2020/21 Fellows

John Renhard

Wolverhampton University

“My work revolves around the theft and destruction of other peoples work, not in a “bad” way but in a “nice” creative way. I take pre-existing images, videos, items, objects, ideas, whatever takes my fancy, I take them apart to find out what they are made of, to find what new objects are hidden away inside these newly broken things, to find materials I can use something new, something they were never intended to be.”

This fellowship has been extended to 21/22 due to the impacts of the Covid related lockdowns.

Elisha Hughes

Swansea College Of Art

“My practice investigates a place that is forever changing. Using materials such as photography, drawing, installation enables me to ask questions, to create conversations and to be curious. I want my work to be a place of reflection, a place that I capture and a place that discovers. Receiving the Fellowship has enabled me to professionally develop my work and it has given me a platform to have my voice heard as a young female artist. I have recently had my work shown in group exhibitions at Elysium, Swansea and MOMA Machynlleth. The work featured in the exhibitions, Another Year, Another and Young Welsh Artists were an accumulation of all the research and encounters during my fellowship. A direct response from and to the local landscape that surrounds me.”

This fellowship has been extended to 21/22 due to the impacts of the Covid related lockdowns.

Andrew Bowen

Swansea College Of Art

“Andrew Bowen is an artist from the land that has more castles per square mile than anywhere else on Earth. The subject of his studies focuses on the current global zeitgeist; environmental, political and social issues, trends and topics. A mixed media practitioner, who uses a variety of mediums that best represents his current creative enquiry. The result is an artistic output capturing the spirit of our time that ranges from the sculptural to photographic, moving image to the painterly; with an underlying pop aesthetic simmering beneath the surface.”

This fellowship has been extended to 21/22 due to the impacts of the Covid related lockdowns.

Millie Barrow

Loughborough University

“To be rendered voiceless is to be dehumanized, this lies at the centre of women’s history and people in the minority. I recognise my practice as an empowerment project which aims to encourage the transformative growth from victim to victor for those who are abused by patriarchy, through the liberating power of craft and applied arts. My creations become an emblem of solidarity, empowerment, and political protest critiquing our culture. 

“By radicalising garments and the domestic space with language that disrupts the viewers thinking and perception, the use of confrontational and factual linguistics allows me to confront the discrimination in our society and challenge the viewer to second check themselves. The stitch transmutes into the voice of victors as it asserts dominance and challenges the power norms in our culture.”

Delphi Campbell

Cardiff School of Art and Design

“My work could serve as a guide on how to make yourself ridiculous. Through my work I strive to deliver raw but humorous self-portraits, demonstrating exaggerated and multifaceted versions of the self, navigating different copies of myself to try and satiate this curiosity/obsession with my presence on this planet, what I feel and what I look like while I sit on it. Recently I have been focused on exploring my sexuality, my disability, and how these aspects become representative of my whole self.

“I use soft-sculpture, fabrics and stuffings for their pillowy femininity, their bare fleshy feeling and comforting tactile experience.

“I try to choose my materials by balancing what I can easily get my hands on, what doesn’t conflict with my moral alignment, my environmental concerns, then the cost. Alongside these deliberations I consider how the aesthetic of my chosen materials will sit in the work. I typically recycle materials from previous works, use found objects or pre-loved fabrics. This has become as an important part of my practice as the outcome of the objects I make.”

Joshua Donkor

Cardiff School of Art and Design

“I describe my practice as visual storytelling. Within my work I aim to capture individuals’ personal stories and experiences as openly and honestly as possible. My work revolves around race, identity, ancestry and transcultural experiences, particularly focusing on the African diaspora across the Western World. Within this context, my work aims to explore both the struggles and advantages associated with African Ancestry while also seeking to break away from oversimplified and prejudicial stereotypes that exist around “black identity”.

By telling people’s stories I hope that my work can emphasise the complexities that exist within “black identity” while also exposing a wider audience to a range of different experiences, perspectives, and cultures. 

I am predominantly a portrait painter but I also incorporate elements of photography and audio within my work.”

This fellowship has been extended to 21/22 due to the impacts of the Covid related lockdowns.

Aabidah Shah

Wolverhampton University

Aabidah Shah is a Pakistani Photographer. Born in Long Island, New York and raised in Birmingham, UK. She has graduated with First Class Honours Degree in Photography at the University of Wolverhampton. Winner of the 2020 Prestigious Kodak Award of Excellence in Analogue Photography.

Shah focuses on diversity, by bringing different ages, cultures, ethnicities, religions and genders together, photographing the beauty of inclusivity. Shah has photographed individuals in her lockdown project, ‘Digital Distancing’ which connected people across the world in solidarity during these tough times. Due to the attention and success of the project ‘Digital Distancing’ has been printed as an exclusive limited edition photozine.

Shah has taken the experience from her own abuse and used that to support and encourage other women in a series of portraits and statements by survivors of sexual abuse. 

Shah has exhibited with PH Collective at Vivid Projects (2020) and for Wolves Women’s Day at The Light House (2020). Featured in SOURCE Photographic, Express & Star, Art Gallery 514 and Disgraceful Magazine. Interviewed on Switch Radio and Encore Pop & Influencer. 

Ross Mountford

Staffordshire University

“During my time on the ABF fellowship, I have been fortunate enough to achieve a multitude of different goals, personally and for my business.

“Throughout the course, I was lucky enough to have access to the relevant workshops, this enabled me to design and make my latest body of work ‘plant furniture’. With the security of the ABF, I was able to take risks within my design and try new concepts, knowing that once the course had ended, I would not be lucky enough to have the accessibility to a workshop for a while.

“I was also fortunate enough to be shortlisted for a ‘Young Furniture Makers’ award and chosen to showcase my work at my first independent design show. Both opportunities were possible because of my time on the program and allowed me to grow in confidence and establish myself as a Designer Maker, I am now looking forward to applying to upcoming design shows this year.

“Towards the end of the course, I set up my design business (Ross Mountford Designs Ltd), I feel that the skillset and confidence I acquired from having the freedom on the course to create my own designs, gave me the motivation to do this.”

This fellowship has been extended to 21/22 due to the impacts of the Covid related lockdowns.

Tiggy Beaman

Loughborough University

“My name is Tiggy Beaman, I’m a figurative nude artist specialising in the theme of body confidence. My practise promotes body celebration, acceptance and raises awareness of mental health in an aim to desexualise the nude within art. I work closely with people to create personal and inspiring paintings that gives them confidence as well as inspire and encourage positivity and kindness.

“As a woman, painting other women is more personal, my relationship with anyone I paint runs deeper, I can relate more to struggles women face with their bodies in society and social media.

“I constantly try to create work that impacts the viewer and help someone’s self-confidence. I work with volunteers who come forward to be a part of my work which gives a huge range in diversity and body types. I am currently exploring more abstraction within my painting technique, using bolder colours and materials on larger canvases to really exaggerate and create impact for the viewer.”