Artist highlight
Artist highlight
Top 10 Editorial | Stacie McCormick
Sanne Vaassen, Lost in Translation, 2021. Ashes from burnt dictionaries, various dimensions. Image taken from the artist's website
A spotlight on the top 10 next gen artists from those that know. This week's Top 10 comes from London-based abstract painter and cultural leader Stacie McCormick.
Image Credit: @stacie_art
Stacie McCormick
Stacie McCormick’s work explores awe, endurance, and the monumental evidence of time, creating immersive fields of gesture that hold both vulnerability and strength. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in collections around the world.
Alongside her studio practice, she is the founder of Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop, where she has developed residency programmes and non-profit initiatives supporting over 600 artists and curators with the essential conditions of space and time. In its 10 years, the space has hosted 24 coveted solo residents as well as 80 artists in the Radical Residency®. All have worked intensively in shared studio environments designed to foster rigour, dialogue, and sustained focus.
Working as both practitioner and founder, McCormick builds structures she also inhabits, positioning herself alongside artists rather than above them, committed to strengthening the ecosystem from within.
She served as Chair of the a-n Artists Information Company for three and a half years and is the founder of Fair Art Fair, a digital platform advocating for a more transparent, artist-centred art economy.
Her work and leadership are united by a single principle: that serious artistic practice requires belief, infrastructure, and time.
https://staciemccormickstudio.com/
Multidisciplinary artist Ubada Muti and Chinese-Canadian artist Jia Xi Li.
Ubada Muti (b. 1993) is a multicultural, multidisciplinary artist; currently living in Istanbul. His artistic practice is characterised by its elusive nature, constantly evolving and defying categorization. His work often involves collaboration with others, including friends, colleagues, former classmates, and children, resulting in layered and multifaceted pieces. The main themes explored in his art include the concepts of conversation, learning, questioning, and the accumulation of shared experiences.
“Ubada is an exceptional mind and approached the residency with a creative and intellectual rigour that challenged us all - from re-writing out T&C's to inviting dozens of fellow artists to collaborate and working side by side with my young daughter (an abiding friendship to this day) Ubada breaks the mould and whilst makes 'beautiful work' he is a living embodiment of life as a constant expression - all experience and time equivocate to his output and it is ephemeral, lyrical, physical, poetic and sometimes downright frustrating…”
Right image: Ubada Muti, A Yellow Frame and a Star - (10008~10013), 2025. Acrylic, gouache, marker, ink and graphite on paper. Double sided, 24cm x 18cm.
Jia Xi Li (b. 1997) is a Chinese-Canadian artist based in London, working across sculpture, wall pieces, and installation, with a focus on experimental knitted textile forms. She studied at Parsons School of Design in New York and later completed an MA at the Royal College of Art. Her practice centres on memory, emotion, and the idea of “home,” particularly from the perspective of a contemporary, mobile life. Using fibre materials, she creates sculptural works that solidify knitted forms into fragile yet structured objects, each piece acting as an archive of personal and sensory memory.
“Jiaxi Li China, a textile sculptor that invented a way of weaving polyester material that she then utilises to shape her works that are comical and lyrically echo the history of art as well as commercial objects - Jiaxi Li is fascinated by the human relationship to objects and the depth of humanity reflected within them. The objects instantly allow us to question the environments we inhabit and that which we surround ourselves with and this extends to the virtual realities she also creates.”
Left image: Jia Xi Li, Kettlist 01, 2023. Knitted textile and PLA, 85 x 85 x 166 cm. Image taken from the artist’s website.
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Maastricht based artist Sanne Vaassen and Athens based artist Nemo Nonnenmacher.
Sanne Vaassen (b. 1991, Heerlen) lives and works in Maastricht. She graduated from the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design in 2013, and her work has been exhibited internationally, including in Maastricht, Eindhoven, Tilburg, Dubai, New York, and London. Vaassen’s practice is rooted in a fascination with continuous transformation. She observes how both natural and cultural environments are in constant flux: seasons shift, plants grow, and landscapes evolve, while societal structures—laws, traditions, and language—are continually redefined. Her work seeks to capture and question these processes, highlighting the ways in which nature and culture increasingly overlap and influence one another.
