Art News: Top 10 Emerging British Artists of 2026

It has been a crowded year for young British art. New Contemporaries, the annual exhibition of artists just out of art school, brought 26 artists to the South London Gallery in the spring and then to MIMA in Middlesbrough. The Turner Prize exhibition opened at MIMA on 26 September, and the winner is announced on 10 December. And British Art Show 10, A Chorus of Strangers, curated by Ekow Eshun, opened in Coventry on 2 October, the first stop on a tour that goes on to Swansea, Bristol, Sheffield and Newcastle Gateshead.

This is our choice of ten emerging contemporary British artists, picked for what they showed and made in 2026 rather than for prices. All were born or trained in Britain, and eight of the ten were born in 1991 or later. For the generation that came before them, see the British artists who defined the 1990s.

The South London Gallery and Camberwell College of Arts on Peckham Road, February 2013. New Contemporaries 2026 opened at the gallery in January. Photo: Reading Tom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

1. Okiki Akinfe

Okiki Akinfe, born in London in 1999, had the breakthrough of the year. During Frieze London in October she won the first Dasha Shenkman Focus Fund, a £30,000 award from the Contemporary Art Society, for Fame is a Gun, a painting shown with a lightbox and a preparatory drawing by her gallery, Ginny on Frederick. The three works go into the collection of Abbot Hall in Kendal.

Akinfe trained at the Royal Drawing School, the Slade and the Royal College of Art, where she finished her MA in painting in 2023. Over the summer Peer in east London gave her a solo exhibition of large oil paintings and lightboxes, RM9 5AN, from 23 May to 8 August, and she is one of the artists in British Art Show 10.

2. Tanoa Sasraku

Tanoa Sasraku, born in Plymouth in 1995, lives in Glasgow, where she teaches printmaking at Glasgow School of Art. She is one of the four artists shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2026, nominated for Morale Patch at the ICA in London, an exhibition of sculptures, works on paper and film about the political and military histories of oil.

She studied at Goldsmiths and then at the Royal Academy Schools, which she finished in 2024, and is represented by Vardaxoglou. Her work is in the Turner Prize exhibition at MIMA until 29 March 2027. The winner receives £25,000 and each of the other three £10,000; our Turner Prize 2026 guide has the full shortlist.

3. Kira Freije

Kira Freije, born in London in 1985, is also on the Turner Prize shortlist, for Unspeak the Chorus, her first major solo exhibition, at The Hepworth Wakefield. Her figures are made from aluminium, steel, blown glass and fabric.

She is represented by The Approach in London. Alongside the Turner Prize show, she has a solo exhibition in Berlin, Between Sunlight, curated by Laura Smith, in the Maschinenhaus M1 at KINDL, the centre for contemporary art in a former brewery in Neukölln, until 21 February 2027.

4. Ally Fallon

Ally Fallon, born in London in 1998 and based in Manchester, became the youngest winner of the John Moores Painting Prize, at 27, when the 2025 prize went to If You Were Certain, What Would You Do Then? The prize carries £25,000 and a solo exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, which followed in 2026.

Fallon trained at Manchester School of Art and then at the Apollo Painting School in 2024, joined the gallery Hales, and had a solo show there, at the still point of the turning world, from 4 June to 17 July.

The Walker Art Gallery on William Brown Street, Liverpool, home of the John Moores Painting Prize, October 2009. Photo: Rept0n1x, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

5. Louise Giovanelli

Louise Giovanelli, born in London in 1993 and working in Manchester, is best known for glowing paintings of stage curtains, and the year opened with one in the street. Decades, a curtain image commissioned by Create London, covered the front of St Mary le Strand from 19 November 2025 to 18 January 2026. A Song of Ascents followed at the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich until March, then From Here to Here to Here at the Grundy in Blackpool, from 28 March to 28 June.

Giovanelli trained at Manchester School of Art and the Städelschule in Frankfurt, runs the Apollo Painting School, was one of the three selectors of New Contemporaries 2026, and is in British Art Show 10. White Cube and GRIMM represent the work, and White Cube has an exhibition at Mason's Yard in London from 20 November to 16 January 2027.

