Our Team

Julia Kowalska (b. 1998 Warsaw, Poland), lives and works in Warsaw, Poland, where she graduated with an MFA from the Painting Faculty at the Academy of Fine Arts in in 2022. Her work intensely interrogates the importance of figuration: beginning by looking inward, she produces paintings that exctract the physical from the subconscious, in delicately devised dreamscapes. The result is a simulated subconscious from which ephemeral performances present themselves in the foreground, before fading again into the recesses of a restful or restless psyche.

I engage with painting, mostly figurative, centred around the human, although there are single deviations from this. I depict figures in ambiguous states and mutual relations. Most often my focus falls on intimate and subjective experiences.

Nahom Teklehaimanot was born in 1991 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and spent his formative years between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

He holds a Diploma in ICT (Information Communication Technology) from the SMAP Institute of Training, Education, and Consultancy. Nahom’s journey as an artist began in childhood, inspired by the simplicity of children’s songs and lullabies. His talent led him to win first prize in the professional category at the European Union art competition in Asmara, Eritrea, in 2013.

Drawing inspiration from those around him, Nahom’s diverse paintings reflect his unique vision and artistic techniques. He is deeply influenced by the works of artists such as Cecily Brown, Kerry James Marshall, and Takashi Murakami, each contributing to his evolving style.

Despite facing the challenges of being a refugee during Ethiopia’s Great Exodus, Nahom found solace in his art, using it as a means to process and express his experiences. His work often explores themes of exile and cultural identity, drawing from Kerry James Marshall’s concept of nurturing.

While proficient in traditional art methods, Nahom embraces the digital era, utilizing techniques like airbrushing to create collage-like compositions. His choice of colors and symbolism reflects his commitment to amplifying marginalized voices and addressing societal issues.

Currently a visiting fellow at Noldor Artist Residency, Nahom has exhibited his work internationally, including group exhibitions such as “Various Small Fires” in Nairobi, Kenya, and “Dispatches from Limbo” in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His solo exhibitions, like “The First Amendment” in Asmara, Eritrea, showcase his unique perspective, with his art also featured in public collections such as the “Rashida” Cultural and Sport Affair in Asmara.

Nahom Teklehaimanot’s remarkable journey and artistic contributions have earned him recognition, including being dubbed the “Bahlen-Senetbeben” by Gazette Hadas, with multiple publications highlighting his work and personality.

Preslav Kostov is a London based artist whose work engages with the intricacies of identity and recollection of memories. Employing the technique of automatism, Kostov’s paintings emerge from a cumulative process of self-questioning around past observations.

Kostov’s imposing compositions dialog with the form and palette of the old master painters, presenting imagined scenes of discovered narratives situated within a liminal realm. His works speak to the enduring reality of human experience.
He is a recipient of The Elizabeth Greenshields Award (2021 & 2023).​​​​​

Preslav Kostov

“Isolation” by Artist Preslav Kostov

Maku Azu. Maku is a Ghanaian African Contemporary Artist based in Thailand. She is best known for her emotive and jarring portraits made from unconventional materials, such as heavily textured construction materials, spray-paints, rubbed off acrylics and found metals; there are no boundaries. After studying International Business Management, she made a drastic decision to follow the path truest to herself, Art. She is passionate about expressing deep and emotive psychological states in her work.

Maku as a multidisciplinary artist is additionally a sculptor, who enjoys creating sensually engaging, organic, semi abstracted forms. With every piece she creates, she hopes to inspire a private and sacred space, where she connects with each viewer mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Artist, paintress and illustrator, born in 1997 in Warsaw. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, she received her master’s degree with distinction in 2020.

In 2022 and 2023, she was listed among the top 20 artists in the Compass of Young Art (Kompas Młodej Sztuki) ranking. She was distinguished during the 16th Autumn Art Salon (Jesienny Salon Sztuki) LOOSTRO 2023 at BWA Ostrowiec. She was awarded for painting in the VeniceLands ArtPrize 2019 contest in Italy. She has had individual exhibitions at venues such as the Sarah Kravitz Gallery in London (2023) and the Starak Family Foundation in Warsaw (2022). She participated in the exhibition Woman Art Power at the Mazovian Centre for Contemporary Art “Elektrownia” in Radom (2022). Her work has been shown internationally, including exhibitions in Paris (Institut Polonais de Paris, 2024), London (Every Woman Biennial, 2021), Bishkek (Gapar Aitiev Kyrgyz National Museum of Fine Arts, 2019), and Ponzano Veneto (VeniceLands ArtPrize, 2019). Her painting was displayed at the Royal Castle in Warsaw during the Helena Stiasny & Lucas Cranach the Elder. The Herstory of Eve (Helena Stiasny & Lucas Cranach Starszy. Herstoria Ewy) exhibition (2023). One of her paintings is part of mBank’s art collection.

