Four emerging artists shortlisted for this year’s FUAM Graduate Art Prize
Four graduates from the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Culture have been shortlisted for this year’s Friends of University Art and Music (FUAM) Graduate Art Prize at the University of Leeds.
Now in its 13th year, the Friends of University Art and Music (FUAM) Graduate Art Prize celebrates the talents of students completing their degree studies in Art & Design and Fine Art at the University of Leeds.
This year’s shortlisted artists are Alice Boot (BA Fine Art), Esme McLean (BA Fine Art), Alexandra Rosenthal (BA Art & Design) and Hannah Slater (BA Art & Design).
The finalists’ work will be showcased at the FUAM Graduate Art Prize 2025 exhibition at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery from 8 August to 1 November, launching with an evening event on Thursday 7 August.
Alice Boot
Whether in large-scale drawings or hanging sculptures, Alice Boot (BA Fine Art) responds to the natural fibres, knots, rocks, wooden groynes and fishing nets found in the coastal environments of their childhood in East Sussex, where the sea hastens decay and transformation. Boot’s rambling hessian sculptures obey their own logic, ravaged skeins tangling, knotting and reaching out into the room, clinging to architecture or weighted down by metal objects.
Alice Boot, ‘Sweeping Fibre’, 2025. Image © the artist. Photo by Andy Lord.
Esme McLean
Family photographs are the starting points for Esme McLean’s (BA Fine Art) drawings and sculptural dioramas: “I revisit these moments in my work and represent them through fictional scenes”, she explains. Her distinctive arrangements of ceramic figures overlaid with cross-hatched glazes “allude to something that once was there but is no longer... a static yet uncertain memento of a fleeting moment”.
Esme McLean, ‘A Full House’, 2025. Image © the artist. Photo by Andy Lord.
Alexandra Rosenthal
In her installation Beyond the Façade, Alexandra Rosenthal (BA Art & Design) “explores the tension between the rigid exterior of architecture and the soft, complex reality of human identity within”. An accomplished brutalist-style architectural model based on the Barbican sits at its centre. Orbiting it, glowing wall-mounted tableaux reveal the imprint of individual lives in the rooms on the other side of the thrusting hard-edged concrete.
Alexandra Rosenthal, ‘Beyond the Façade’, 2025 (detail). Image © the artist. Photo Michael Anderson.
Hannah Slater
Also graduating from Art & Design, Hannah Slater “reimagines the unique flowing contours and curves of naturally stacked rock formations, offering an appreciation of light and form” in her multi-functional modular lighting. Inspired by the eroded forms of Brimham Rocks and the sculpture of Henry Moore, Tony Cragg and Isamu Noguchi, her subtly amorphous lamps can be used as hanging pendants, clusters, or table or floor lights.
Hannah Slater, ‘The Idol’, ‘The Anvil’, ‘The Eagle’, 2025. Image © the artist. Photo Michael Anderson.
The finalists were selected by a panel of three judges, based on work showcased in this year’s degree shows by graduating students from the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies (Make No Bones) and School of Design.
Judges Rachel Brealey, Chief Operating Officer, University of Leeds; freelance creative producer Helen Moore, and independent curator and Director of The Art Court Courtney Spencer chose two artists from each degree show.
The judging panel will reconvene in the autumn to choose the overall winner. In the meantime, visitors to the show can have their say with a vote for the People’s Choice, either in the Gallery or online. Both prize-winners will be announced at a public event on Tuesday 14 October.
Poster for FUAM Graduate Art Prize 2025 exhibition in The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery at the University of Leeds. Images © the artists.
With the economic uncertainty involved in pursuing a career in the arts more pressing than ever, the FUAM Grduate Art Prize offers a package of support for the transition from art student to professional artist.
Chair of the judges, Laura Claveria (Associate Curator of Exhibitions, Cultural Collections & Galleries), said:
“Participating in the FUAM Graduate Art Prize exhibition is a unique opportunity for these talented emerging artists.
“Firstly, we provide each finalist with a £200 materials bursary to develop or expand their work. By participating in their first institutional group exhibition, they also benefit from critical visibility and dedicated support from a team of curatorial, technical and communications professionals.
“The overall winner receives a prize of £500, and one of their works is acquired for the University Art Collection. In addition, each of the other shortlisted artists wins a prize, which we’ve recently increased to £200. All of this helps them to increase their confidence and push their practice forward.
“We've seen firsthand in artists such as Emii Alrai, Astrid Butt, Ella Georgiou and Saba Siddiqui how this kind of recognition can open doors, spark new opportunities, and help shape the trajectory of a young artist's career.”
FUAM Graduate Art Prize 2024 winner Ella Georgiou with her work in The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds. Image credit: University of Leeds. Photo by Simon & Simon.
Addressing the increasing difficulty of getting started in a career in art, the exhibition offers an expanded array of support for shortlisted artists, who can also be encouraged by the continuing success of recent winners.
Last year’s winner of the FUAM Graduate Art Prize, Ella Georgiou became one of the first artists to be awarded a prestigious Jerwood Residency at Edinburgh Printmakers.
Following winning the prize in 2022, Astrid Butt was selected for the 2023 Yorkshire Graduate Award residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Another FUAM Graduate Art Prize winner, Emii Alrai (2016) went on to a commission for Hepworth Wakefield, a display of new and reimagined works at Compton Verney earlier this year, and her current major exhibition at Leeds’ Henry Moore Institute.
2024 People’s Choice winner Saba Siddiqui is current Curating Visibility Fellow at Barnsley Museums, as well as a commissioned artist for Bradford 2025. She picked up another People’s Choice Award for her installation at Ones to Watch at Sunny Bank Mills Gallery this year.
FUAM 2024 People's Choice winner Saba Siddiqui with her installation 'Defiance My Way' in The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery. Image credit: University of Leeds. Photo by Simon & Simon.
More information
The Friends of University Art and Music (FUAM) is an independent non-profit foundation established in 1989 to support the musical and artistic life of the University and the city of Leeds. From informal beginnings as a group of staff members and friends, FUAM has grown into a lively organisation with a regular programme of events.
Members enjoy exclusive previews, artist talks and more, and their subscriptions and donations support the annual Graduate Art Prize – now in its 13th year – as well as The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery and the University of Leeds International Concert Series. For information on how to join, visit fuam.leeds.ac.uk
All are welcome to celebrate the opening of the FUAM Graduate Art Prize Exhibition 2025 in The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Parkinson Building, University of Leeds, on Thursday 7 August, 5:30pm – 7:30pm. The exhibition runs from 8 August – 1 November. Prizes will be awarded at another public event in the Gallery from 5.30pm on Tuesday 14 October.
Admission is free, with no booking necessary, and the Gallery is open from 10am – 5pm, Tuesday – Saturday. For more information on the exhibition and events programme, visit the Leeds University Library Galleries website.
Feature image
Left to right: Alexandra Rosenthal, ‘Beyond the Façade’, 2025 (detail). ©The Artist (Photo: Michael Anderson); Alice Boot, ‘Sweeping Fibre’, 2025. ©The Artist (Photo: Andy Lord); Esme McLean, ‘A Full House’, 2025. ©The Artist (Photo: Andy Lord); Hannah Slater, ‘The Idol’, ‘The Anvil’, ‘The Eagle’, 2025. ©The Artist (Photo: Michael Anderson).
