Emerging artist award 2026 - fortyfive downstairs
Image courtesy of George Jefford
It feels very full circle to be writing about fortyfive downstairs’ 2026 Emerging Artist Award. Even though Charlotte was the one who covered the show last year, there’s a certain joy in Lowbrow being back at the same exhibition a year later. We’re growing and we’re evolving but we’re still focused where we want to be; on the emerging artists and their work. Equally, it’s gratifying to see some of the artists that I’ve written about before being included in this show: Ruinscape by Grace Mitchell which I wrote about in Held, Altered at No Vacancy, and also face of an orchid by Tara Howe which I wrote about in silently, childhood’s crystalline paths sank in the gardenat Oddany gallery. That was the third ever post on Lowbrow, and now I’m seeing Howe’s work again over a year later, and loving even more on second viewing the delicate orchid made softly solid.
There are themes that can be drawn between finalists selected in the show, but I’m going to ignore those themes and write about the work I like. Playing favourites is fun, and my favourite work in the whole show is Twinkle by Beven Lan, a hugely fun work. This inflatable horse is joyful and whimsical, instilling a naive fun into this larger than life projection of childhood wonder. Bright and bouncy and tactile, it feels like a centrepiece in the show that everything which surrounds it can draw back to - yet it was surprisingly overlooked when it came to prizes.
Another work which I am shocked was passed over for a prize is Precarious Imbalance by Mei Wah Williams. Featuringa video projected into a laundry basket that has been tipped on its side, the video leaks through the holes of the basket and splashes back onto the wall behind. A mirror gently placed underneath reflects the interior of the basket up so we can see the video, with a small child’s chair watching it all unfold. William’s reflection on women’s labour and motherhood feels almost too intimate to be seen at the busy opening and prize award and I’d love to head back to the gallery to spend time with this work at a quieter moment.
Similarly Love, a family gathering that lives only in my mind by Emily Tian deserves a gentle moment spent with it.The work draws me first because it's a cyanotype (a photographic medium I rarely see), and secondly for the calmingly familiar nostalgia the collaged photos bring. Although I want a moment of quiet reflection with the work, I enjoyed the way the people moving past at the opening caused the silk to move and shimmer. Equally, with Susannah Collins’ striking Fungiform; cross-section I watched and waited for the almost living organism to breathe and dance with the movement of the air caused by the bodies in the room. Collins’ work is a drawing in the way the prize winner is a drawing, but the fungiform is the nature against P(destiny | origin)’s machine.
Guest judged by Fran Clarke from Arc One (located just upstairs), P(destiny | origin) by Ivan Lengyel took home the first prize of $2k. Charlotte’s 2am voice note from the night of the show: the winner “feels like the normalizing of surveillance, technology and art. Why can't I go to an art exhibition without being surveilled and recorded?” (Charlotte’s thoughts on the show will soon be exclusively available for our supporters). Second prize was taken out by Ella Pininta’s oil painting collage, Everything Led Me Here. Where Lendyel’s work made me think of AI and humanity’s current relationship with technology, Pininta’s painting felt like humanity and community manifest.
The Emerging Artist Award is on at fortyfive downstairs until July 24th, and you can vote for people’s choice winner until the exhibition closes.