Each year we invite established professionals, subject experts, artists and creatives from across the UK to form part of the independent Jury that will select this year’s Shortlisted Artists and Fellow.
We are thrilled to share that the Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2026 for Visual Art Jury Members are:
Simeon Barclay
Simeon Barclay (b.1975, Huddersfield, UK) spent his formative years during the 90s employed as a machine operative whilst being devoted to the transformative potential of clubs, music, fashion and youth culture movements across the UK. Channelling those alternative modes of expression, he would later attend night school before taking up a place at art college, graduating in 2014 with an MFA at Goldsmiths College. Barclay is the recipient of the Roberts Institute of Art, Practising Performance Commission, the inaugural Ares Art Award, and was included in the Heywood Gallery Touring exhibition; British Art Show 9. Selected projects and exhibitions have been presented at the ICA, South London Gallery, Somerset House, Tate Britain, London; Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; Manchester Art Gallery, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. Barclay lives and works in West Yorkshire, England.
Eva Langret
Eva Langret is Director, EMEA for Frieze, where she leads on two of the world’s most influential art fairs: Frieze London and Frieze Masters. Passionate about championing emerging artistic talent, she is the Vice Chair of the board of the Camden Art Centre, a place for world-class contemporary art exhibitions and education, a trustee of Fluxus Arts Project, a not-for-profit organisation created by the Institut français du Royaume-Uni, and a trustee of Forma, a London-based non-profit organisation supporting emerging and mid-career British and international artists.
Prof. Sook-Kyung Lee
Prof. Sook-Kyung Lee is Director of the Whitworth and Professor of Curatorial Practices at The University of Manchester. Lee has worked as curator, writer, and lecturer in the UK and internationally, advocating global art histories and transnational curating. She was Artistic Director of the 14th Gwangju Biennale (2023), titled soft and weak like water, which explored themes of resistance, indigeneity, decoloniality and ecology. She also served as the Commissioner and Curator of the Korea Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), presenting Kyungwon Moon and Joonho Jeon. She was Curator of the Japan Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024), represented by the artist Yuko Mohri. Lee was previously Senior Curator, International Art at Tate Modern, working in exhibitions and acquisitions, and headed a major multi-year research initiative ‘Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational’, overseeing its strategic vision and associated programming. Exhibitions she curated include Santiago Yahuarcani: The Beginning of Knowledge at the Whitworth (2025-26), Mirroring: Lucio Fontana and Michelangelo Pistoletto at Prada Rongzhai (2025), A Year in Art: Australia 1992 at Tate Modern (2021-23), Nam June Paik at Tate Modern (2019-21), and CAMP: From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf at Tate Modern (2019-20).
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The Arts Foundation Futures Awards support the UK’s most promising artists and creatives at a pivotal moment in their careers with £20,000 unconditional Fellowships.
The Visual Art Award Shortlist will be revealed in January 2026, and the recipient of the £20,000 Fellowship will be announced at a live Award Ceremony in February 2026, with all Shortlisted Artists each awarded £1,000.
The Visual Art Award is supported by The Yoma Sasburg Estate.
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