People

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Modern Painters, New Decorators is made up of artists, makers, and community organisers who together shape how our organisation runs and evolves. As an artist-led organisation, our team are practising artists who develop projects, curate exhibitions, and support others to sustain their creative work. Our members, studioholders, team, and management committee form an active network — growing an ecology of ideas, skills, and opportunities that help artists to develop, connect, and share their work. You can become a member to join our network, access exhibition opportunities, and contribute to this growing ecology, or volunteer with us to gain experience and support our public programme.

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Adetunji Onigbanjo (Studioholder) is a Nigerian artist based in Loughborough. Adetunji aims to challenge the skewed perception of Nigerian art as trauma-centric, choosing instead to create from a place of nostalgia, fun and experimentation. His work, characterised by carefree yet meticulous details. He has worked with the Cartoon Network, Google, Adidas, Rick & Morty and Art X Live.

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Andrew North (Studioholder) creates paintings which encompass a wide variety of subject matter, including rural landscapes, architectural motifs, plants and animals, and occasional figures. He studied at Glasgow School of Art and is represented by South Parade (London) and has exhibited at Trianglo Gallery (Italy) and 1974 Club (London) as well as undertaking residencies in Nottingham and Bilbao.

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Beth Lukockyj (Studioholder) is a multimedia artist whose work bridges the fields of textile craft and printmaking. She uses techniques like weaving, stitch, quilting, and photolithography to explore how memory, emotion, and texture can be embodied in material. Her prints combine family photographs with drawn elements, turning memory into form and revealing hidden layers of experience.

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Evelyn Silver (Associate) is a performance artist whose practice spans radical community arts, feminist activism and disability-led performance. Beginning in the 1970s within street theatre and drama in education, she went on to co-found the 1980s feminist anti-nuclear art collective Sister Seven and to collaborate with Shirley Cameron on performances now held in the Tate’s Women in Revolt exhibition.

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James Chantry (Studioholder) explores the supernatural, ecology and queer identity through performance and found materials. Often working in rural and liminal spaces, they reimagine the past to speculate on queer futures and forms of kinship. They have exhibited with Humberside & Taoyuan Art x Technology Festival (Taipei), Two Queens (Leicester), and Siao Long Cultural Park (Taiwan).

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Nenagh Watson (Studioholder) is a puppeteer who combines craft, image-making and materials such as wire, shadow, and light — transforming puppetry into a form of visual poetry. A co-founder of the 1990s company Doo-Cot, once described as “Britain’s most innovative puppet company,” she has produced work with Z-arts (Manchester), Southbank Centre (London) and BACKLIT (Nottingham).

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Pamela Clarkson (Associate) is a painter and printmaker. She has taught extensively in British Art Schools, exhibited widely and practiced in North and South America and West Africa. In 1989 she travelled to Senegal and Mali, drawing in and around the Dogon villages. Two years later, she went to Ghana to set up a printmaking studio at the College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology.

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Pasha Kincaid (Studioholder) is an arts activist who uses autoethnography to weave intergenerational experiences and narratives. Pasha also facilitates creative practice with vulnerable adults and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. She has curated several group exhibitions at Leicester Gallery, De Montfort University and Attenborough Arts Centre (Leicester).

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Selene States (Associate) is a British–American artist, translator, and dress studies scholar. Her PhD at Bauhaus University Weimar explores the history of women “wearing the pants” through art and fashion. She uses re-enactment to explore how identity is expressed through dress. She has shown work at Milton Keynes Gallery (UK), Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (Germany) and l’Aubette Strasbourg (France).

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Sheila Ghelani (Studioholder) is an artist whose work spans performance, installation, social art and moving image. Recent work includes sharing Common Salt in museums, libraries and arts spaces around the UK with artist Sue Palmer as part of her ongoing Rambles with Nature series. Sheila was also part of Land Body Ecologies, a collaborative residency at the Wellcome Collection.

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Tayler Fisher (Studioholder) works in painting, sculpture, collage and sound: deconstructing to core elements that are filtered and maximised. Alien environments, sampled imagery, altered figuration and echoed languages combine to discover comfortable spaces in the uncanny. He has exhibited with Gasleak Mountain (Nottingham), Trace Gallery (Nottingham) and Reference Point (London).

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Ama Dogbe (Management Committee, Treasurer) is a British-Ghanian artist. Ama builds video games, animations and audio-visual installations exploring autobiographical and utopian themes through world-building. Ama has exhibited at Spike Island (2023), Fermynwoods Contemporary Art (2023) and Attenborough Arts Centre (2021). Ama lives and works in London.

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David John Scarborough (Team Leader) is an artist, curator and musician. Since 2017, he has led the team at Modern Painters, New Decorators, alongside artists, supporters and partners. He makes virtual worlds, visual albums and collaborative performances. David has exhibited at Fermynwoods Contemporary Art (Kettering), Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer (Slough), and Turf Projects (Croydon).

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Elizabeth Hawley-Lingham (Management Committee, Chair) is a visual arts specialist with skills gained within public galleries, artist-led spaces, arts funding, and professional development. She is a teacher in Professional Practice in Art & Design, Loughborough University. She has worked at Contemporary Visual Arts Network East Midlands, Arts Council England, Tate Liverpool and Spike Island.

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Harry Freestone (Technical Coordinator) is an artist, art technician, director at Gasleak Mountain, Nottingham, an artist-led artspace and community interest company and the Building Coordinator of BACKLIT, Nottingham. As a technician, he has worked on touring shows, international exhibitions, as well as regional art galleries. As an artist, he predominantly works with sculpture, inspired by architecture and personal memories.

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Iona Lee-Wardell (Learning Assistant) is a Graphic Design student at Loughborough University, specialising in illustration. She recently completed a placement year with Dizzy Ink in Nottingham, where she developed hands-on experience in risograph printing, workshop delivery and creative production. At MPND, she supports the learning programme, helping to create inclusive and engaging experiences for young people.

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Josie Jones (corita, Project Lead) is partnering with us to explore how we host artists and our community through corita, a pop-up food project. corita is a microbakery based on-site, open on selected Saturdays with a menu of baked goods and drinks. corita uses food as a gathering point for conversations and sharing of ideas, working with simple and seasonal ingredients. Josie also works as a chef at Pici, Nottingham.

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Natasha Brzezicki (Management Committee, Secretary) is an arts psychotherapist and interdisciplinary artist based in Coventry. Her creative practice brings together sound, movement, and material processes, often using collected data or natural elements to explore how environments shape emotional and sensory experience. Recent work includes a commission for the Coventry Biennial.

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Ursula Rae (Learning Programmer) develops and delivers workshops for families and leads the Art Club for young people at MPND. A multimedia artist with a background in textiles, her practice is rooted in process and tactile exploration. Alongside her role at MPND, Ursula is also Families Programme Manager at Nottingham Contemporary. Her work focuses on creating inclusive, hands-on experiences that encourage curiosity, creativity and connection.

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