Top 10 Artists 2023

As we approach the end of the year I will share with you my favourite artists of the year, some I have discovered, some met, or some I have worked with.

Richard Nattoo (b. 1993, Spanish Town, Jamaica) studied Architecture at the University of Technology, Kingston, JA, and has participated in several premier exhibitions at the National Gallery of Jamaica, in addition to international solo and group shows in the UK and Ireland. His latest body of work explores the transition from childhood to adulthood and forgotten majic, in a Westernized society.
@djsinista1
Yvadney Davis (b.1981, UK) is a London-based portrait artist championing her British Caribbean experience. Davis' work is inspired by the connection of nostalgia and joy between the Windrush Generation of Caribbean post-war immigrants to the UK and its descendants.
@yvadneydavisart
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Alain Joséphine (b. Fort de France, Martinique) studied at the School of Fine Arts and Decorative Arts in Bordeaux.Poetry first drew him to look at landscapes during his childhood. Painting came at a later stage but landscapes were still his main subject matter. Living and working in the Caribbean is a constant confrontation to an untamed and indomitable vegetation, a recurrent theme in his paintings. Joséphine paints colourful contrasts of sky and soil of his country, an architecture of tropical natural spaces.
@alainjosephineartist
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Xavier Leopold (b.1992, Sierra Leone) is a self-taught artist who explores abstract portraiture and cubism through concepts such a time, introspection, faith, relationships and legacy. Leopold depicts bold characters focusing back on the audience – an arresting way to convey direct emotions from the artist to the viewer.
@byxaviart
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Lee-Roy Zozo (b.1996, UK) is a visual artist who navigates between France, Guadeloupe, and the UK.Lee-Roy Zozo has a great fascination for wood, which he uses as his main medium. From carving, burning, and painting on it, the material goes through a series of transformations to create captivating and beautiful figurative and abstract paintings.
@leeroy.zozo
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Shumaiya Khan (b. 1990, UK) is a self-taught artist, and writer born to a British Bengali family. Khan produces contemporary abstract expressionist works using oil, acrylic, charcoal, chalk, and poetry across canvas and paper. Pigment is worked and layered into pieces over a series of days or weeks. Different viscosities of pigment are considered, adding dimension and rich texture into the vast worlds, solar systems, and oceans she creates.
@____shumii
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Roisin Jones is a multidisciplinary artist who combines photography, sculpture, poetry, and performance to explore identity, racial injustice, and the histories of the Caribbean diaspora. Her work captures the unique experiences of young black people, while her ongoing projects delve into themes such as isolation and grief. Drawing inspiration from folklore, Afro-futurism, black feminist ideologies, and intersectionality, Jones challenges norms and pushes boundaries, creating spaces where audiences can critically engage with stories that have long been marginalised in history.
@iam_roisin
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Kudzanai-Violet Hwami (b1993, Zimbabwe) is a painter whose work reveals a deeply personal vision of Southern African life. Drawing on her experiences of geographical dislocation and displacement, her paintings combine visual fragments from a myriad of sources such as online images and personal photographs, which collapse past and present.
@mwana.wevhu
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Isaac Julien (b,1960 UK) is a filmmaker and installation artist. His work breaks down the barriers between different artistic disciplines, drawing from and commenting on film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting, and sculpture, and uniting them to construct powerful visual narratives through multi-screen film installations.
@isaacjulien
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Raymond Fuyana’s (b. 1995, Zimbabwe. Lives and work in South Africa) is a self-taught painter who employs his own personal colour coding, and drawing on his belief in the power of science, technology and gaming, As a deaf person, Fuyana’s experience of the world is charged by how meaning is conveyed through visuals.
@raymond_fuyana