The Jhalak Art Residency
About the Jhalak Art Residency
The Jhalak Art Residency was born in 2018 when the best-selling novelist Dorothy Koomson offered to sponsor a unique work of art by an artist of colour to serve as a trophy for the Jhalak Prize. Since 2019, private donors have sponsored the Jhalak Art Residency, an annual art commission granted to a UK based artist of colour. Each year, a selected artist creates a unique work that addresses the ethos, principles and goals of the Jhalak Prize and serves as the trophy for the year. The aim of the residency, as with the Jhalak Prize, is to shine a light on artists of colour in contemporary Britain, to recognise their creative output, and celebrate their works. The first trophy, awarded in 2018, was designed by the ceramic artist Chris Bramble.
Artists in residence for the Jhalak Prize include artist, activist and writer, Tashmia Owen (2019), the Teheran-born, London-based conceptual artist Neda Koochakian Fard (2020), London artist and designer Amber Khokhar (2021), the Romanichal (English Romani Gypsy) artist and illustrator Elijah Vardo (2022), British-Nigerian artist Sharon Adebisi (2023), Edinburgh-based academic, activist and artist Samer Abdelnour (2024), British Indian multimedia pop artist Ketna Patel (2025) and London-based conceptual artist Munir Waked (2026).
A second residency was established in 2021 for the new Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize to celebrate illustrators of colour. The first Residency was awarded to illustrator Ruthine Burton. Since then, Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize residents have included children’s Book illustrator Rikin Parekh (2022), the award winning illustrator Diane Ewen (2023), artist and illustrator Yousef Saif (2024), book illustrator and author Lucy Farfort (2025) and Vietnamese illustrator Hoang Giang (2026).
From 2025, the Jhalak Art Residency has expanded to include a third artist who create work for the Jhalak Poetry Prize. British Pakistani conceptual artist Khaver Idrees was selected as the inaugural artist for 2025 while Gaza born Palestinian artist Malak Mattar was the artist in residence for 2026.
The Jhalak Art Residency began a year after the Jhalak Prize. For our 10th anniversary, we, honoured our first ever winner Jacob Ross with a specially commissioned work by Tashmia Owen.
We will continue to reach out to artists of colour in Britain to commission unique works in a range of styles and media.
We invite interested artists and potential sponsors to contact us.
Artists for 2026
Prose Prize
Visit Two – Munir Wakad
Visit Palestine posters were produced in the 1930s as part of a campaign by the Tourist Development Association of Palestine, an organization created by the Zionist movement to encourage Jewish tourism and immigration. The project invited would-be immigrants to picture Palestine as their own.
Wakad remakes the posters, fragmenting this imposed vision, breaking it down into squares. He then rebuilds the image so the posters might better convey the destructive force of this imposed re-imagining. Over the reconstituted poster, he writes stories of the daily sufferings of Palestinian families as they navigate the real-world impacts of the project, from walls around farmland to checkpoints separating communities.
The poster here was printed in 1936, of Jaffa oranges, once a major Palestinian export. The image is reconstituted alongside the story of a mother struggling to continue the family farm, a simple plot of land that she is often barred from accessing.
The print is mounted on wood and painted in oil.
Munir Waked (b. Nazareth 1976, resides in London) is a conceptual artist whose work incorporates photography, video, and objects relating to the contemporary Middle East and the global politics that have impacted the region. He creates images, video, and sculpture, and is the owner and curator of Finch Gallery, Hackney.
Poetry Prize
Motherhood in Palestine – Malak Mattar
A Palestinian mother is more than just a woman with children. She is mother to prisoners, martyrs, the disabled and hurting. She is an orphan, a widow and bereaved parent. She protects her land and home, holding fast to the key. She teaches peace and love, but fights when she must, along with the men.
This work is painted in oil on canvas board.
Malak Mattar (b. 1999, Gaza Strip) is a Palestinian artist whose work is rooted in personal and collective experience under occupation and siege. Mattar earned a scholarship to study Political Science at Istanbul Aydin University (2018–2022). This was followed by a second scholarship to undertake a Master of Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London (2023) which she completed with distinction and made history as the first Palestinian artist to hold a solo exhibition at the institution.
