2026 Rylands Art Prizes awarded

Working across a wide range of media and approaches, this year’s entrants to the Rylands Art Prize impressed the judges with their ambition, care and thoughtfulness. 

MPhil student Teddy Graham is the artist behind Sanctuary and awarded first prize, together with Architecture student Ewan Roy and his oil painting Beneath the Surface.  Teddy has also been awarded in previous editions of the Rylands Art Prize.

Second prize was jointly awarded to Evie du Bas and Safaya van der Stok’s portraits Girl in Red Smoking Area and From Black Pain to Black Power, and Todor Todorov’s skilful ink piece Gaza 2023. 

In third place were the works of Raymond Chen and Cerys Evans as well as the film entitled The Dark Room by Eleanor Lewis and Rowan Hector-Turnbull.

The 2026 prize was judged by King’s Fellow Nicky Zeeman and Artist in Residence Marcus Coates. They wish to congratulate the prize winners on their outstanding achievements, and extend their sincere appreciation to all who submitted work. They point out that many of the submitted works that did not ultimately receive prizes would, in previous years, have been strong contenders or winners. 

On announcing this year’s winners, Nicky Zeeman said:

The commitment, imagination, and skill demonstrated across the entries have made this year’s exhibition a genuinely inspiring experience.

The Rylands Art Prize is an annual College competition in memory of Dr G.H.W Rylands (known as Dadie Rylands), a former Fellow of the College.

Students and staff at King’s can enter works of visual art in any medium. In recent years entries have included sound installations, video art, paintings in watercolour and oil, drawings, photography, sculptures, knitted artefacts, posters and assemblage art. 

You can view all of this year’s entries in the main Art Room (at the top of A staircase) until 16 February.