“I am so grateful to have had 3+ months with Sanne here in the gallery/studio. Her work is remarkable, instinctive, poetic and localised – of the works she manifested in the time with us, it is hard to choose a favourite. Dismantling the EU flag and giving the threads to several UK weavers – we then exhibited the new ‘flags’. Sanne also was gripped by the Victorian dictionary of plants and transcribed a local park/gardens into poems – utilising the same dictionary, she then reversed and transcribed the speeches and distilled a perfume from Donald Trump’s Inauguration, Theresa May’s Resignation, and Jair Bolsonaro’s Inauguração. Just after completing her residency with us, she received the Mondriaan Prize.”
Right Image: Sanne Vaassen, Flags, 2016. Textile, variable dimensions. Image taken from the artist's website.
Nemo Nonnenmacher – based in Athens, working between the UK, Germany, and Greece. Nemo works across diverse media, including laser-cut wood, chromogenic prints, and fibreboard engravings. His practice explores technology in contemporary life through smooth textures, floating curves, and blurred forms. By combining photography, objects, and virtual reality, he examines the interplay between the corporeal and the virtual, and how presence is articulated by both humans and machines. His work invites a sense of curiosity and wonder—grounded in materiality yet drawn towards the ethereal—creating experiences that are intimate, uncanny, and thought-provoking.
“What can I say about Nemo Nonnenmacher? As a Radical Resident®, he challenged himself with new media and created an incredible body of work. Nemo has a broad spectrum of expertise, and his integrity of delivery reflects a deep sense of perfectionism, balanced by humour and pathos. His printmaking is dynamic and conjures entire worlds; his sculpture is wildly impressive; and his mastery of VR and digital media is remarkable. I’ve had the great fortune to meet him, work with him, and collaborate on two duo exhibitions, as well as spend years working together in the gallery and remotely. I admire and adore him, and I’m incredibly proud to know him. I’m also thrilled that he will soon be opening his own initiative in Athens. I hope that some of our shared experiences have, in some way, contributed to the confidence he and his partner Holly have shown in embarking on this journey of residencies and exhibitions. Be sure to follow their progress—you can count on seeing me at the opening!”
Left Image: Nemo Nonnenmacher, Gelbe Knospen (Transkript) / Yellow Buds (Transcript), 2024. Lasercut wooden structures, 3D prints (PLA), Acrylic32 x 30 x 12 cm, 26 x 24 x 9 cm, 20 x 18 x 6 cm. Image taken from the artist's instagram.
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Contemporary artist Shinuk Suh and sculptural artist Tinaye Makuyana.
Shinuk Suh (b. 1988, Seoul, South Korea) is a London-based contemporary artist working primarily in sculpture and kinetic installation. He studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins and later completed an MFA in Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art. His artistic practice explores how identity, the human body, and personal experience are shaped by social systems such as family, religion, education, and state structures. Drawing from his own upbringing in South Korea, Suh reflects on the tension between imposed ideals of the “perfect” individual and his own sense of self, often incorporating elements of memory, trauma, and dream imagery.
“Shinuk Suh is a sculptor of incredible skill and intelligence with a monastic commitment to work and production. Shinuk explores the plight of the working man - Manufactured was an epic installation that took over the entire main gallery and conjured the dehumanisation of factory work through a series of full size 'factory' kinetic works that had cartoon humour and tragic pathos of the exploitative nature of work.”
Right image: Shinuk Suh, Man(u)fractured #2, 2020. Steel, DC motor, motor control box, silicone, plywood, concrete. Dimension varies with installation.
Tinaye Makuyana (b. 2000, Harare, Zimbabwe) is a UK-based artist specialising in paper sculpture. She began developing her practice while studying Fine Art at Loughborough University, where she created her signature folded paper works. Her work explores the relationship between light, colour, and geometry through carefully constructed paper forms. Using scored and folded cotton fibre paper, she creates sculptural surfaces that interact with light to produce shifting shadows, reflections, and optical illusions.
“The ethereal works of Tinaye are puzzling as one is not sure if they are illuminated – her practice is maturely resolved and her minimal, exacting explorations are poetic. It was wonderful to see her scale up successfully and to have a work bought into a museum collection from her final exhibition with us.”
Left image: Tinaye Makuyana, SUNBATH, 2023. Paper Sculpture, 55 x 75 x 30 cm. Image taken from the artist’s website.
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London based artist Harrison Pierce and Spanish artist Ana Barriga.
Harrison Pierce is based in the UK and explores the relationship between the human body, technology, and systems of control. Soft, bodily forms are bent, moulded, and held within mechanical structures, creating a tension between comfort and constraint. Drawing on visual languages associated with hospitals and factories, his paintings and sculptures present scenes that are both mesmerising and unsettling. His work invites viewers to question how our bodies are shaped, supported, and confined by the systems that surround us.