Children’s & YA Prize
Beyond the Clouds – Hoang Giang
This piece explores the uncertain future that today’s children will inherit. A diverse group of young children stands united before a large, dark cloud that obscures the horizon. Behind it, a soft glow of light breaks through — symbolising both hope and the unknown.
Rather than focusing on fear, I wanted to capture a quiet sense of resilience and possibility. Through this ambiguity, the work reflects the critical responsibility of the current generation to create a brighter world for those who come after us.
The piece is painted primarily in traditional watercolor, with only minor digital cleaning and refinement to enhance clarity and luminosity.
Hoang Giang was born in Dalat, a small highland city in Vietnam, before moving to Ho Chi Minh City to work as an illustrator. She always has fun while working and likes to make her characters as lively as possible - because the story belongs to the characters, themselves.
2017
Special Commission for the inaugural Jhalak Prize, award in 2017 to Jacob Ross
The Jhalak Art Residency began a year after the Jhalak Prize. In our tenth year, we return to honour our first ever winner, Jacob Ross with a specially commissioned work.
Tashmia Owen is a visual artist, writer, activist and scriptwriter. Owen studied at Central St. Martins and works in various mediums to explore life as a woman of colour in contemporary Britain. She writes on a host of issues, and her work has appeared at Sisterhood.com, Women’s Republic, Media Diversified, Gal-Dem and more. Owen was the Jhalak Art Resident in 2019 and created ‘The Library’ in resin at her kitchen table as she battled a life-threatening illness. She can be found on IG or twitter.
Tashmia Owen, 2026
Smritibar: The Burden Of Memories. Part one
For the inaugural winner of the Jhalak Prize
Drawn to the concepts of grief, uncertainty and recollection in the Camaho Quartet this piece became a dialogue intensified by Owen’s own recent loss, spilling out into what is now a series of paintings. The diaphanous and opaque layers convey the nature of the past and its impact on us, and our brains capability to remember details in the midst of trauma, and the weight of our histories.The potential to become lost in the depths of sorrow and be equally dazzled by new realisations.The nature of humans to seek answers and solace when vast chasms in our lives appear.
This work is created in acrylic, gouache, pastel and ink on canvas board.
Artists for 2025
Prose Prize
Time Is a Migrant Too – Ketna Patel
This collage is a meditation on movement—across borders, identities, and centuries. Built as a stream of consciousness, it flattens time into a single shared surface, where found imagery from disparate cultures and eras coexists without hierarchy. Lord Shiva, a Roman statue, historical figures, vintage Hollywood icons, and fragile blooms appear side by side, reminding us that the past is never truly past.This work invites us to reflect on time not as a straight line, but as a migrant too—shifting, cyclical, and shared.
Ketna Patel is a British-Indian multimedia pop artist whose bold, collage-driven works explore the layered worlds of migration, cultural identity, hybridity, and the colourful messiness of globalisation.
Born in Uganda, raised in Kenya, and later educated in the UK in Architecture and Design, Ketna spent nearly two decades in Singapore, where she transitioned from architecture to a full-time art practice. Her work fuses popular culture, mythology, religious symbolism, political commentary, and everyday visual detritus, all layered into striking compositions that act like cultural time capsules and conversation starters.
Over the years, Ketna has collaborated on a broad spectrum of projects, including custom art cars for Tata Motors, large-scale public sculptures like the Elephant Parade, and visual direction for global events such as the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA). Her work has also been translated into a fashion capsule collection and continues to inspire diverse industries—from film and publishing to homeware and design. Her work has been collected by institutions such as the Salsali Private Museum in Dubai and has held two solo exhibitions in London in the past year.
