Eighteen alumni who graduated from ECA last year will see their work exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) from this weekend, as part of the New Contemporaries 2026 exhibition.
The artists were selected by an expert panel which visited last year's Graduate Show, and are among 64 selected from all Scotland's art school degree shows.
Works in the exhibition will explore themes of identity, gender and lived experience, alongside questions of politics, care and social change through a wide range of materials and approaches, including large-scale textile installations, speculative architectural models and experimental moving image works.
The participating artists will also have the chance to win exhibition prizes worth a total value of over £25,000, including the prestigious £15,000 Glenfiddich Artist in Residence Prize - won for the past three years by ECA alumni - Justine Watt (2025), Charlene Scott (2024) and Lorna Phillips (2023).
Congratulations to this year's exhibiting artists from ECA, who are:
Samantha Black – BA (Hons) Painting
Fev Buchanan – BA (Hons) Intermedia
Ruthella Dafnis – BA (Hons) Intermedia
Freya Glass – BA (Hons) Painting
Rosie Hodgson Smith – BA (Hons) Painting
Cora MacMillan - BA (Hons) Intermedia
Amy McLean – BA (Hons) Painting
Thea Moston – BA (Hons) Painting
Elana Munasinghe – BA (Hons) Painting
Edie Niel – BA (Hons) Painting
Annabelle Pelaez – BA (Hons) Painting
Aisha Plumridge – BA (Hons) Painting
Elene Sturua – BA (Hons) Painting
Ellie Wilkes - (MArch) Architecture
Ella Williams – BA (Hons) Painting
Macey Zhao – BA (Hons) Intermedia
Curated architecture element -
Eric Lin - (MArch) Architecture
Oliver Maxwell - (MArch) Architecture
New Contemporaries 2026 runs from Saturday 28 March to Wednesday 22 April.
