Meet the artists: Emerging Artists Programme 2026–27

We are delighted to introduce Paola Estrella, Malgorzata Lisiecka and Mujtaba Asif, the three artists selected for Orleans House Gallery’s Emerging Artists Programme 2026–27. 

Across three exhibitions in the Stables Gallery from autumn 2026 to spring 2027, each artist will bring their own distinct practice and perspective to the space, spanning painting, sculpture, installation, performance, moving image, sound, poetry and text. 

The Emerging Artists Programme supports artists to present their work at Orleans House Gallery, with funding and technical support from Richmond Arts Service. Artists are selected in relation to the programme’s values of being collaborative, socially engaged and experimental, while giving each artist space to shape how their work is encountered within the gallery. 

We’re looking forward to working with Paola, Malgorzata and Mujtaba, and to sharing more about each of their exhibitions over the coming months.

Exhibition: September–November 2026

Website – Paola Estrella 

Paola Estrella is a Mexican-born artist whose practice uses speculative fiction to create spaces where alternative worldviews can coexist. Working across painting, performance, moving image, installation and sound, she explores ecology, spirituality, technology, intimacy and belief systems, often questioning how meaning is created and how we come to agree on what is real.

Deep Time Currents is a new iteration of Paola Estrella’s ongoing project The Cenote Ring, bringing together painting, moving image, sound and garments in a exhibition at Orleans House Gallery.

Rather than presenting nature as a static landscape, Deep Time Currents proposes a world in constant movement, where memory, geology and imagination flow together.

Moving between deep time and the present, the works reflect on cycles of creation and collapse, ecological fragility, and the interconnected relationships between bodies, water and the Earth.

Exhibition: February–March 2027

Website: Malgorzata Lisiecka

Malgorzata Lisiecka is a London-based visual artist working across sculpture, installation, costume, performance and public art. Her practice explores relationships between the body, objects and space, often drawing audiences into the work as unexpected participants.

Engaging with nature, biology, technology and the social world, Lisiecka experiments with scale and with connections between material and immaterial spaces. She studied at the Royal College of Art and Warsaw Fine Arts Academy and has exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery alongside residencies and commissions with Alexander McQueen’s Sarabande Foundation, Kew Gardens Wakehurst and Kensington + Chelsea Art Week.

Exhibition: April–May 2027

Website: Mujtaba Asif

Mujtaba Asif is a London-based multidisciplinary artist, poet and performer whose practice considers shared loss, psychological distress and the ongoing processes of recovery. Drawing on his background in poetry, he works with text in tactile, visual and audible forms, creating intimate spaces in which fragmented histories can be acknowledged, held and remembered.

Asif has exhibited and performed internationally, including at Tate Modern, Aicon Gallery New York, the National Museum of Pakistan, Cambridge ArtSpace and the Truman Brewery. He holds an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art and a BFA from the University of Karachi.

We’re excited to welcome Paola, Malgorzata and Mujtaba to the programme and look forward to sharing more about their work at Orleans House Gallery soon.