Poetry Prize
The Phoenix Egg – Khaver Idrees
The inspiration for this piece is two-fold. The Phoenix: known for its ability to die in a blazing fire, only to be reborn from its ashes, symbolising a continuous cycle of life, death and rebirth. Second, Wabi Sabi: Japanese concept encompassing the spiritual abundance of discovering or feeling beauty in a revealed patina of an object. The decision to make from clay was for its connection to, and gift from Mother Earth. Using the ancient Japanese technique of Raku firing, which is intrinsically linked to Wabi Sabi, the red hot glazed egg was placed in combustible sawdust and paper, relinquishing control and embracing mystery and wonder. There is a smoke hole at the top to keep a connection to the divine/soul. The interior is glazed in gold and a tiny circular mirror placed inside, so by looking in we catch a glimpse or ‘jhalak’ of ourselves. A writing instrument made by putting back together the hands of time was placed through the smoke hole in order to create a correspondence between time and space.
Khaver Idrees was born at the foothills of the Himalayas in Pakistan and raised in Essex, England. Her artistic journey is deeply intertwined with her background and personal experiences. Drawing inspiration from her own life, as well as geo-political contexts and the rich tapestry of folk tales and myths, Khaver’s work is an exploration of the metaphysics of Eco-Feminism.
Working across media, including painting, sculpture, performance, and poetry, Khaver seeks to reconnect the threads of inscape, instress and landscape, the irrational and the rational. This lifelong quest allows her to unearth and reweave narratives that celebrate the liminal spaces where the earthly and spiritual converge. Her practice weaves together storytelling, communal stitching, and the healing power of fibre craft as powerful, universal tools to dissolve notions of separation and otherness.
Initially, Khaver’s work offered a transformative space for survivors of gender-based violence, providing a sanctuary for healing and expression. As this space has evolved, it now welcomes a broader audience, fostering a sense of community that resonates with the boundless reality of the Feminine.
Children’s & YA Prize
A Sea of Stories – Lucy Farfort
Inspired by the water spirit Mami Wata and the Caribbean's strong connection to the sea. Mami Wata is a deity often depicted as a mermaid, whose origins lie in Africa and its diaspora. I have a huge affection for folklore and myth, from which some of our earliest, oral stories arose and still heavily influence storytelling today. I wanted to combine my love of those things with my own St Lucian heritage, and create a piece that would fuel the imagination and incite yet more incredible tales.The artwork began as a pencil drawing, which was scanned and finished with digital colour and collage.
Lucy Farfort is a children’s book illustrator and author of dual Caribbean-English heritage, based in Newcastle, whose work often centres around themes of hope, community and co-operation. Her artwork is made using a combination of traditional and digital media – generally water colour paintings enhanced with digital overlays, including found textures and patterns.
After winning first prize in illustration for Faber Children’s inaugural FAB Prize competition, Lucy has gone onto work with a number of publishers including Faber, Little Tiger Press and Scholastic.
Her debut picture-book, In Our Hands (Tate Publishing), was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize, nominated for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration, and selected by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education for one of their whole-school teaching units.
Alongside her artistic practice, Lucy also works as facilitator and has collaborated with organisations such as New Writing North, Seven Stories and South Bank Centre.
Lucy is currently working on her second picture book with Tate Publishing.
2024
About the artist -
Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize
The Eye of Time and the Buraq – Yousef Saif
This piece is inspired by the ongoing act of remembrance as Palestinians of our history as well as the beauty of the Arabic language.
I have been thinking a lot about the linguistics of mythological symbols, the language tree, the riddles created by religions and allegory, and the misunderstandings of those myths in the West and elsewhere.
In Arabic every linguistic nuance has weight. 'Filasṭīn', 'Palestine' in Arabic, ends with the word 'tin' which means 'earth'. Interestingly the number 'two' in Arabic is 'Thinin', and 'Dragon'is 'Tinin'.
The Winged Horse is ‘Buraq’ ; Volcano is ‘Burqaan’; Blessing is ‘Baraqa’; Lightning is ‘Baurq’. The Dove is also a timeless symbol in Middle Eastern traditions and its wings exactly echo that of the 'Buraq', guiding the way. In this way one word evokes many and as native speakers we understand the myths as beyond the literal.
In the piece the movement of a family, including the newest generation, is held within a circle, representative of sacred geometries in Arabic art. They are rising out of the rubble, even as they are unshakeably rooted in the land, as if to say ‘we will only rise’.
