Announcing the 26/27 Manchester Metropolitan University Castlefield Gallery Graduate Mentees

Jessica Kirk is an Irish multidisciplinary artist based in Manchester, whose practice is conceptually driven and materially led.

Her work exists as a means of reflection and critique, grounded in the qualitative sensibility of material and labour. Spanning sculpture and installation, she explores the effects of foundations, experience and  systemic operation. Through utilising substance and matter thoughtfully, she presents displays of sentiment, disruption and becoming, which gently probe institutional underbellies in symbolic splendour.

Joe Seymour is a designer based in manchester.

“I’m a designer interested in balancing structure with experimentation, combining clear communication with more observational and process-led ways of working. My practice moves between digital, system-based design and more personal projects rooted in photography, editorial storytelling, research, and making. I’m particularly drawn to documenting everyday life, hospitality culture, and modern routines, using real conversations, environments, and lived experiences to shape outcomes that feel honest and relatable.”

Sahara Patel explores materiality through rigorous experimentation with glass, ceramics, water, sand, PVA, metal, and light, often working with biomorphic ephemeral forms. Through learning traditional techniques, she subverts the functionality of materials, converting objects into ‘things’.

Fascinated by working with materials that feel ‘alive’, she explores the dynamic relationship and collaborative exchange of agency between material and artist, where both play an active role in shaping the work.

Precious Gyasi is an artist and designer of Ghanaian heritage, born in Italy, Gyasi moved to the UK in 2016.

“Since I could remember I have felt a pull towards creative subjects; I have always loved the making and creation of things; drawing, painting, collage, design etc… leading me to become a graphic design graduate from Manchester School of Art (2026) and had the opportunity to exhibit my work at ‘More to Come’ degree show and New Designers EXPO.”

Isabel Marshall works across expanded painting and sculpture, combining ink on raw canvas with hand-built ceramic paint-palettes. Custom vessels are constructed to meet the physical demands of this process, including deep palettes for large-scale painting. The fluid nature of ink allows the body to extend, moving freely across the canvas and ceramic surfaces. Through pouring, bleeding, and dripping, the ink interacts with each material in distinct ways. Layered traces record these shifting behaviours and motions, forming an archive of marks that, in turn, inform and inspire subsequent works.

Olivia Madland Shorter is an artist who explores rural identity. In her practice, she investigates this identity within contemporary society through sculpture and installation, finding inspiration from the land, earth, and soil, and what may come from it.
Repetitive and rhythmic, her artworks become sculptural and performative as they evolve. In tune with earth systems, her practice aims to locate itself around natural seasons, following traditions of sowing, cultivation, harvest and gathering, before the processing of natural materials. As a result, this manifests in durational and experiential works, deploying both photography and sculpture, with the aim of exploring the agency of materials, found and excavated, and how they interact with us and the space around them.

Niamh Daisy is an artist and moving image maker, originally from the North East and now based in Manchester. Her practice centres on analogue film, exploring both past and present environments through personal experience. Working across film and community-based art, she engages with themes of recovery, mental well-being, and the exploration of performance.

“I work primarily with analogue film because I’m drawn to its physicality and imperfections. Every frame carries its own history, and that process feels much closer to the people and places I’m documenting than a polished digital image. The material itself becomes part of the story.”