Artist in Residence

Emmanuel Unaji (b.1994) is a British-born Nigerian multidisciplinary artist & co-founder of the award-winning design collective, Unaji & Co. He studied fashion design and graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Kingston University (2021). Bold and unconventional, Emmanuel’s unique style is to mechanically deconstruct icons to reverse engineer the unconscious bias applied to portraiture. His signature portraits combining collage, drawing, and painting have gained widespread recognition in the creative industries.

Emmanuel will be taking over the residency in July and August.

Elina Yumasheva’s practice celebrates ecological consciousness and the diversity of living and non-living forms through the use of pure oils, pigments, natural and other non-toxic materials.  Drawing from mythology, science and symbolism, she probes the quest for permanence while exploring the impermanence of being. As an expanded painter, her practice moves between canvas and beyond, morphing it through space, forms, mediums, techniques and the digital.

Elina Yumasheva holds an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art (2024) and an MSc in Environmental Science from the University of Edinburgh (2011).

Come and find Elina in the studio October and November.

David Schmidt, known professionally as ‘DS,’ is a London-based urban artist began his street art journey in East London in 2002. In addition to his street art, DS has been commissioned by multinational companies and has sold his art in prestigious locations such as Harrods. Notably, he painted MG Motors’ first official art car.

He often explore themes of violence, fragility, and the juxtaposition of old and new. Over the years, the street pieces have evolved to feature a recurring motif of dysfunctional angels and cherubs, blending classical imagery with contemporary elements.

In April and March Dasha took over our studio.

An interdisciplinary artist born in Minsk, Belarus and rooted in London, she works predominantly across written and performed language, painting, and multisensory installation. Her work is playful and irreverent. Frequently employing her voice and somatic practices as well as intuitive mark-making, free association, and wordplay in order to break out of her own habits of perception, Dasha describes her work as a celebration of consciousness.

Zulfiya Spowart was born in 1991 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Having achieved a bachelor’s degree in mural arts, in her homeland, and then working on a wide variety of projects, the artist has created a successful career in this field. Currently, Zulfiya lives in London with her family and works at home in her small studio. She works with textiles, paintings, watercolours, wood and digital media.

In artistic practice, Zulfiya explores the subject of corporeality, central to which is a search for identity when the artist turns to her own biography and touches upon her experience of decolonisation, emigration and motherhood. The culture of her native land – Central Asia, mysticism and handicraft occupy a special place in Zulfiya’s practices.