This piece was first painted in gouache before a digital freehand paint-over. The process was then split by instant printing on canvas, before a further final painting was done quite substantially in gouache on top. Aesthetically for ageing to occur in a natural ideal way no glass was placed over this piece.
Yousef Saif - As an illustrator and artist Yousef has worked in the film Industry and in publishing, and is now creating work for young adults with a debut graphic novel saga on the way. He has also produced editorial art for Arabic newspapers such as Al Quds and continues to be involved in this capacity.
Yousef believes artists do not operate in a void and seeks to use his skill set as an illustrator to target issues that are in need of raised awareness. This is especially true of the environmental crisis and global south and north demographic polarities that are becoming exacerbated around the world.
In joy and celebration of every culture and cosmology Yousef believes art can also be a gateway to a society not in schism but one of empathy where we learn to live together and foster harmony with the natural world.
2024
About the artist -
Jhalak Prize
Refaat’s Angel – Samer Abdelnour
For this piece I wanted to honour Refaat Alareer and his legacy. He and I had been communicating in the weeks before his assassination, and it only felt right to dedicate this piece to him. Like millions of people the world over, I am deeply moved by his poem, 'If I must die', and at some point, I realized that I might be working towards materialising a character from it.
The process involved experimenting with different clay models, and then focusing on shape, level of abstraction and the emotions they might convey. In past works, I formed shapes to my hands and this piece has some of this approach.
The final clay model was cast in bronze, and the patina chosen to highlight the pain and horror of this genocide with hope and love Refaat gave to his students, his work and to us all.
Samer Abdelnour is Palestinian, born in Canada and now based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is an academic, activist and artist.
Samer's art practice began through collaborations with community-based art collectives and artists. He serves on the board of the Embassy Cultural House, a Canadian collective of artists and activists founded by Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner.
Samer took the plunge two years ago to start making his own art. He is currently a student of Contemporary Art Practice at the Leith School of Art, Edinburgh and has also learned Concrete Casting at UAL. He first exhibited as part of a collective in June 2023, and will soon screen a short film as part of the Disarming Design Symposium at Kunsthal Gent. A current focus of his practice is figurative / emotive sculptures using clay, concrete and bronze.
His academic research looks at interventions in violent contexts, with much of his fieldwork undertaken in Sudan. Topics include interventions with women in camps around sexual violence and household energy, former fighters enrolled into agricultural cooperatives, and marginalized groups with collective enterprise. He also writes about Palestine and the Palestinian experience, and co-founded the global think tank Al-Shabaka.
Samer's work seeks to convey the political in a way that is deeply personal and human.
Samer can be found at:
Instagram: @samer_abdelnour
2023
About the artist -
Jhalak Prize
Sharon Adebisi is a British-Nigerian artist based in London who creates acrylic on canvas paintings..
Her work for the Jhalak Prize is titled 'Blessing' and has been created with acrylic on a circular canvas. The strong colours reinforce the key themes of healing and hope for the future.
Her works have been exhibited in various locations across the UK, including in OXO Tower Wharf, The Mall Galleries and the V&A Museum. She was a finalist in Glyndebourne Theatre's Tour Art Competition (2019), and has been shortlisted for the Jackson's Painting Prize (2020), Ruth Borchard's Self-Portrait Prize (2021) and ING Discerning Eye (2021). Her debut solo exhibition was held in May 2023 at the Art Hub Studios, London.
www: artbyadebisi.com
Instagram: @artbyadebisi
2023
About the artist -
Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize
Diane Ewen is British illustrator, based in the West Midlands.
For the Jhalak Children's & Young Adult Prize trophy, she drew on memories of carnivals, especially that of Nottinghill, as well as her own heritage from the Caribbean. Created digitally, the work looks forward to a joyful future replete with creativity, dreams and hope.
Recent books Diane has illustrated include Never Show a T-Rex a Book, Never Teach a Stegosaurus To Do Sums, Hey You!, and Coming to England. Diane won the Jericho Prize in 2021.
