Jackson Art Prize 2025

This year, Jackson’s Art Prize received 12,964 submissions from 129 countries around the world. 932 made it to the longlist, and 115 went on to the shortlist.

Medium: Oil Paint
Dimensions of Artwork: 60 x 80cm
Year: 2024-2025

Built entirely with oil paint on canvas, I used palette knives to carve bold strokes, with sharp, deliberate mark-making expressions. The thick impasto gestures combined with fine, controlled lines embody the tension between strength and vulnerability.

My face, divided in two, reflects the complexities of self – past and present, fragmented yet whole. This piece is a visual timeline of my 20s, capturing the objects, emotions, and experiences that have shaped me.

A plant, growing with me through the years. My cat, in the living room I now call home. A Diet Coke can—a small comfort in times when joy felt distant. A skull, a reminder of my university days, where I learned, created, and found my voice among artists. A brutalist building, standing strong, symbolising reconstruction—of cities, of lives, of myself.

Courage. A word etched into my being, honouring my mother. And my grandfather, who marched from Jarrow to London for my right to vote. My boots—worn, sturdy, unwavering—have carried me through a decade of transformation.