Exploring creativity without borders
Thank you for joining us during Frieze Week for our milestone exhibition, Sweet 16: Young Masters Retrospective, celebrating sixteen years of artistic excellence, dialogue and innovation. It was an unforgettable week, filled with creativity, conversation and connection. As we look ahead to an exciting season, with Art Miami 2025 on the horizon, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the truly international spirit that defines the Young Masters Art Prize.
This week, we celebrate our Alumni Artists from Africa, The African Diaspora and North America, whose voices and visions continue to shape contemporary art across continents.
AFRICA / AFRICAN DIASPORA YOUNG MASTERS
From Nigeria to Zimbabwe, the Caribbean to South Africa, the Alumni Artists representing Africa and its diaspora in this Young Masters programme embody resilience, imagination and cultural dialogue.
Illustrious guest artist (courtesy of Cristea Roberts Gallery) Yinka Shonibare CBE RA (Nigeria / UK) addresses and redefines post-colonial narratives through his globally acclaimed practice. EVEWRIGHT (UK / Jamaican heritage), a Young Masters 2014 finalist, transforms public spaces into platforms for Black British stories, while Natasha Muluswela (Zimbabwe / UK), Highly Commended for the Young Masters Emerging Woman Artist Award 2023, explores identity and migration through both faceless figures and African masks that create delicate poetic symbolism.
Dola Posh (Nigeria / UK), Young Masters Art Prize 2023 finalist, captures the intimate strength of motherhood and womanhood through photography, while multi-award-winning and Young Masters 2019 People's Choice Award Giggs Kgole (South Africa) examines postcolonial African narratives through oral history and fuses memory, heritage and innovation.
NORTH AMERICA YOUNG MASTERS
Across the Atlantic, Young Masters North American Alumni explore the political, intellectual and cultural landscapes of contemporary life.
Young Masters 2009 inaugural winners, Ghost of a Dream (USA), transform discarded fragments of pop culture into sculptural reflections on aspiration and collective desire, a practice that has taken them from New York to France, London, China and beyond. Their work continues to capture the essence of transformation, finding beauty and meaning in the remnants of modern dreams.
Thomas Kelly (USA), an award-winning painter and Young Masters Guest Artist, brings warmth and optimism to contemporary painting through expressive, narrative scenes that speak of hope, humanity and the everyday poetry of life.
Foster White (USA), a rising photographic talent from Washington, D.C., explores the tactile intersection of light, material and emotion. Working through burning and soot, his portraits embrace imperfection and ambiguity, each image balancing control and spontaneity. His work, influenced by Saul Leiter and Gordon Parks, captures the quiet poetry of transformation and resilience.
ABOUT YOUNG MASTERS ART PRIZE
Young Masters Art Prize is a not-for-profit initiative founded in 2009 by gallerist Cynthia Valianti Corbett to support emerging and mid-career artists who draw inspiration from art history. Through exhibitions, awards, and mentorship, Young Masters continues to nurture diverse talent and connect creative voices across generations and geographies.
If you’d like to support our mission and become a Young Masters Patron, please click here; your contribution helps us continue empowering artists worldwide.