About Diane
Instagram: @creativedewen
Twitter: @creative_dy
2022
About the artist -
Jhalak Prize
Elijah Vardo is a Romanichal (English Romani Gypsy) artist and illustrator based in the UK.
Growing up on Gypsy sites across England, Elijah’s art captures the vibrancy of Romani culture with powerful use of colour, poignant composition and a wry sense of humor. His work addresses the personal and the political with verve, nuance and irrepressible joy. As a first-generationsettled Roma, and one of the very few in his family to pursue higher education, Elijah uses his art to represent his people and help inspire other GRT to achieve (what they consider) unachievable.
2022
About the artist -
Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize
Rikin Parekh is a children’s book illustrator based in North West London.
He has two art degrees from Camberwell College of Arts and the University of Westminster. His past jobs include working in a primary school and as a film production illustrator on monster movies..
Rikin's books include Fly Tiger Fly, Iguana Boy, The Worst Class in the World and This Book Has Alpacas, and Yes You Can, Cow. When he's not drawing you'll probably find him at the cinema or at Comic Con.
2021
Jhalak Prize
Amber Khokhar is a London artist and designer who has worked as an artist for the last thirty five years and taught art for the last twenty.
She has exhibited widely across the world and executed a formidable array of commissions including the design for a 40 metres by 6 metre carpet for Buckingham Palace and stained glass library ceilings at Dumfries House (Scotland) and interior designs and features of bespoke Rolls Royce Phantom Standard and Phantom Coupe Her design projects include Amnesty International; Joi and Pink Floyd record cover; logo for the Young Designers Centre, Design Centre (London, UK); and three posters for the Act Up mark International Aids Day.
She currently works from her studio in Creekside, Deptford and accepts private commissions
Instagram: @amber_khokhar
2021
Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize
Ruthine Burton is an artist and illustrator living in London. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Art from Aberystwyth University and is currently a mentee on the Pathways into Children’s Publishing programme (2021).
Her illustration practise is based on her love of real paper, paint and pastels with a touch of digital thrown in. She likes to work in two distinct ways: colour pencil on paper followed by some digital postproduction or drawing digitally then colouring and texturing using multiple media such as photographs, digitised fabrics and textures. She loves drawing characters and creating fun compositions. She also loves stories and has been developing some for picture books.
Instagram: @ruthineburton
2020
Neda Koochakian Fard is a Tehran born, London based conceptual artist. She studied fine arts at the Tehran University and has exhibited widely in Iran and the UK, including the Hampstead School of Arts, Central St. Giles, and the Royal Academy of Art. She was a featured artist for the Hampstead School’s annual public art exhibition of artistic interpretations of the egg for Easter 2019.
Upon arriving in London in 2014, Neda was part of an Islington based art and writing class run by writer Sita Brahmachari and author and illustrator Jane Ray who recommended her to the Hampstead School of Art. She continues to be affiliated to the school.
Neda is currently focused on how technology impacts humanity, the climate crisis and the impending anthropocene extinction.
Instagram @nedakoochakian
2019
Tashmia Owen is a visual artist, writer, activist and scriptwriter. Owen studied at Central St. Martins and works in various mediums to explore life as a woman of colour in contemporary Britain. She writes on a host of issues and her work has appeared at sisterhood.com, Women’s Republic, Media Diversified, gal-dem and more. She can be found at dancinginshadows.com but is more often on twitter: @dancinginshado
Instagram: @tashmiaowen
2018
Chris Bramble studied Art and Design at Glasgow School of Art and spent ten years working in the city. In 1985 he took two years out to go and work in Zimbabwe as the Exhibitions Officer at the National Gallery in Harare. On moving to London in 1989 he set up a studio at Kingsgate Workshops in Kilburn.
Chris creates hand-crafted pots and ceramic sculptures that bring together his interest in the European sculptural tradition and the love of African craftsmanship, shape and form. Sculpted faces and torsos emerge from the wheel-thrown vessels and shapes. Each of his pieces is a meditation, and a spiritual and emotional activity that is shared with everyone.
Chris runs workshops in schools across London, teaches in colleges and has regular classes at his workshop.
Instagram: @chrisbrambleceramics