Art for Action

“You can do anything you wanna do, be anyone you wanna be, as long as you have compassion for self and others. Compassion as an anchor for creativity”

Tiff Chan is a Hong kong-born multidisciplinary artist – an intermodal expressive arts therapist, a graduate from the University of Oxford’s Ruskin School of Art and pioneer of using art to help communities and generate empathy, each piece of Tiff’s work carries a story and compassion behind it. At the heart of all the different applications of her work is the theme ‘creative human potential’, and what the arts can offer in therapeutic discovery, healing, and for reaching new frontiers of awareness, consciousness, and experience.

Shawn P. Griffin American born Shawn P. Griffin obtained his MFA in Photography from The Savannah College of Art and Design in Hong Kong and has remained in the city ever since. He is an award-winning photographer whose clients have included Kate Spade New York, Lane Crawford/ Joyce Group, Raven + Rose, Song Saa Private Island, and whose work has been featured in exhibitions and publications across 4 continents. He also works in writing and performance, balancing work as an art journalist by day and a drag queen by night. He was recognized in 2017 as one of “Hong Kong’s 30 under 30” by Loop Magazine. 

Tamsin is a 23-year-old student and art enthusiast, who’s painting and drawing have been a passionate outlet from a very young age. Her work focuses on human form, taking inspiration from life drawing classes and photographers she admires.

“Unity is always something we need but especially in times like these”

Sadie is a female artist from the north of England, passionate about feminism, helping vulnerable women and girls and creating equality. Sadie expresses this through her diverse artistic styles, as well as her experiences as a diasbled person and lesbian. 

Birmingham born mixed-media artist Nilupa Yasmin draws on her experiences as a British-Bangladeshi Muslim woman to create pieces which hold an exploration of self-identity, along with cultural and anthropological meanings. Having graduated from university in just 2017, Yasmin has already hosted six solo exhibitions, participated in 11 group exhibits and is a part time lecturer at her alma mater, the University of Coventry.

Nicole Chui is a 24 year old Hong Kong born, London based embroidery artist. Her body of work consists of original hand embroidered photographs and illustration pieces with portraits of faces and anything really. It’s messy, brash and disruptive. Generally, it’s a loud and humorous take on expressing exaggerated emotions from raging anger to feeling overjoyed. In 2018, Nicole took the leap to fully focus on her art, growing roster of clients including Nike, Converse, Gal-dem, Now gallery, and BBC. Last year, she was honoured by the Evening Standard as one of their chosen ’25 future faces 25 and under’ in the Progress 1000 list.

Melissa Asante-Crook is a digital collage artist whose collages reflect the musings of everyday life, and challenges the mundane in an almost surreal way.

As co-chair for Friends of Irise Sheffield, Bella has been focusing on how menstrual stigma and shame contributes to the stigmatisation and censorship of womxn’s bodies. She sees art as connecting womxn across geography, time and culture using her sketchy, abstract style to represent the strength, beauty and diversity of the femxle body.

Newly established artist Gina Dorothea explores feminine beauty for the female gaze. Predominantly working with digital art, she also uses acrylic and pencil mediums. The female form is the subject of most of her work, captured in casual, every day poses, to exhibit the natural elegance of femininity. Gina uses a color palette of nudes, reds and pinks, to represent the feminine’s innate softness with a subtly sexy, and powerful side. Her work encourages womxn to seek out these feminine parts in themselves and appreciate their own, as well as other women’s, innate beauty. 

“I haven’t changed the world yet but I keep on trying!”

Francesca has been in love with art her whole life. She started painting walls as a kid, doing street art as a teen, sculpting, making videos and printing during university and making films from then on. She studied Literature and Philosophy and specialised in Cinema and Animation. Since then she kept on writing and creating stories, experimenting styles and evolving her storytelling skills. I’m lucky enough to work in what I love and I keep on expanding my interests as much as I can.

Hélène is a visual designer and in her free time creates Abordaje. Abordaje is a new way of approaching embroidery. She makes handmade embroidered illustrations and jewellery which she tries to give a funny touch, a new pattern and many colours.Simple shapes as an eye, a heart or a boob are combined with singular details to take a more poetic dimension.