“Harrison was essentially the first formal resident at Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop and was instrumental in helping to define its mission, as well as shaping my own understanding of what it means to host resident artists. I remain incredibly grateful to him. I was so impressed by Harrison’s MA graduation piece that I asked if we could present it in the gallery immediately afterwards—Intuition Loop. To this day, it remains a standout moment in the gallery’s history. Harrison has a rare ability to combine intelligence, empathy, and technical skill to create kinetic works that convey profound emotion. Spending time with his work rewards the viewer on many levels—from movement, to sound, to material. Love.”
Right image: Harrison Pearce, Absolute Pressure, 2021. Unknown medium and dimensions. Installation view @RIBO
Ana Barriga, is from Spain and her practice is rooted in play, combining airy compositions with a balance of spontaneity and precision. Her work often appears doll-like, with soft, rounded forms, glossy colours, and layered, graffiti-like markings. Yet beneath this playful surface, her bold use of colour and composition asserts a strong sense of attitude. Working with oil, enamel, marker, and spray paint, and through instinctive processes of breaking, erasing, and redrawing, she creates a heightened reality that moves between innocence and disruption. Using found objects as reference, Ana transforms seemingly disregarded items, returning them to life through brightly glossed surfaces and wide-eyed paintings.
“Anyone who knows Ana will smile—she is a force of nature and attitude. Her time in the Radical Residency® was so much fun. Ana works large and fast, and it was such a joy to have her create a painting inspired by items from my flea market collection. ‘Joyful’ is insufficient to describe Ana. I am so very, very happy to live with her painting every day.”
Left image: Ana Barriga, The Poet, 2024. Oil, enamel, marker and spray, 106 x 57 cm. Image Image taken from the artist’s instagram.
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Irish born artist Sarah Dwyer and Chilean artist Marco Bizzarri.
Sarah Dwyer was born in Ireland and is now based in London. Drawing lies at the heart of her practice, forming the foundation from which her multidisciplinary approach unfolds. Working across painting, printmaking, and sculpture, she creates vibrant reimaginings of the familiar, brought to life through exuberant colour palettes and energetic, expressive mark-making. Blending figurative and abstract imagery, her dynamic compositions reflect and process her immediate surroundings and the nuances of everyday human experience. At the same time, her work embraces a sense of playfulness, inviting viewers to indulge in curiosity, spontaneity, and the joy of visual exploration.
“Working side by side with Sarah was truly fantastic for many reasons. I had admired her work since her graduate show at the RCA in 2003, and we discovered we shared so many commonalities. It was brilliant to see her return to her practice with such excitement after becoming a mum, and equally exciting to watch her explore sculpture from her paintings—an evolution that has grown into the remarkable ceramic works seen in her practice today.”
Right image: Sarah Dwyer, Antigone, 2019. Unique Intaglio Etching and Watercolour Pastel, 56 x 38cm. Image taken from the artist’s instagram.
Marco Bizzarri (Santiago, 1988) is a Chilean artist based in West Sussex, UK. His work explores landscape as an archive of time, shaped by his upbringing in Chile and his close engagement with the Atacama Desert. Light, dust, and vast horizons inform a quiet, contemplative practice, further developed through his experience of shifting light and atmosphere since relocating to the UK. Using acrylic, oil, and sand, Bizzarri treats dust as both material and metaphor. His layered, partially erased surfaces blur the line between presence and absence, softening images while preserving their traces. Working from memory and displacement, he revisits abandoned interiors and rural spaces, where time seems suspended. His paintings translate photographs and recollections into atmospheres of stillness, where subtle histories and traces of change emerge.
“Marco arrived during the chaos of post-Grenfell mourning. Our neighbourhood was deeply impacted, and the gallery was engaged in supporting the community in the aftermath. At the same time, Marco was navigating the loss of his brother and gravitated towards a local community also in mourning. Working on large-format, dark, shadowed landscapes of people in the area, alongside an installation that stood as a monument to pain and grief—his work was both impressive and cathartic. Marco is a force of hard work and sensitivity, which has evolved into a remarkable practice. His most recent paintings are filled with light and a celebration of the sublime in the ordinary, expressed through his distinctive technique that both defines and obscures.”
Left image: Marco Bizzarri, Unearthed, 2020. Unknown medium and dimensions. Image taken from the artist’s instagram.
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