6. Shaqúelle Whyte

Shaqúelle Whyte, born in Wolverhampton in 2000, came home this year for his first institutional solo exhibition. Shattered Dreams, at Wolverhampton Art Gallery from 18 April to 31 August, brought together six large paintings made between 2023 and 2026, and the gallery acquired one of them, Blackbirds Singing in the Dead of Night (2025), for its collection.

Whyte graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2023. White Cube gave him a solo exhibition in Hong Kong this year, and in London Pippy Houldsworth showed I dwell in Possibility from 17 July to 28 August.

7. Somaya Critchlow

Somaya Critchlow, born in London in 1993, makes small, highly finished paintings of women that borrow the poses and polish of Old Master portraits. In 2025 Dulwich Picture Gallery, England's first purpose-built public art gallery, gave Critchlow a first solo exhibition at a UK public institution, The Chamber.

Pastels is at Maximillian William in London until 14 November. Critchlow studied at the University of Brighton and the Royal Drawing School, and the work is already in collections including the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Sainsbury Centre and the Arts Council Collection.

8. Kudzanai-Violet Hwami

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, born in Gutu in Zimbabwe in 1993 and based in London, had her first solo exhibition in the Netherlands, They have always been here, at the Kunsthal Rotterdam until 12 April. It included her first bronzes. Her paintings were also in When We See Us, the touring survey of a century of Black figurative painting first shown at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, at Liljevalchs in Stockholm until 30 August.

Hwami showed in Zimbabwe's pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2019, is represented by Victoria Miro, and is one of the artists in British Art Show 10.

9. Christina Kimeze

Roller skating runs through Christina Kimeze's paintings. Kimeze, born in London in 1986, built Between Wood and Wheel, a first UK solo exhibition at the South London Gallery in 2025, around it, and Hauser & Wirth showed Long loops in Los Angeles the same year.

Kimeze studied at the Royal Drawing School, won the Sir Denis Mahon Award in 2022, and in 2026 is one of the artists chosen for British Art Show 10.

10. Rachel Jones

Rachel Jones, born in London in 1991, works in oil pastel and oil stick, in dense, saturated layers of colour. STRUCK, the Courtauld's commission for its entrance and ticketing halls at Somerset House, was unveiled in September 2025 and stayed on view until 27 August 2026, and Dulwich Picture Gallery showed Gated Canyons in 2025.

Jones trained at Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools and is represented by Thaddaeus Ropac.

Where to see them this winter

• Turner Prize 2026, MIMA, Middlesbrough, until 29 March 2027: Tanoa Sasraku and Kira Freije, with Simeon Barclay and Marguerite Humeau. The winner is announced on 10 December.
• British Art Show 10, Coventry, until 10 January 2027: Okiki Akinfe, Louise Giovanelli, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami and Christina Kimeze among the artists. The tour then goes to Swansea, and to Spike Island in Bristol from 19 June to 19 September 2027.
• Somaya Critchlow, Pastels, Maximillian William, London, until 14 November.
• Louise Giovanelli, White Cube Mason's Yard, London, 20 November to 16 January 2027.
• Kira Freije, Between Sunlight, KINDL, Berlin, until 21 February 2027.

Owning work by these artists

Most of these artists sell through one or two galleries, and work by young artists often comes with conditions. Some gallery invoices include a resale restriction or a right of first refusal, so read the paperwork before offering a work anywhere else. When a work by a living artist is resold through the art market, the Artist's Resale Right also gives the artist a small royalty, which is worth allowing for. Keep the invoice, the date of purchase and any correspondence with the gallery with the work. Our A to Z of artists covers the painters, sculptors and photographers we handle.

If you own a work by one of these artists and are thinking of selling, send us photographs for a free valuation. There is no obligation to sell, and we act for you rather than for the saleroom.

Cover: The Hepworth Wakefield on the River Calder, where Kira Freije's Unspeak the Chorus was shown, May 2024. Photo: Mtaylor848, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.