This article was originally published in BRICKS #11, The Art Issue. To order a copy of the issue featuring cover stars Eartheater, Tove Lo, Gab Bois and Sage Flowers, visit our shop.
WORDS Isabella Bonner-Evans
PHOTOGRAPHY Brynley Odu Davies
HEADER IMAGE Ken Nwadiogbu in Tottenham, London
When Lockdown hit, like many of us, photographer Brynley Odu Davies suddenly found himself out of work. Having built a career photographing musicians and bands in South-East London, COVID-19 was an unwelcome game changer – the gigs stopped, groups disbanded and many musicians fled the city for their parent’s rural abodes. Brynley was left in the lurch.
During his daily walks around Peckham’s streets, Brynley’s attention was repeatedly caught by a local artist, Conor Murgatroyd. Because of his many tattoos and eccentric style, he seemed like a great subject. With little else to do, Brynley messaged Conor on Instagram, and they met up for a photography session. He posted the pictures and suddenly an influx of artists found his account and began to contact him. From this moment onwards, a monumental new project was born which would take up most of his time for the following two years. Brynley humbly notes, “After I took images of Conor, I thought this might be an interesting direction, so I reached out to Marcus Nelson. Suddenly, I realised how amazing this was, all I had to do was go to an artist’s studio and there was all this brilliant artwork and an amazing space just waiting for me.”
Suddenly, I realised how amazing this was, all I had to do was go to an artist’s studio and there was all this brilliant artwork and an amazing space just waiting for me.
Brynley Odu Davies
From 2020 onwards, Brynley Odu Davies has travelled solo around the UK to photograph contemporary artists in their studios. He has been everywhere; from the shores of southern England up to the Scottish coast, across to Wales and on a ferry to Northern Ireland. This seemingly accidental undertaking exists as an invaluable archive, presenting a panoptic picture of the creatives who are shaping the UK’s art world, and have the power to influence its future.
The project is unique. It looks beyond the confines of the M25 to artists based outside of London, presenting a holistic view of Britain’s creatives. It sometimes appears, given the huge number of artists who are working in the capital and the attention that many receive early in their careers, that the art world and London are synonymous. Furthermore, despite ever-increasing rents and high levels of competition, the opportunities in the city seem to be abundant – it can even feel as if a new gallery pops up every week.
Brynley notes, “I think it’s a real privilege to be a creative in London. I moved here when I was 18 to go to university and I didn’t realise how much that would impact me,” but he also reminds us that there is an enormous profusion of talent across the UK: “There is some really great stuff happening outside of London, and people need to keep that in mind. The specific styles that emerge in different areas are so interesting – there is one style in Leeds and another in Glasgow, for example”. Brynley’s project consequently advocates for a wide-lens approach across the art industry, suggesting opportunities should and can be made available to creatives in all parts of the UK, with consideration for those unable to live and work in London.
Between 2020 and 2022, Brynley travelled to major art hubs including the Glasgow School of Art as well as seeking out hidden gems: artists who choose to work alone in rural locations, such as Cornwall-based painter Nettle Grellier. Nettle describes her practice as “semi-autobiographical figures being vulgar and vulnerable in nature”, with much of her work capturing the awkwardness and sometimes fumbling nature of intimacy, whether shared between friends or lovers. Haptic interactions and fleeting gestures frequently form the emotive focal points of her paintings depicting figures, lounging, in engulfing and bucolic landscapes. Nettle comes from a family of artists, and has harboured a love of painting since childhood. She notes that the smell of oil paint and turps evokes memories of being picked up from school by her mother.
After finishing her BA at Brighton in 2015, Nettle’s nomadic lifestyle commenced when she carved out a home in a truck and travelled around Spain. This venture led to her establishment of a residency for early-career artists just outside of Granada. In 2018, she returned to England and began working from a studio in Cornwall, with much of her painting drawing inspiration from the landscapes of Spain and the British coast. She comments: “I have always lived far from London in rural settings. This informs my work and I don’t think I could feel creative in a city. It does present challenges in terms of feeling far removed from the art world. There’s still an underlying worry that I’m making a poor career choice by not being present, but ultimately, I know this is the right way to work for me as it is for so many others.”
I have always lived far from London in rural settings. This informs my work and I don’t think I could feel creative in a city. It does present challenges in terms of feeling far removed from the art world. There’s still an underlying worry that I’m making a poor career choice by not being present, but ultimately, I know this is the right way to work for me as it is for so many others.
Nettle Grellier
For Nettle, basing her career outside of London is advantageous to her creativity and on a practical level. She describes staying afloat by “getting a variety of jobs here and there” and building a community of other local artists who are all “making their way”. She emphasises the sense of freedom and casualness to life outside London. In rural Cornwall, she is perhaps more incited to focus on her practice than those who are caught up in the all-too-familiar daily hustle of finding money for studio rent in the capital. Nonetheless, she feels artists need more financial support across the board: “In Ireland, they’re currently trialling a basic income for artists – to have that support in our country would be so sick.” [Text Wrapping Break]
From her outpost in Cornwall, Nettle remains grimly aware of the challenges facing young creatives like herself across the UK today. She describes the art world as “a posh old boys club at its heart” and argues that “we need to go turbo accessibility to change that”. For her, traditional art schools are the crux of the problem. She advocates for Alternative Art Schools, commenting, “I did the Turps Banana Correspondence Course a few years ago and got so much out of that without having to afford living and working in London.” In many ways, Nettle suggests that the art world which she is keen to build for the future is one whereby artists do not feel pressured to work from major cities, with an abundance of quality art education that can be accessed remotely, seeing opportunities dispersed fairly among a variety of communities.
