This year, abstract painting steeped in emotion has continued to dominate gallery programmes. There has also been an ongoing interest in painters challenging the historical western canon, drawing together the rich techniques of the old masters with a contemporary take on power and control. Within the Turner Prize and beyond, artists have utilised mixed media practices and pioneering technology to confront a turbulent political landscape – and to consider its possible future. These six ascendent names all made a splash in 2025, cementing boundary pushing and vibrant careers.
Rene Matić
This year’s Turner Prize was one of the most captivating in recent memory, with Rene Matić nominated for their rousing exploration of class, race and gender. Their work delves into culture wars that have shaken Britain in recent years, bringing together moments of protest, partying and deep friendship to challenge rising bigotry with love. Their diaristic practice combines photography, sound and installation, inviting the viewer into their personal world. They also showed an intimate selection of images in ‘Idols Lovers Mothers Friends’ at Arcadia Missa and were selected for The Deutsche Börse Foundation Prize 2026, which will show at The Photographer’s Gallery next year.
Salman Toor
Salman Toor’s star has been steadily on the rise for the last few years. In 2025, he was recognised beyond the art world when his 2007 portrait of a teenage Zohran Mamdani hit social media. His archive painting of the powerhouse mayor-elect was created during his student years when the artist was 24 years old, but it already suggests his future direction, which imbues male portraiture and nightlife with a sensitive gaze. This year he had a major solo show ‘Wish Maker’ at Luhring Augustine in New York, examining the idea of vulnerability within public and private life, and the role of community for queer and diasporic individuals. He goes into the new year with his first European institutional show planned for the Courtauld in London this October.
Ayoung Kim
Ayoung Kim embraces new technologies in her work, exploring reality, belonging and queerness through artificial intelligence, gaming tools and video. She has had two major institutional shows this year, with ‘Many Worlds Over’ at Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof and ‘Delivery Dancer Codex’ recently opened at New York’s MoMA PS1. Both feature her long-running delivery driver character, who has an identical counterpart in a fictionalized future version of Seoul. In New York, the artist brought this digital character to life in a performance at Canyon, using motion capture with a live audience, and offering a behind-the-scenes view into her iconic videomaking.
Somaya Critchlow
Somaya Critchlow challenges the white male gaze, painting self-assured and powerful figures who stare back at the viewer. Her works utilise old masters’ techniques, reframing the visual language typically used to present a vision of colonial might. In 2025, she opened ‘Chamber’, her first UK institutional show at Dulwich Picture Gallery, in response to the gallery’s collection. Her paintings explored how stories relating to religion, mythology and history, including Ovid’s Metamorphoses, can mask dangerous power structures. Critchlow’s work also appeared alongside major contemporary names in numerous group exhibitions, including Hilton Als’ exploration of the writer Jean Rhys at Michael Werner and ‘From Cindy Sherman to Francesco Vezzoli: 80 Contemporary Artists’ at Palazzo Reale in Milan.
Caroline Walker
Caroline Walker’s intimate paintings focus on women’s domestic labour and care. Her institutional touring show ‘Mothering’ moved from the Hepworth Wakefield to Pallant House this year, garnering critical praise. The exhibition brought together five years’ work alongside new paintings, exploring mothering and early-years’ care, while delving into private moments of parents and grandparents. Her works are warm and tender, while also confronting the socioeconomic context of caregiving in the 21st century. She uses a sumptuous painting technique, with richly glowing light sources and deep shadows bringing her scenes opulently to life.
Rachel Jones
Rachel Jones’ profile has steadily increased since she graduated from the Royal Academy in 2019. Since then, she has designed a BRIT award for the 2024 show, featured in a Loewe campaign under the creative direction of Jonathan Anderson, and staged an opera with costuming by Roksanda. This year confirmed her status as one of the most exciting abstract painters of her generation, with two institutional shows following her independence from mega gallery Thaddaeus Ropac. New works at Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Courtauld presented a bolder approach, through her characteristically jagged forms that reimagine giant sets of teeth, brick walls, and explosive movements.