Fine art alumna Iona Ogilvy-Stuart exhibits new works following Accelerator Bursary residency
BA Fine Art with Contemporary Cultural Theory alumna Iona Ogilvy-Stuart was one of three artists exhibiting sculptural works at Assembly House in Leeds last month.
RUST was a sculptural exhibition showcasing work developed by Elrick Boldy, Ewan Summerton and Iona Ogilvy-Stuart during their residency at Assembly House throughout the Accelerator Bursary 2026.
Now in its second year. the Accelerator Bursary is a programme which supports three early-career artists in Leeds each year, following their undergraduate degrees. It is funded by Leeds Art Fund and delivered by Leeds Art Gallery in partnership with Assembly House – an artist-led community arts organisation, project space and artist studios located in a Victorian mill in Armley, Leeds.
The scheme is designed to give graduating artists from Leeds Beckett University, the University of Leeds and Leeds Arts University support at a crucial stage of their budding careers, while also nurturing the arts scene in the city and encouraging graduates to choose Leeds as a long-term place to stay and build their artistic careers.
Iona Ogilvy-Stuart, Two figures of driftwood, 2026. Wax, steel. In the background is work by Elrick Boldy. RUST exhibition, Assembly House, October 2026. © the artists.
The three winners of this year’s bursary have shared a studio space at Assembly House from the start of this year. Their residencies culminated in RUST, a new group show which ran from 13 to 18 October.
The exhibition presented a material dialogue between the perceived finality of metal, and the fragility of organic forms. RUST explored the threshold between the natural and the manufactured.
Showcasing the diverse contextual practices of each artist, the exhibition displayed the underlying connections of their works through the material.
Still from Accelerator Bursary show at Assembly House, 2026. Foreground: Iona Ogilvy-Stuart,'Pulp', 2026. Paper, clay, bark, hessian, paint, wood, fabric. Background: Iona Ogilvy-Stuart, Under a Clay Bed, 2026. Steel, fabric. Image © the artist.
Iona Ogilvy-Stuart graduated with a BA Fine Art with Contemporary Cultural Theory degree from the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds in 2025. Her work was showcased at the Make No Bones BA Fine Art Degree Show in June of the same year.
Iona was the winner of the Hargreaves Prize in 2025, for her final year dissertation. This research was an enquiry into the inability of language to signify trauma within written and verbal testimony of Holocaust survivors. The specific focus was on Paul Celan, a Romanian Jewish Holocaust survivor, who sought to expose language’s incapacity to translate such extreme events into something legible.
Straight after graduating, she received the Serf Graduate Residency which culminated in Wayfinding, an exhibition at Serf Studios in the summer of 2026. In this show, Iona exhibited her work alongside Skyla West, another artist graduate from the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies.
Iona Ogilvy-Stuart, Sand from the Urn, 2025. Plaster, ceramic, found wood, fabric, metal. Wayfinding exhibition, Serf Studios, summer 2026. Image © the artist.
Iona has featured in a number of group shows including Trace and Tendril (2026), Tensile Strength (Basements Arts, 2026) and the Assembly House Annual Show (Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds, 2026). She is currently exhibiting work at Shallow Time, alongside fellow alumna, Hannah Prince – the show runs until 22 November at MOTE 102 in Edinburgh.
Iona received the Berkofsky Award from the University of Leeds in 2025, which allowed her to conduct research before starting the Accelerator Bursary programme. She spent a week at the Sculpture Lounge in Holmfirth, with artist Damon Price, learning how to set up a micro-foundry and how bronze practitioners and artists have managed to continue the craft of bronze casting in the UK.
Iona Ogilvy-Stuart, Retrieved from Abyssal Plane, 2024. Metal, glass, steel, fabric. Photo © the artist.
Iona’s interdisciplinary practice spans sculpture, drawing, printmaking and photography, exploring the integration and disintegration of materials. Her sculptural work contemplates biomorphic, bodily forms and the material processes that occur between intention and finished object.
Her practice was significantly influenced by an exchange year in Krakow, Poland, where she learnt the traditional skill of bronze casting. In this process she became interested in the historical and alchemical transformation of matter.
Foregrounding the temporary materials that enable bronze production rather than bronze’s cultural status, Iona’s work questions hierarchies of value between the permanent and ephemeral.
Iona Ogilvy-Stuart, Under-Bodies, 2024. Bronze. Image © the artist.
Iona said:
“The Accelerator Bursary has been an incredible opportunity that has given me the support to continue working on my practice after graduating.
“With financial support from Leeds Art Gallery and Leeds Art Fund, I have been able to take up a second residency at a foundry where I conduct my material research and pour my bronze sculptures.
“This opportunity is helping me work towards a more sustainable practice with the longer term ambition of establishing a small-scale micro foundry of my own.
“These works will be presented at Leeds Art Gallery on the 30 and 31 January in Central Court. Everyone is welcome!”
Iona Ogilvy-Stuart, No Shade in a Paradise, 2026. Bronze. Installation view at Accelerator Bursary show at Assembly House, 2026. Image © the artist.
Iona will be discussing her work alongside Elrick and Ewan at an artist talk at Leeds Art Gallery on Saturday 14 November.
In conversation with Leeds Art Gallery curator Dr Elizaveta Butakova, the three Accelerator Bursary winners will also talk about their material processes and how to keep them up after university, how their work relates to bigger societal and political issues, and contemporary artists who are of interest.
Iona Ogilvy-Stuart, All that remains, 2025. Resin, hessian, concrete. Photo © the artist.
This is the second time one of our fine art graduates has received an Accelerator Bursary. Last year, Hannah Guy (BA Fine Art 2024) worked with Reece Kelly and Alegria Repila Smith to deliver their joint exhibition, Catching Forty Winks, in October 2025.
Hannah is an emerging fine art photographer based in Leeds, specialising in photography and the handmade creation of LED-engineered lightboxes. Her practice focuses on the photographic restoration of nighttime dreams into highly detailed staged tableau-vivants. Hannah’s work has been featured in Light Night 2023 and Ones to Watch 2024, in addition to a number of solo and group shows.
Hannah Guy, Of Water and Its' Memory, 2025. Photo © Hannah Guy.
Dr Moyra Derby, Associate Professor in Fine Art in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, said:
“The risk and material experimentation that underpins this new body of work by Iona Ogilvy-Stuart has been possible through the significant and timely support offered by the Accelerator Bursary.
“It is exciting to trace the development of the work since graduation, and see these new peer-to-peer networks emerging in Leeds.”
Iona Ogilvy-Stuart, A series of debris, 2026. Acetate, wood, tape, sand, plexiglass, nails. Installation view at Accelerator Bursary show at Assembly House, 2026. Image © the artist.
More information
Find out more about the Accelerator Bursary scheme.
Hosted by Leeds Art Fund, the Artist Talk: Accelerator Bursary, year 2 takes place at Leeds Art Gallery on Saturday 14 November from 2 to 4pm. Tickets cost £7.50 (Member) or £10.00 (Standard). Find out more and book your ticket.
Feature image
Artist Iona Oglivy-Stuart at the Make No Bones BA Fine Art Degree Show, University of Leeds, June 2026. Photo by Andy Lord. Image © the artist and University of Leeds.
