Professor Alexander Marr is a Professor of Renaissance and Early Modern Art at the University of Cambridge, where he serves as Head of the Department of History of Art. He is also a Fellow of Trinity Hall, Dean of Discipline and Picture Steward.

Before joining Cambridge in 2012, Professor Marr was a Lecturer in Art History at the University of St Andrews and an Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Southern California.

He studied at Sotheby's Institute of Art in London and the University of Oxford, where he completed an MSt and DPhil in Modern History at New College. During his time at Oxford, he was the Clifford Norton Fellow Commoner in the History of Science at The Queen's College.

Professor Marr is the President of The Leonardo da Vinci Society, a UK charity dedicated to supporting the study of art and science from the Renaissance to the present day, and also serves as a Trustee of the Society.

Charmaine Watkiss is a British artist whose practice investigates the botanical legacy of the Caribbean. She is particularly interested in healing traditions handed down through the matrilineal line, her work reflects this through constructed narratives around women. She accesses public archives which serve as a material from which she constructs narrative responses; using her likeness as a way of enacting what she calls ‘memory stories’ through her drawn compositions.

Notable exhibitions include: Legacy solo show, Abbot Hall Museum 2024; In Praise of Black Errantry, Palazzo Pisani S. Marina (During the 60th Venice Biennial, 2024)l; O Quilombismo, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin 2023; Liverpool Biennial, 2023; Spirit in the Land, Nasher Museum at Duke University, 2023. Her work is held in international private and public collections.

What I am looking for is work which has a unique point of view; which could be expressed through storytelling or it could be through the way the artist uses material / mark making or composition.

JONATHAN YEO (b. 1970) is a leading British figurative artist known for his portraits of prominent figures, including King Charles III, Sir David Attenborough, Malala Yousafzai, Nicole Kidman, Idris Elba, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair. His official commissions include portraits of Prince Philip and The Queen, and his work has been exhibited widely in museums and galleries worldwide.

Entirely self-taught, Yeo gained recognition in his early thirties through major official commissions when portraiture had fallen out of fashion. His 2007 collage of George Bush cemented his reputation for blending traditional and experimental approaches. Alongside his Collage Series, his work has explored themes such as cosmetic surgery and broader conceptual narratives.

His first mid-career retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery in London (2013) received critical and public acclaim and later toured the UK. In 2016, he collaborated with the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, unveiling a portrait of Kevin Spacey as President Underwood from House of Cards. He had a major retrospective at the Museum of National History in Denmark that same year. Yeo has also incorporated 3D printing, virtual reality, and digital technologies into his practice, unveiling his first large-scale sculptural work at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2017.

A key figure in the revival of figurative painting, Yeo’s work addresses themes of identity, media representation, and the evolving role of portraiture. His Surgery Series was the focus of his first institutional solo show at The Bowes Museum in 2018. His paintings continue to explore the intersection of art, culture, and society.