Batsford Prize
The Batsford Prize 2026
We’re very excited to present the winners and runners up of the Batsford Prize 2026 (Theme: Connections)!
The four winners and eight runners up of this year’s award were announced at an awards event celebrating the shortlist at The Batsford Gallery. An exhibition of the shortlist ran at the Gallery until Sunday 24 May.
The winning entries were ‘Torso 28.08.2025′ by Anna Mays (Fine Art & Overall), ‘Drawings of lessons on a violin’ by Aranza Novoa Barrantes (Architecture), ‘Murmur’ by Ruby Higgs (Applied Art and Textiles) and ‘Terrace Tales’ by Anantjeet Kaur (Book Illustration). The winners each received a £300 cash prize and £300 worth of books for their college.
On the quality of entries this year, Chair Vaughan Grylls says:
‘The standard of entries this year was exceptionally high across all categories. The judges were struck by the way our theme of Connections was not only applied to subject matter and the wide use of materials, but also to challenging our four categories. This demonstrates how boundary-pushing, outward-looking and alive with human creativity visual arts in the UK remains, despite threats posed by the digital world. The overall winner, by Royal College of Art student, Anna Mays, is “Torso 28.08.25”, a sculptural print, many-layered with 10 panels of etched steel assembled with magnets. Life-sized and inspired by a head to pelvis CT scan Anna received following a bike accident, the work played compellingly with the tension between the soft vulnerability of the human body and the cold invulnerability of steel.’
The Batsford Prize 2026 was judged by industry professionals Eoghan O’Brien, Neil Dunnicliffe, Vaughan Grylls, Polly Powell, Mike Tonkin and Anne Kelly.
WINNER OF THE FINE ART CATEGORY & OVERALL WINNER:
Torso 28.08.2025
Anna Mays, MA Print, The Royal College of Art.
Torso 28.08.05 is a sculptural print made from layers of etched mild steel. The imagery is taken from slices of a head to pelvis CT scan of the artists own body. It presents a life-size, physical and material format of these otherwise digital scans.
Anna Mays b.1998 is an Irish artist from Dublin, currently based in London. She studied Fine Art Printmaking at the University of Brighton and was awarded the Printmaking Today State of the Art Graduate award. She is currently doing her Master’s in Print at the Royal College of Art. Anna has a cross-disciplinary approach to print. In doing so, she makes sculptural works and installations to create new perspectives and narratives on how we occupy our bodies and space.
Find them on Instagram.
RUNNERS UP:
Talking Statues
Marina Trani, MA Fine Art, Central Saint Martin’s, UAL.
Talking Statues investigates the enduring vitality and historical resonance of Rome;s Statue Parlanti, positioning them as agents of expression rather than relics. The installation animates paintings and sculptural elements delivering humorous reflections on human behaviour. Within this fabulation, the statues speak from a position shaped by centuries of silent observation.
While born in Italy and with a long experience in science, Marina now lives in London and has transitioned to becoming a full time artist. Marina is now completing a master program in Fine Art at CSM (UAL, London). While painting is her natural form of expression, Marina often adopts a multitude of mediums including printing, animations, installations. Marina has exhibited her work in numerous shows and her work is included in private and public collections.
Find them on Instagram.
Fog Horn
Polly Black, BA Fine Art, Arts University Bournemouth.
Fog Horn explores the midlife experience and, through sculpture, assemblage and sound, features a CNC-cut self-portrait that sounds a foghorn when pushed. This work addresses the invisibility of women during this transitional phase, elevating its lows and highs, and repositions the experience beyond the elder-female echo chamber.
Polly is a mixed-media artist working across sculpture, installation, performance and photography. Polly’s practice explores (m)otherhood, body image, and overlooked female experiences, with a focus on midlife as a period of transition. Materially led, their work uses repetition and transformation through clay, plaster, textiles, and found objects, at times shaped by performance. This creative output is informed by care, fragmentation, and constraint, which they approach as generative conditions grounded in everyday life.
Find them on Instagram.
WINNER OF THE BOOK ILLUSTRATION CATEGORY:
Terrace Tales
Anantjeet Kaur, MA in Children’s Book Illustration, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University.
Terrace Tales is a screen-printed concertina book capturing the quiet rhythms of rooftop life where play, solitude, and community coexist. Drawn from memory and observation, its wordless, interconnected sequence invites readers of all ages and cultures to wander freely through a disappearing urban feature and find something familiar within it.
Anantjeet is an illustrator and designer from India, working in children’s literature. Trained in graphic design, she shifted from digital drawing to tactile image-making during her recently concluded MA. Her work authentically explores human connections, culture, and childhood curiosity, drawing inspiration from her Indian, Sikh, and Punjabi roots.
Find them on Instagram.
RUNNERS UP:
Hunting for Wishes
Oryn Redford, MA Children’s Book Illustration, Cambridge School of Art,Anglia Ruskin University.
High in the highlands in a small, cosy home is a badger named Button. Buttions’ biggest wish is to have a friend to speak to. So she goes on a mighty adventure to find things to make wishes on. “Oh, I wish, I wish I had someone to speak to”.