Under the pseudonym Ala Bankroft, she illustrated the Polish book I Saw a Beautiful Woodpecker (Widziałem Pięknego dzięcioła), which has been translated into six languages. The book received several accolades, including a distinction for debut in the Opera Prima category of the Bologna Ragazzi Award (2020) and the special prize of the Premio Andersen jury (2022), the most prestigious Italian distinction in children’s literature. Illustrations from the book were displayed at the Masters of Polish Illustration exhibition organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Suncheon, South Korea (2022).

João Alves (Portugal), a surrealist painter, with a diverse practice spanning over two decades, is known for his dream-like, uncanny imagery, alongside his work in curation, film, and performance art. In 2004 João performed in the painting short film/documentaty ‘Gaia’ directed by Amarante Abramovici, selcted for the Cannes Film Festival.

Since 2028 João’s work and paitings are are present in the Porto City collection, ZDB Gallery, CJIAC and the Serralves Museum among other private collections in Portugal, Spain, France, Germany and the UK.

selvasevlalevas.blogspot.com

B. 1992, Luton.

Goldsmiths MFA | 2022 – 24
Slade School of Fine Art | 2012 – 15
Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien | 2014

The Eyes of the Skin, Gallery daSein, Shenzhen, 2024
Another Day Another Archetype, Lewisham Art House, London, 2023
Interim Show, Goldsmiths, London, 2023
It could rain in a room this big, Seager Gallery, London, 2023
Foreign Field, Pavilion Milchof, Berlin, 2019
Extreme Views, 19 Wiener Straße, Berlin, 2018
Why can’t I climb here?, Regent Studios, London, 2018
Utopian Futures, Art Licks Weekend, London, 2017
Bearly Painting, The Bear, London, 2016
Battersea Art Station, Battersea Arts Centre, London, 2015
Interim, Woburn Research Centre, London, 2015
Rundgang, Semperdepot, Vienna, 2014

William Coldstream Sessional Prize, 2014

Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Berlin
alfred@alfredworrall.com

alfredworrall.com

Alfie-Worrall-Still-Livestream.109x130cm

Kravitz Contemporary is pleased to present the second part of its annual Residency Exhibition, which opens 25 November in East Sussex. Figure This is produced in close collaboration with UK-based patrons of the arts, the Kowitz Family, and the Noldor Art Residency in Ghana.

The Figure This Residency Exhibition, which spotlights non-Western artists from underrepresented backgrounds, will open at Bridge Point Studios in Rye, East Sussex. Born of a mutual interest to serve, support and platform emerging young artists, the residency offers a platform for international artists with a particular emphasis on a unique cross section of Eastern European and Western African talents.

The artists were selected by Joseph Awuah-Darko (Founder of Noldor Artist Residency, Ghana), David Kowitz, a patron of the programme, and gallerist Sarah Kravitz and are each informed and indebted to the tradition of figurative painting but also visibly fraternise with its subversion. The exhibition serves as a testament to Sarah Kravitz’s core ethos, diversifying the London-centric arts scene, encouraging creative dialogue between regions and truly championing individual and cultural expression through art.

Figure This features several exciting young female painters from the flourishing contemporary art scene in Sarah Kravitz’s native Poland.

“For many years, the Polish art scene conformed to traditional patriarchal norms. Today, however, it reflects the country’s broader transformation, with women artists emerging as market leaders. Their prominence is not just reshaping the art market but is also a signifier of Poland’s overall progression towards greater gender equality. This burgeoning realm, where women’s creative independence is honoured, is receiving enthusiastic accolades from key cultural institutions and observers across the region; heralding a new era of inclusivity and recognition.”

