal outpouring, her illustrative journals are suggestive of wider experiences within both private and public spheres. Scraps of humour provide some relief from the discomfort or awkwardness they may impose.

Tongue-in-cheek and ironic, the gestural mark-making relentlessly deconstructs our constant search for perfection. Jemima tests ways of representing illusions and the mutability of human nature using resonant statements, through her story telling, frank views of the world are captured and articulated.

Led by notions of the ‘political-personal’, the witty and satirical drawings narrate stories of identity, self-observations, mental health, meme culture, graffiti and social media. In reflecting, confessing and revealing the struggles of daily life, they ignite conversation as a form of self-therapy or so called-catharsis.

Kate Mary is a Glasgow-based artist and designer working predominantly with Oil Pastels and Acrylic. She completed her honours degree in Interior Design at the Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 2019.

Kate’s practice is largely 2D drawings and paintings. These are detailed, idealised representations of places; collaged together to form immersive and calming visions of escapism. They are influenced by memories of local and far-flung journeys she makes, and the architecture, light, and pattern within them. Kate’s work explores and responds to our built environment, capturing moments of intrigue in order to create intimate and otherworldly scenes.

Kate is the 2022 winner of the Delphian Gallery Open Call for both residency and group exhibition. She has recently exhibited with Auction Collective ‘The Beat Goes On’ London Design Festival with Heals ‘Lockdown Art’, Delphian and Murus. She has been featured in Wrap Magazine, Architectural Digest France, the Sunday Times and Reclaim.

Sonofafox is Brian Giles, an Irish Printmaker and Graphic Designer based in Dublin. Through the process of Screen Printing, he loves to experiment with graphic abstract textures and strong colour combinations. Often combining these two elements to produce bold and colourful artworks.

Xander Coy is a British painter and collagist. Heavily influenced by the imagery of Pop Art, Collage and Surrealism he draws on a variety of visuals for his own work, ranging from vintage 1950’s posters to modern day cartoons.

Drawn to collage because of the boundless creative possibilities it has to offer Xander juxtaposes seemingly disparate images and forms to create a narrative. Narratives of escapism, yearning, vulnerability and transience are often the result.

Xander is fascinated with semiotics – how meaning is created and how meaning is communicated is often at the forefront of his thoughts when creating work. Signs and symbols regularly appear often slightly altered or recontextualised to give a different meaning. In the same way a kid might draw a smiley face over a picture of a circled sun or a moustache over a face Xander displays the same playful approach of reinventing familiar images in his work.

Working on canvas and paper as well as on the streets each image he creates is brimming with contrasting colour, pattern, scale, light and shade. Regularly using a hot or cold palette (or occasionally both), surprising harmonies are generated through vibrant chromatic extremes. Colour is king – a realm of constant pleasure.

Having studied drawing and painting at the Slade School of Art, Xander has shown his work at a number of galleries across the UK including Jealous Gallery and Saatchi Gallery. Working from his hometown London, Xander continues to exhibit across the UK and beyond.

Milenko Stevanović is a painter and printmaker from Serbia, currently residing in Cyprus. He graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, Serbia; and completed postgraduate studies in Fine Arts at the Oil Painting Department of the Tokyo University of the Arts in Japan.

Through the practice of direct observation, his work examines the formal aspects of the language of representational art, exploring themes of human form and interactions in an urban environment. Moving between the media of painting, drawing and printmaking, Milenko uses the limitations and aesthetic qualities inherent to each different process to further his ideas of form and composition.

Milenko has exhibited his work internationally with solo exhibitions in Serbia, Japan and Cyprus.

He has taken part in curated and juried exhibitions, most recently the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and the Royal Watercolour Society in London.

We are not currently taking applications for our artist residency, but if you are interested in a future residency then please send your CV and a small pdf of your work to info@printclublondon.com with a covering letter and we will save down your application for the next review. Please note that all residency spots for 2023 have been filled, so this would not be until the end of the year at the earliest.