Discover The Artists

Banksy is an iconic, yet elusive figure in the art world, known for his anonymous persona and thought-provoking street art.

He emerged from the Bristol underground scene in the 1990s and has turned graffiti into a global conversation piece. His signature stencil technique lets him whip up quick, impactful pieces on public walls, often mixing dark humour with sharp social commentary.

He has a knack for challenging the status quo. His art tackles themes like capitalism, war, and inequality and it’s often a wake-up call, wrapped in satire. 

He has turned street art from something seen as vandalism, into a celebrated and collectible form of contemporary art, all while keeping his identity under wraps.

A modern-day art vigilante, Banksy uses the world as his canvas, making sure we all stop and think.

He redefined what public space means in the context of art. Not just painting on walls, he is making a statement that art isn’t confined to galleries, or the elite. It's open to everyone.

Banksy’s genius lies not only in his imagery but in his timing. His works often appear in moments of social tension or political unrest, acting as a visual intervention that cuts through noise with clarity and wit. His art doesn’t just decorate, it disrupts, inviting viewers to pause, reflect, and engage with the world around them in a more critical way.

 “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

Damien Hirst is one of the original Young British Artists who shook up the art scene in the 1990s. He is known for his paintings, bold installations and sculptures.

He is known for pushing boundaries and for using very unexpected materials which always spark conversation.

His art plays around with themes of life, death and beauty:

Butterflies and blossom are a common theme in his work, symbolising the delicate beauty and fleeting nature of life. They represent transformation and that brief, fragile moment of beauty.

Skulls also feature a lot in his work as they are a powerful symbol of mortality and the impermanence of life... his way of making people reflect on the fragility of existence. It has become one of his iconic motifs that challenges us to confront the big questions about life and death.

The 'Spin' process of painting that often appears in his work represents the element of chance and randomness, exploring the idea that not everything in life is controlled or predictable.

"It's very easy to say, 'I could have done that' after someone's done it. But I did it. You didn't. It didn't exist until I did it".

David Hockney is a towering figure in the art world. A British artist whose influence spans painting, photography, printmaking and even digital art. He is best known as a leading light of the 1960s pop art movement and his works like 'A Bigger Splash' capture a certain cool modernity and a playful defiance of artistic rules.

Hockney's is a true innovator. He is never afraid to experiment, whether it is using the iPad as a canvas or creating vibrant portraits that feel both deeply personal and universally relatable. 

A true giant of the British art scene. He is not just a painter, he’s a trailblazer who has kept his work vibrant and relevant from the '60s all the way to the present day.

He is known for blending that classic pop art style with a very British flair, making art feel approachable, playful and modern. 

He really turns traditional ideas into something that feels inviting and a bit of a conversation starter. 

When you talk about Hockney, you are celebrating a living legend who has made art more accessible, more colourful and more human.

"I'm interested in all kinds of pictures, however they are made, with cameras, with paint brushes, with computers, with anything".

David Shrigley represents this wonderful intersection of humour and art. He often uses simple, almost childlike drawings to poke fun at the absurdities of everyday life.

His work invites people to see the world a bit more playfully and not take things too seriously.

He takes mundane or even slightly bizarre scenarios and turns them into something that makes you chuckle. His goal is to make art feel accessible and relatable to everyone and he is famous for punchy phrases that go along with his drawings. In essence, he is making a space where humour meets contemporary art.

 Shrigley uses simplicity to strip away pretension. His rough line drawings and offhand lettering create a sense of immediacy, making his work feel raw, honest, and unfiltered. 

  By rejecting polished technique, he invites everyone—regardless of art      education—to engage. It’s a quiet rebellion against elitism in      contemporary art.

  The childlike visuals contrast sharply with his dark humour and existential themes. That tension makes the absurdity of modern life pop.

 “I just try and make artworks that are good enough to show.”

Francis Bacon was one of the most distinctive and influential British painters of the 20th century. 

He's known for those raw, unsettling figurative images, often exploring themes of human vulnerability and existential angst.

His themes focused on the distortion of form and those deep, rich colours that really play with emotion.

He brought this intensity to contemporary British art that made people look at the human condition in a whole new light. 

What makes Bacon so compelling is his ability to fuse brutality with beauty. His canvases are charged with psychological tension, yet rendered with a painterly elegance that elevates anguish into something sublime.

