Groundwork - Acme Awards 24

The different levels of Kupfer, from basement to first floor, act as areas to carve into. Each floor hosts site-sensitive interventions that lean into domestic and private interiors, fragments of text and sound from exteriors, sculptural and archival devices, and immersive installations encompassing video and research. 

The exhibition reveals what has been navigated together, using the tailored mentoring

programme through Acme as a sub-structure for individual work. There has been support and conversation, shared interests and research, intensive group activity and also moments of solitude in which members of the group have come and gone to pursue personal research or set up respective shows.

Sam Meredith (Adrian Carruthers Award) works intuitively and directly, letting materials misbehave through an act of roughing things out. There is an openness to this discovery, the sculptures are amorphic forms contained in pieces of architecture, negotiating completion and expanding from the middle out. A playful and visceral approach to materials is also embodied in Sam's writing which combines poetry, anecdote, memory, and musings.

Sam studied Painting at University of Brighton (2010-13) and was part of The School of the Damned (Class of 2019). His work has been shown in the UK and Internationally including two residencies with the Organhaus Programme in Chongqing, China (2014, 2017) supported by Arts Council England's International Development Fund in 2017. During his MFA in Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art (2021-23) he was awarded the Gilbert Bayes Charitable Trust Postgraduate Grant and was selected for the Adrian Carruthers Award with ACME (2023-24) for his degree show presentation.

Anouk Verviers (Goldsmiths MFA Award) is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, and researcher whose work investigates systems of power, asking how they affect bodies and shape entanglements between us, others, and the matter around us. Working with bodies, wood, metal, clay, archives, and everyday materials, she creates installations, sculptures, videos, sound pieces, and performances. 

Verviers holds an MFA from Goldsmiths (2023) during which she received the FRQSC full scholarship, the Chelsea Arts Club Award, the Goldsmiths Junior Fellowship, and the ACME Goldsmiths Award. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions, residencies, performances, community-based projects, and screenings around the United Kingdom, Canada, and Switzerland. In 2024, she was an artist-in-residence with ACME, received the Pauline-Desautels Prize, and was awarded a commission by Galerie UQO founded by the CALQ. She is a member and the initiator of the Exhausted Feminist Hybrid Species reading group in London, and an artist researcher at the CRITS in Odawa/Ottawa CA.

Joseph Ijoyemi (Helen Scott Lidgett Award) is a London-based multidisciplinary artist with Swedish-Nigerian roots. His work explores the intersection of personal identity and cultural heritage, often digging deep into the history of his parents’ Nigerian hometown. By immersing himself in museum collections and historical archives, Joseph unearths forgotten stories, using his art to reframe the narrative around Nigeria’s rich but complex history.

Working across figurative and abstract styles, Joseph’s pieces are shaped by life experiences, everyday conversations, and the nuances of urban life. His innovative use of imagery and materials blends tradition with contemporary aesthetics, challenging the viewer’s perception of culture, memory, and belonging. Whether through painting, sound, sculpture, or mixed media, his work tells stories that bridge continents and eras, creating a dialogue between his heritage and modern urban spaces. Joseph graduated from MA Fine Art at CSM UAL in 2023.

Anna Malicka (Helen Scott Lidgett Award) is a multimedia artist working across textiles, drawing, audio-visuals and performance. She layers ornamental abstraction, asemic writing, handicrafts and everyday aesthetics to construct imaginary spaces reminiscent of various circumstances under which the work is formed. 

Malicka graduated from the interdisciplinary department POST of the Art Academy of Latvia in 2023. To date she has presented her work in solo exhibitions lint weaver (Middlesex Presents, London, 2024), sTiTcHeS of iTcHeS (TUR Telpa, Riga, 2023) and Soot (Bolderāja, Riga, 2022); in duo exhibitions Armours (with Rikke Diemer at Collega, Copenhagen, 2024) and Stardoll Heaven (with Julie De Kezel at Komplot, Brussels, 2024), and in group exhibitions including Survival Kit 14 (Riga, 2023). Forthcoming solo exhibitions include Pūra Lāde (Dowry Chest) at Kim? Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga (2025). Malicka is a member of female artist/DJ collective PR0_Bi$TR0, creating a chain of music, visual and food art events with Karlīna Marta Zvirbule and Elīna Mekša. She has won the Helen Scott-Lidgett Award 2023/2024 and is part of ACME Studios Early Career Award Program in London.

Acme’s Early Career Programme provides artists in their first five years of professional practice with a variety of support structures, including a bursary, rent-relief studio space, professional development, mentoring and exhibition opportunities. Award recipients work in a large, shared studio to encourage peer support and critical dialogue.

London-based charity Acme has been supporting artists in need since 1972. Over this time,

we have provided thousands of artists at all stages of career with affordable studios,

work/live space and a programme of artist support through residencies and awards. We

support the development and production of art by reducing the practical challenges that

artists face increasing their ability to take creative risks.

Acme is the single largest provider of permanent affordable artist studios in England,

supporting over 800 individual artists across 15 buildings in Greater London each year.