London’s Graduates: Five Artists to Watch

Looking back at London‘s recent graduate exhibitions across the Slade, Royal Academy Schools, and Royal College of Art, Ocula Advisory highlight some of the artists that caught their attention.

Tsai Yun-Ju at the Slade

Tsai Yun-Ju’s swirling canvases of colour were a major highlight at the Slade’s graduate exhibition.

The artist presented eight large-scale oil paintings, each imbued with a fantastical sense of movement and lightness of touch. Despite their busy surfaces, made up of fine gestures of vibrant colour, each panel has a sense of harmonious unity.

Born in Taichung, Taiwan, Tsai Yun-Ju now lives and works in London.

Luke Samuel at the Royal Academy Schools

Luke Samuel’s presentation at the Royal Academy Schools’ graduate show demonstrated the artist’s feel for both colour and curation.

Samuel’s paintings were hung at floor and eye-level in a striking arrangement, emphasising their relationship with surrounding space.

Alongside his BA at Goldsmiths and his year at the Royal Academy Schools, Samuel’s works have been included in various shows around London including Alte Freunde, neue Freunde at Claas Reiss and Companions at Union Pacific (both 2021), as well as The Shop at Sadie Coles HQ and No Time Like the Present at Public Gallery in 2020.

Emmanuel Awuni at the Royal Academy Schools

Emmanuel Awuni’s poetic assemblages reveal the artist’s ability to bring various materials together into thoughtful and unified form.

Spanning sculpture, painting, and installation, the artist’s multidisciplinary practice combines disparate references, spanning hip hop, Black histories, as well as sounds from Pidgin English and Patois, all of which he brings together in unique compositions.

Alongside recent solo exhibitions at galleries such as Sundy in London earlier this year, Awuni’s work was also included in a duo show with Koyejo Oloko hosted by Sadie Coles HQ at Harlesden High Street last year.

Ding Shilun at the Royal College of Art

Ding Shilun’s fantastical paintings are full of splendid details that draw viewers into their ambiguous narratives.

Born in Guangzhou, Shilun’s surrealistic canvases have been well received in London, recently included in two group exhibitions at the newly established gallery, The Artist Room. On 9 September, a solo exhibition of the artist’s work will open at Galerie Maria Bernheim in Zurich.

A close-up of Three Princes (2022), which was presented at the Royal College of Art, reveals a canvas brimming with artistic mastery—swathes of white wash and sharp bursts of colour alongside more refined details making up the props and accessories worn by his manga-inspired figures.

Oda Iselin Sønderland at the Royal College of Art

Oda Iselin Sønderland’s tightly composed figurative watercolour paintings provide a refreshing break from the contemporary art world’s current emphasis on abstract painting.

Receiving her BA in Graphic Design and Illustration from the Oslo National Academy, Sønderland continued to develop her painting practice at the Royal College of Art around themes relating to sexuality and the supernatural.

While referencing her Nordic upbringing and growing interest in Japanese manga, Sønderland’s work also features forest creatures drawn from folk tales.