Tatum Dooley on September 28, 2023
The inaugural edition of Crème Fraîche is designed to bridge the gap between London's finest emerging artists and an array of new and established collectors.
For this year's selection, a panel of experts from Gallery MAST reviewed the recent graduation degree shows, electing one standout piece from each artist to be included in the Crème Fraîche programme. The artists were picked from prestigious institutions such as the Slade School, the Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths, Camberwell, Chelsea, and Central Saint Martin's. The 2023 cohort includes eighteen artists whose work spans an array of mediums: painting, sculpture, ceramics, and glasswork, as well as a combination of these mediums. Artists like Reinhard Agyekum, with his enigmatic bursts of colour, Thomas Desloges, with his meticulously crafted exoskeletons, and Celia Mora's sardonic mise-en-scènes, collectively epitomize the diverse range of emerging artistic talent.
Crème Fraîche has compiled all featured artworks into a comprehensive catalogue, allowing interested parties to explore these pieces further during a two-day private sale scheduled for October 2nd-3rd, 2023, in central London. Peggy is pleased to announce that work from the sale will also be available exclusively on Peggy—download the app with code FRAICHE to be the first in line for the sought-after pieces.
In a nod to the investment in future artistic potential, Crème Fraîche extends an invitation to collectors and patrons who acquire works during the 2023 event. These select individuals will be invited to a distinguished dinner and panel discussion in mid-November, offering a unique opportunity to engage with the artists and celebrate their burgeoning careers. Click here to learn more.
Seven artists to watch from London’s top art schools
Bintou Badjie
Bintou Badjie, born in Gothenburg in 1990, focuses on themes of womanhood and blackness through her vivid, figurative oil paintings. Educated at Goldsmiths, her work is a deeply personal exploration of identity rooted in family, community, and cultural lineage. Her painting "Three Money" uses contrasting textures and shades to distinguish her darkly-hued subjects from a softer backdrop. The piece showcases vibrant pink tones, representing unconditional love, and features a crocodile—a symbol of blessing in Gambian culture. Badjie's work has gained recognition, exhibited in various galleries, including the prestigious Royal Academy in 2023.
Celia Mora
Born in Madrid in 1991, Celia Mora is a fine artist whose figurative works focus on presence, self-awareness, and power dynamics. Through compositional experimentation, Mora manipulates form and posture, using art as a means of control over her subjects—often people with whom she shares emotional connections. Her recent degree show featured her partner in roles challenging traditional gender and artist-muse power dynamics. Her piece "Hombre Florero" directly confronts a derogatory Spanish term that reduces women to mere ornamental roles. Mora has displayed her work in Spain and the UK and is set to join Turps Art School in 2023.
Daniel Rey 
Daniel Rey, born in 1990 in Caracas, is a multidisciplinary artist focused on challenging societal norms around masculinity and identity. His wide-ranging portfolio includes installations, performance art, and paintings. Rey, an architect by previous profession, deploys construction elements to question fixed identities. His notable painting, "The Swimmer," influenced by a scene in Almodóvar's "Bad Education," aims to explore fluid conceptions of masculinity within competitive swimming. Rey has received the 2023 LVMH Maison/0 Earth Award and has been featured in Equis Magazine. His work has been exhibited widely, including upcoming Grundy Art Gallery and Camden Art Centre shows.
Gerry de Banzie
Born in Maidstone in 2000, Gerry de Banzie is an abstract artist whose work acts as a conduit between perception and interpretation. His canvases serve as reflective surfaces, accommodating many perspectives that engage viewers in thoughtful dialogue. De Banzie specializes in manipulating colour, texture, and form to evoke emotions and provoke introspection. His art invites exploring the intangible, capturing moments of transient sensation. With a nod to folklore and circus motifs, de Banzie's intricate compositions are enigmatic and open-ended, allowing each viewer's imagination to complete the narrative.
Grace Mcnerney
London-based artist Grace Mcnerney, born in 2001 in Harrogate, focuses on the spectacle within the ordinary, drawing inspiration from realms such as office culture and airline safety. Known for her expansive thematic series that include painting, film, and sculpture, her recent degree show featured a fictional "Cool Water Company." The installation delved into a fabricated world of office dynamics, serving as an homage to the service sector and a commentary on late capitalism. Part of this exhibition, "Employee of the Month," showcased at Crème Fraîche, comprises ten portraits inspired by staff headshots from a Blackburn accounting firm.
John Sant
Born in Los Angeles in 1993, John Sant is a painter and writer deeply influenced by a four-month journey along the Appalachian Trail. His abstract work delves into the romanticism of the sublime, informed by complex theories like fractals and chaos theory, but ultimately aims for a theological essence centred on solitary moments. A piece from his degree show, "The Farm," captures the duality of nature's subjugation and freedom as a metaphor for imposing order onto chaos. A Rhode Island School of Design graduate, Sant is preparing applications for doctoral programs to further merge his painting and writing.
Karampreet Sehmbi
Karampreet Sehmbi (born in London in 2001) focuses on the human-environment relationship across various mediums—painting, photography, printmaking, collage, and filmmaking. Her Sikh upbringing heavily informs her work, emphasizing harmony between humans and nature. Starting with photography, Sehmbi often employs wood as a canvas, incorporating natural features into her compositions that evoke nature's dynamism. Her "Life-source" piece, based on a forest photograph, captures this energy and movement. Sehmbi is set to join the MA Fine Art program at Central Saint Martins in September 2023 and has previously exhibited in shows like 'Metamorphosis' and 'Alter.'