Joseph Awuah-Darko, Founder of Noldor adds, “Artists from Sub-Saharan West Africa are a meaningful part of the dialogue of re-imagined narratives and are contributing towards evolving the single story surrounding the continent and its people.”Read More

Born in 1982, Samuel Bassett comes from Cornwall, more specifically the town of St Ives steeped in fishing and artistic heritage. His family have been there as fishermen and working on the land, mining and farming for hundreds of years and until recently he occupied a studio above his grandfathers former net loft at Porthmeor studios a few minutes walk from the Tate Gallery within the hustle and bustle.

Contemporary stories from his own experience and family lore, and snippets or news from the ups and downs of his everyday social life combine with nuanced vulnerability and an expressive and experimental hand to create psychologically layered paintings about the human condition and his/our place within the madness of contemporary life. His sensitive and questioning introspection and emotional flip-flopping means nothing is too obvious or too pretty in his paintings.

Melancholic self-portraits merge with real and imagined characters adapted to the story and how he is feeling at the time. The paintings often feel like they are questioning themselves and himself and this questioning and blurring of recollection combined with the artist’s joy of exploring painting for paintings sake make for images that have longevity and a strongly recognisable yet ever transient voice. A gregarious and engaging character his mind nevertheless seems to be questioning the bigger harder issues and to flit excitedly between concern and celebration.

Like many in Cornwall, he grapples with the stark economics of housing and employment opportunity afforded to his friends and family yet at the same time he is gregarious and really fun/ funny to be around. This dichotomy is evident in the many selves he reveals in what are essentially self- portraits – the naughty one, the worried one, the diligent one, the curious one, the drunk one, the sexy one. There is surface and underbelly on display, sentient moments collaged into a story, the narrative coming from the everyday trials and tribulations he experiences.

Cornwall’s traditional industries of fishing and mining have been in slow decline for decades and the County is heavily dependent on tourism. It is also one of the most naturally beautiful places in the world so there is a predictable affordability problem for locals on low wages and a migration from the coast inland. It is a haven for escapees from Britain’s cities who come to surf, swim and eat in stunning surroundings. Thoughts and counter thoughts on these issues weave in and out of the imagery like complex internal conversations.

These paintings are for the most part self-portraits combining many states of being and narratives in one frame. He loves the idea that as he ages they will ‘become more grotesque, fatter, balder, odder.’

Toby Clarke, 2021

An insightful question and answer session between art critic and artist Matthew Collings and Samuel can be viewed here.

Marcus Harvey is a British painter and sculptor, publisher and art educator associated with the YBA group of artists who came to prominence in the 1990’s and is best known for his iconic work ‘Myra’ which provoked huge controversy when exhibited in Sensation at the Royal Academy in 1997. He studied at Goldsmiths College 1982–1986 and has exhibited widely throughout the UK and Europe and is represented in collections worldwide. Harvey has continued to explore themes of British identity through heavily manipulated, often controversial iconography. He co-founded ‘Turps Banana’ painting magazine in 2005 and ‘Turps Banana Art school’ in 2012.

Marcus Harvey makes highly worked figurative paintings and sculptures. He seeks out imagery that is emblematic of a brutish but proud Britishness. Often his imagery is problematic or controversial, his most infamous work perhaps being ‘Myra’ which was exhibited as part of the groundbreaking exhibition Sensation in 1997. Unprecedented national and international media attention ensued as the painting had been created with repeated child’s handprints in the image of the infamous child-murderer Myra Hindley. This chilling painting derived much of its potency from the iconography of photographic image so engrained in the British Psyche through years of obsessive media reproduction. The painting, ‘Albus’, one of his most important paintings to date uses the white cliffs of Dover as a metaphor for Britain’s place in a changing, uncertain world. The paint sits proud of an underlying photographic sea. Britain’s cliffs look strong, pugnant and full of history, proud in adversity. Bad weather seems imminent, a storm is brewing and the water on which the painting sits is changing. Shifts of global power and economic woes threaten this mighty fortress. It is not clear where the future lies but still the island stands strong. The while endless and not controllable is not pristine. The tide may turn.

Recently, Harvey has started to work extensively with ceramics forging motifs and emblems of Britishness into collaged portraits of historical British figures of foes from history, from Nelson to Margaret Thatcher and from Napoleon to Tony Blair. He works the imagery, handling the clay in a battle to find its form despite multiple firings and emerging knowledge on behalf of the artist with regards to glazing and firing technique. The result is tough but humorous sculpture, unapologetic and brash, political yet ambiguous, considered and painterly.