Oryn is a children’s book illustrator, author and painter from Scotland. She expresses herself with big brushes through loose and fast brush strokes, giving her work texture and life. She is heavily inspired by childhood memories and feelings, as well as the Scottish Highlands. Her goal is for her art to evoke a feeling of cosiness and comfort as well as a sense of wonder.
Find them on Instagram.
Bonds
Liv Ye, MA Illustration, Kingston School of Arts.
Bonds explores the delicate and complex nature of human relationships, reflecting on how connection, distance, and care shape our emotional lives. It invites a more compassionate awareness of the ties that connect and influence us.
Liv Ye is a London-based illustrator. Her work is inspired by personal experiences and explores imagery that blends emotion and imagination. She aims to evoke joy and self-reflection, fostering a deeper connection between people and the world.
Find them on Instagram.
WINNER OF THE APPLIED ART AND TEXTILES CATEGORY:
Murmur
Ruby Higgs, (BA Hons) Textiles Design , Falmouth University.
Murmur is a study of how natural systems of communication and movement can be reinterpreted through tactile and constructed means. It explores the interwoven nature of movement, sound, and pattern as seen in bird murmuration. Investigating collective flight forms’ density, direction, and rhythm that influence woven structure and language.
Ruby is 3rd year textiles student at Falmouth University specialising in weaving. When designing they value the use of traditional techniques and materials through processes such as hand spinning and processing fibre to make my own yarns for weaving. Combining these heritage crafts with more contemporary designs and techniques through innovative weaving is what they enjoy. Many of Ruby’s projects take influence from immersion and my appreciation of the natural environment which they seek to emulate in my work.
Find them on Instagram.
RUNNERS UP:
Pres at Seven
Alice Rose, BA (Hons) Textile Design, Arts University Bournemouth.
This project explores the connection between recircling trends within fashion and the nostalgia that this brings, allowing us to revisit playful self-expression. Combining knit with innovative techniques and materials to create textural designs for the context of women’s fashion and accessories. I also considered sustainability through sourcing deadstock yarns.
Alice is a third-year student studying Textiles at Arts University Bournemouth. They create textural designs combining materials and fabric with knit to create playful and cohesive collections for women’s fashion.
Find them on Instagram.
A Sense of Place
Ebberley Webber, BA (Hons) Textile Design, Arts University Bournemouth.
Sense of place looks at my personal connection with Cornwall, the coast, the beaches and the landscape. Designed as an interiors project for the context of hotel rooms in Cornwall, I’ve been inspired by natural forms off the beaches to create patterns full of colour, life, energy and movement.
Originally Ebberley Webber is from the deep depths of Devon, but now they study textiles at Arts University Bournemouth and is enjoying every moment of it. They don’t yet specialise in an area of textile design as they’re exploring every possibility before they decide what they want to focus on in the industry. In their work there’s a lot of connection to where Ebberley is from and the things they enjoy which means there’s lots of passion and emotion woven into their pieces.
Find them on Instagram.
WINNER OF THE GEOFFRY POWELL AWARD FOR ARCHITECTURE:
Drawings of lessons on a violin
Aranza Novoa, BA Architecture, Manchester School of Architecture.
These pencil drawings are an architectural interpretation of my 3D structure “lessons on a violin,” which I created for my IB Arts exhibition with the theme of connection. Born out of my experience teaching my sister how to play the violin, the 3D structure aimed to portray how this activity united us.
Aranza Novoa is a first year architecture student at Manchester School of Architecture with a passion for visual storytelling and who enjoys embracing physical modelmaking as part of her creative processes.
Find them on Instagram.
RUNNERS UP:
The Folly
Roberto Garcia Sepulveda, MA Architecture, Kingston University.
An exploration of connections between intuition and construction, where collage informs architectural form. My project transforms an abstract composition into a grounded folly, negotiating relationships between image, material, and site through scale, structure, and making.
Roberto’s academic and professional path is grounded in studies in law, politics, and urban studies in Mexico, the United States, and the United Kingdom. These foundations have shaped their understanding of the built environment as a tool for social transformation, wellbeing, and community engagement. Roberto is currently an architecture student at Kingston University in London. They’ve recently been awarded the Sue-Ann Lee Studentship Award at my university and became a Young Urbanist by the Academy of Urbanism in London.
Find them on Instagram.
The Written Skin of the City
Min Jeong Park, MA Interior and Spatial Design, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London.
The Written Skin of the City proposes the urban environment as an ongoing negotiation between body and surface, memory and matter, permanence and play—inviting us to read, listen, and rewrite the shared, living palimpsest.
Min Jeong Park is a designer and artist working across installation, urban research, and design projects. She recently completed an MA in Interior and Spatial Design at the University of the Arts London. Particularly drawn to the notions of surface and layering, her work explores the accumulation of time and traces inscribed on the city’s skin. Through this lens, she translates bodily gestures and material transformations into architectural languages that evoke playfulness and deep sense of presence.
Find them on Instagram.
News on the Batsford Prize 2027 coming later this year.
