Visual Art Nominations 2025
Barbara Walker - WINNER
Being Here
Being Here was a landmark exhibition and twice sold-out book. It presented over 70 works from the 1990s to today to chart Barbara Walker’s compelling figurative practice for the first time. Tied together around concepts of visibility and erasure, it captured Walker’s unwavering commitment to transforming perceptions of Black presence and belonging.
Being Here included early realist paintings, delicate pencil drawings, embossed drawings, and the groundbreaking new commission Soft Power - a hand-drawn wallpaper collection honouring six Manchester residents of the Windrush generation. Each of these works gives powerful presence to the conditions of our time and the histories they are rooted in.
Intensely observed and empathetic, Being Here is a remarkable testament to the inspirational impact of Walker’s artwork.
Claudette Johnson
Three Women
Claudette Johnson brings extraordinary power and presence to the public realm with Three Women, her first public artwork. Commissioned by Art on the Underground and installed at Brixton Station, seen daily by nearly 30,000 commuters, the work reclaims space for Black women through monumental, vibrant figuration.
Johnson subverts the canon with a triptych of Black female figures, whose positions share a resonance with Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). This painting has been a critical point of return for Johnson, both for its formal accomplishments and its problematic engagement with African art and the female form. The commission also responds to the murals made locally during the 1980s and Johnson’s early three-part work Trilogy (1982–86).
Three Women is both technically masterful and socially resonant. It stands as a vital, public act of cultural reclamation and a triumph of artistic innovation.
Michelle Roberts
Body of work
Michelle Roberts’ solo exhibition Red, Blue, Up at the De La Warr Pavilion celebrated a lifetime of work by a neurodivergent artist of exceptional talent. Michelle has developed a distinct visual language that is instantly recognisable for its intense colour, interwoven forms, and densely packed detail. Drawing on personal experience, Michelle illustrates interpretations of the significant events and places that have shaped her life. Michelle invites the viewer to explore each of these vibrant universes, drawing our attention to the different ways that we remember.
A unique and essential voice within contemporary art, her deeply personal, imaginative visual world stands out as a beacon of joy and celebration.
