Unskilled Worker Boy looks back at Oscar, 2024

Helen Downie is a London-based artist, best known for her idiosyncratic and expressive style of painting. Working under the moniker of Unskilled Worker, her work is intimate and evocative, mixing characters and nature with the ephemeral and fantastical. Downie is a strong voice for women, and through her exploration of gender enjoys testing new frontiers with her art. She is passionate about inclusion and through her work hopes to develop a narrative on the importance of diversity and freedom of expression, that speaks to everyone. Her work has been described as 'a melee of ethereality, innocence, inherent flow and instinct that all come together in a spectacular fashion.'

These works mark a transition back to single figures, renewing the stillness and loose line of the artist's early work. The artist states, "The common denominator is surely me. I'm not certain it's possible to paint a face and leave myself behind. In a way they connect to my story."