At the opposing pole of the UK, Brynley visited Glasgow-based artist Conor ‘Trackie’ McLeod who is known for his multi-media artworks. His repertoire unpacks notions surrounding working-class cultural values, traditional ideals of masculinity, and heteronormative sexuality, mixed in with nostalgic 90s pop culture references. In his own works, McLeod’s artwork is made up of, “One part tongue-in-cheek, an ounce of sarcasm and a pint of Tennent’s Lager”. He describes a normal day in his studio with a level of lightness and humour, the tone of which strikes a relatable chord with creatives across the UK: “I rock up – normally a wee bit later than anticipated – crack a window as it’s always roasting (surprisingly) and hope a pigeon doesn’t get in… Check emails and chase up invoices – ‘no worries at all’ (worries anyway). Make a cuppa tea, three sugars. Mock up idea on paper (always), pin it up. More doodles and/or Pot Noodle. Drink tea (now cold). Flitter between different, non-linear tasks and list-ticking, while puffing on an Elf Bar. ‘Clean up’. Head up the road. Forget my headphones. Every time.”
“When I finally did get into University, I felt like a minority who had to work harder than my middle-class peers because the system favoured those with money – a reality of the good old art world today.”
Trackie McLeod in Glasgow
Unlike Nettle, Trackie does not feel he is missing out by not being based in London. He has formed an artists’ community of fellow Glasgow School of Art graduates who are similarly keen to stay put, at least for now. He stays connected via Instagram, describing it as a “bit of a double-edged sword, really, but among all the idea thieving and self-righteousness it is a good platform to build community” and shouts out pages like @workingclasscreativesdatabase and @boysdontcry_uk for “doing the most”.
As a working-class artist who didn’t get into university on first attempt, Trackie has himself experienced the potential for inaccessibility and power imbalances at play in art education, as well as the industry as a whole. He argues, “the support needs to happen a lot earlier in education. With only 18.2 per cent of those working in visual arts from lower income backgrounds (2018) it begs the question – why isn’t it an accessible career path for all?”
He was relieved to eventually get into university, but even then, he “felt like being an artist was something out of [his] reach, something too ‘risky’ to pursue as a ‘proper’ job,” attributing this feeling to a lack of education and financial support which he needed to be well equipped. “When I finally did get into University, I felt like a minority who had to work harder than my middle-class peers because the system favoured those with money – a reality of the good old art world today.”
When probed on the future art world he plans to architect, Trackie looks to the galleries and institutions around him in the hopes that they will “actually champion underrepresented voices – providing support, mentorship and above all putting their money where their mouth is and not just promoting tokenism”. He calls for a fairer art world ecosystem, within which artists of all backgrounds are properly represented. Trackie seeks to work with galleries he feels are already attempting to create this space.
Naturally, as he was building this body of images, Brynley also spent significant time with artists working in various areas of London. He photographed White City-based painter Olivia Sterling, who has enjoyed great success since graduating from The Royal College of Art in 2020. Her work straddles the ordinary and the absurd to explore experiences of marginalisation, focusing especially on race. Her paintings appear to depict comical, almost grotesque, dinner scenes with flowing ketchup and cartoonish hotdogs – these foodstuffs and the moments which occur around mealtimes and other quotidian acts come to symbolise the incidents of microaggression experienced by many people of colour. Olivia’s work draws attention to the flashes of discomfort and upset which are common, and often daily experiences for people of colour: they can happen in any situation from the monumental to the ordinary. The bright colour palette, voluptuous forms and light-hearted tone all play a part in her practice, which sensitively discusses challenging and salient subject matter.
“With the cost of living rising I don’t think I would have been able to afford to live in London just working four days a week anyway.”
Olivia Sterling in White City, London
Currently working towards a considerable show in October, Olivia describes herself as “ridiculously lucky” in that she “sold a bunch of paintings during [her] online degree show which gave [her] a nest-egg for material and rent for the next show”. Since then, selling artwork has become her main source of income. Whilst studying on her Masters, she worked in retail, but was made redundant during COVID which she says “pushed [her] into a painting career”, perhaps another stroke of luck as she acknowledges, “with the cost of living rising I don’t think I would have been able to afford to live in London just working four days a week anyway.”
Sterling has found the maintenance of her practice in London challenging due to the lack of education around the key components of building a career as an artist, beyond actually creating the art work. For her, a better art world would be one where there is “less of a gap between school and a career – and less of a curtain hiding what actually happens and what it actually takes to be put in a show”. She highlights the need for more bursaries and grants available to artists, seeing a lack of financial security as an issue impacting all aspects of artists’ careers, “I was very silly and didn’t realise how much having little income would affect my creativity and mental wellbeing”. She plans to continue working from the capital, but knows her own worries with money are not just shared by artist peers and are in fact “just the problem of living in London rather than making art.”
From taking an initial image of an artist he spotted on the streets of Peckham, to visiting nearly every county – and certainly every country in the UK – Brynley Odu Davies has created a comprehensive and unrivalled archive of the emerging artists working across the United Kingdom today. Taken together, his portraits testify to the incredible talent that spans our cities, towns and rural outcrops and looks to the ever-present, yet often overlooked, artists based outside of London. It champions the creatives who are overcoming governmental funding cuts, the rising costs of living, increasingly sparse and precarious studio spaces, inaccessibility to quality and affordable education and limited funding opportunities, while offering hope for a new and improved art world of the future, as it will be shaped by the many artists pictured in this project. Nettle Greiller, Conor ‘Trackie’ McLeod, and Olivia Sterling all speak of a shared desire for compassionate and committed gallerists, accessible and quality art education, increased funding opportunities, and overarching support for the UK’s young artists both inside and outside the capital. They, and the many other creatives who make up this project, are the art world of the future.
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