Emerging Artist Programme

Our Emerging Artists programme supports artists in the first 10 years of their career, as well as an annual exhibition with students from Richmond Upon Thames College. Artists are offered the Stables Gallery at Orleans House Gallery as a space for experimentation and building conversations with audiences. Artists may propose a collaborative, theme-based exhibition, or a wholly innovative arts-based project.

Recent Emerging Artists:

Sequoia Danielle Barnes

‘With You Darling, All the Time’ invited us to question – Who is looking at whom?  

What do you see when you see two black children? Two black figures, doing nothing, triggering nostalgia for a ‘simpler time’, a ‘better time’, an ‘innocent time’. 

Through ceramic sculpture and textiles, artist Sequoia Danielle Barnes unpacked the framing of anti-blackness as cute or kitsch and how these ideologies become objects that propagandise a sinister yearning for the other.

This body of work misrecognises cuteness as grotesque. It asks, ‘Are we sweet enough for you?’ as black childhood has always been historically and socially positioned as grotesque if not dangerous, if not non-existent altogether. With You Darling asks who gets to be innocent under white supremacy. It explores inherent biases and perceptions of blackness.  

– Sequoia Danielle Barnes  

Mingzhang Sun

‘After Summer, Half’ reflected on the carefree days of youth.

In After Summer, Mingzhang Sun reflected on the bittersweet transition from the carefree days of youth to the responsibilities of adulthood. The vibrant yet melancholic canvases, painted in dark greens and golds, symbolize the fading glow of youthful dreams and the challenges that shape our aspirations. Drawing inspiration from the lotus flower, a symbol of resilience, this collection encourages introspection and personal growth. 

More on Mingzhang Sun