Drawing inspiration from sources as varied as medical textbooks, film stills, and classical art, Bacon created a visual language that was both deeply personal and universally unsettling. His triptychs, in particular, offer a cinematic rhythm that challenge the viewer to confront mortality and meaning.

Bacon’s importance lies not only in his aesthetic innovations but in his fearless honesty. He painted what others dared not: the vulnerability beneath the surface, the chaos behind the façade. In doing so, he redefined portraiture for the 20th century, making it less about likeness and more about essence.

"If we are to achieve things never before accomplished we must employ methods never before attempted."

Takashi Murakami’s redefined what contemporary art could be; visually, culturally and commercially. He didn’t just blur the lines between high and low art, he bulldozed them with a neon smile!

He has been a pivotal figure in the art world since the 1990s, known for his 'Superflat' concept, he blended the traditional Japanese art, like Ukiyo-e woodblock prints and modern media such as anime and manga. It critiques the 'flattening' of culture, where distinctions between fine art, pop culture and consumerism collapse into one glossy surface.

His collaborations with brands like Louis Vuitton, Kanye West and Supreme challenged the idea that commercial art is inferior. His work lives on runways, album covers and gallery walls, proving that art can be both profitable and profound.

His deeper works, like 'The 500 Arhats' created after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake show his ability to channel collective grief and resilience through traditional Buddhist iconography and contemporary technique.

 Murakami holds a PhD in Nihonga (traditional Japanese painting) and his work is steeped in art history, philosophy and social critique.

"We want to see the newest things. That is because we want to see the future, even if only momentarily".

Keith Haring burst onto the art scene in the early 1980s with a visual language that was as immediate, as it was iconic. His bold lines, radiant babies, barking dogs, and dancing figures transformed New York’s subways and streets into living canvases.

Haring believed art should be democratic, accessible to everyone and not confined to galleries or elite circles. That ethos powered his meteoric rise and continues to define his legacy.

At the heart of Haring’s work is a deep sense of social engagement. He tackled urgent issues; AIDS awareness, apartheid, drug addiction, and LGBTQ+ rights, with a clarity and compassion that made his art a form of activism. His figures may be playful, but they pulse with urgency, inviting viewers to look closer and think deeper.

Haring’s ability to fuse joy with justice made him a singular voice in contemporary art.

Haring’s aesthetic was rooted in movement, both literal and cultural. Influenced by graffiti, hip-hop, and street culture, his work captured the rhythm of urban life, yet it also drew from ancient symbols and tribal motifs, creating a bridge between the primal and the modern. His lines were not just graphic, they were alive, dancing across walls, canvases, and even bodies.

"I don't think art is propaganda; it should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it." 

Tracey Emin occupies a singular place in contemporary art: raw, confessional, unfiltered, and utterly committed to turning lived experience into cultural truth. Emerging from the Young British Artists movement of the 1990s, she reshaped the boundaries of what art could be, folding autobiography, vulnerability and emotional candour into installations, neon works, drawings and textiles. Her practice is rooted in the belief that the personal is not only political but universal, and that honesty (especially uncomfortable honesty) can be a radical artistic act.

Emin’s importance lies in the way she redefined the relationship between artist and audience. Works such as 'Everyone I Have Ever Slept With' and 'My Bed' challenged traditional expectations of what constitutes serious art, forcing critics and institutions to confront the legitimacy of female experience, trauma, sexuality and memory as artistic subjects. 

She has brought a diaristic voice into the gallery space at a time when such openness was often dismissed or trivialised, and in doing so, she paved the way for a generation of artists exploring identity, mental health and the complexities of the self.

A vital figure in British culture, she has represented the UK at the Venice Biennale and has held major exhibitions at institutions, worldwide. Her trajectory demonstrates that vulnerability can coexist with mastery and that emotional truth can be as powerful as technical precision.

Today, Emin stands as an artist who transformed confession into a form of resistance, and who continues to shape conversations around womanhood, desire, grief and resilience. Her work resonates because it is fearless, deeply human and impossible to ignore, qualities that ensure her lasting significance in the global art world.

 "What's really good about the word 'art', is that 'art' is a word like 'love,' or 'god,' or whatever. It transcends so many things."