42. Lesley Oldaker - Enlightenment

2026
Oil on canvas
15 x 15 x 3.8 cm

Lesley Oldaker’s work explores how we see ourselves within society and how individuals navigate continually shifting urban environments. Working primarily in oil paint, often combined with metal pigments and bitumen, she creates emotionally charged figurative paintings that examine displacement, belonging and relevance within shared social spaces. Her compositions are informed by perceptive observations of human behaviour, alongside responses to current events and media imagery that provoke strong emotional reactions.

Oldaker’s paintings combine expressive material surfaces with psychologically resonant narratives, inviting viewers to connect their own lived experiences to the scenes depicted. Through layered figures and atmospheric urban settings, her work encourages reflection on personal identity, emotional vulnerability and the complex dynamics of contemporary life.

She completed a Higher Diploma in Fine Art Painting at the Open College of the Arts, in partnership with the University for the Creative Arts, between 2012 and 2017, following a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at Bath College in 2011. She has also undertaken extensive independent life drawing and sculpture studies, including recent sculpture studies with artist Olga Fladmark (2025–2026).

Recent exhibitions include the Royal Society of Arts x AOAP Projects Exhibition (2026), Flux 12 Art Show at the Bomb Factory Art Foundation, Monaco Art Fair with Chimera Gallery, New in Town at Tambaran 2 Gallery, and exhibitions in Stockholm, Paris, Florence, New Delhi, Zurich and Shenzhen. Her work has also featured regularly in the Art on a Postcard auctions and at the Manchester Art Fair.

Among her awards and shortlisted prizes are the Art Gemini Prize finalist award (2023), the Bath Open Art Prize People’s Choice Award (2018), the Holly Bush Painting Prize finalist selection (2020), and the Exposure Photography Award finalist exhibition at the Louvre, Paris (2015). In 2011, she completed a fully invited artist residency at Da Wang Cultural Highland in Shenzhen, China.

Her work is held in public and private collections, including The Lincoln, Manchester, and the collection of actor Thomas Sadoski in New York.