5 emerging artists you need to have firmly on your radar

It’s no easy gig for budding artists. With limited resources, little institutional support, and often precarious income, they tread a fine line between creative passion and financial security.

Navigating a competitive, trend-driven landscape, emerging artists are required not only to make, but to market and monetise – often without a safety net.

And yet, they remain essential to the art world’s vitality. Unafraid to challenge tradition or explore the uncomfortable, they bring raw, unfiltered perspectives that reflect the cultural moment. From painting and ceramics to performance, sculpture and installation, their work is often where innovation happens first.

While the art world is not immune to the churn of trend cycles (David Shrigley’s irreverent works still fly off the shelves), it’s the new voices that remind us what art is truly for. Emerging artists hold up a mirror to society while carving out their own space within it.

Discover the top names to watch and expand your artistic vocabulary below.

Emerging artists you need to have firmly on your radar:

Emily Kirby

Born in Zambia, Emily Kirby is a figurative artist based in Hove and is known for her dreamlike, semi-abstract depictions of women in natural settings. Her work blends expressive use of colour with themes of intimacy and female connection. Influenced by time spent in Zambia, Spain, New Zealand and the UK, her paintings evoke a strong sense of place, reflecting a deep, personal connection to the landscapes and communities she portrays.

Freya Doggett

© Freya Doggett

Freya Doggett is a London-based figurative painter whose practice, shaped over seven years, blends art historical insight with a deeply personal lens. Trained at The Art Academy London and The Courtauld Institute of Art, her work draws on late Impressionist techniques and modernist experimentation. Freya’s ethereal scenes centre female subjects in intimate, often domestic settings – exploring memory, solitude and selfhood with a soft palette, symbolic animal figures, and a quiet, wry sense of humour.

Niamh Birch

© Niamh Birch

Niamh Birch is a London-based artist known for her vibrant, figurative works rooted in floral motifs and everyday charm. A graduate of Bath Spa University, she explores the emotional impact of colour through whimsical compositions that often feature tablescapes, animals, and curious objects. From star-clad boots to patterned tiles and cutlery, her paintings are rich with playful detail – inviting viewers into bold, imaginative worlds that blur the line between the familiar and the fantastical.

Amélie Peace

© Amélie Peace

Amélie Peace is a French artist based in London whose work delves into intimacy, identity, and human connection. Through painting and printmaking, she creates ‘intimacy-landscapes’ – ambiguous, layered scenes that explore how physical closeness shapes emotional experience. Intertwined figures evoke both tenderness and tension, often appearing as if once part of a single form. Using gesture, texture, and expressive hands as recurring motifs, she invites viewers into emotionally charged, quietly confrontational narratives of shared vulnerability.

Emma Deguara

© @geeleighbee

Stationery designer Emma Deguara is a multidisciplinary artist with a background in graphic design and costume. Originally from Oxford, she refined her craft at Brighton University before moving into the world of film, where she spent several years in costume design. Her creative practice spans illustration, tablescaping, menu and name card design, and spatial curation – bringing a refined eye to every detail.