Esme Keenleyside (b. 2002, Essex) is a Margate-based painter whose work focuses on intimacy, memory, and the emotional texture of everyday life. Working in oil on canvas, she builds images through loose, searching brushwork and soft shifts of colour, allowing figures and animals to move between clarity and dissolution.
Her paintings often centre on quiet personal moments such as resting bodies, familiar companions, and domestic settings. These scenes carry a sense of tenderness and vulnerability, where comfort and uncertainty exist at the same time. Rather than telling fixed stories, her work evokes states of feeling including nostalgia, closeness, and the fragile warmth of shared space. Forms are sometimes partially obscured or blurred, reflecting how memory changes over time.
Keenleyside graduated from Winchester School of Art in 2024. She has exhibited in The Salon Show (TKE Studios, 2025) and This Is Love (TKE Studios, 2026). She is currently an artist in residence at the Tracey Emin Artist Residency in Margate, UK.
Awards and Nominations
2024 – Winner, Nancy Balfour Painting Prize
2024 – Nominee, Freeland’s Foundation Painting Prize
Residencies
2025–2026 – Tracey Emin Artist Residency (T.E.A.R), Margate, UK
2023 – St Swithuns Independent Girls School, Winchester, UK
Curatorial Projects
2024 – You Crazy Child, Turps Gallery, London
2024 –WSA BA Fine Art Degree Show, Winchester School of Art
2023 – 5 Years Time, The Alfred Arcade, a-space arts, Southampton
2023 – Come Together, The Railway Inn, Winchester
2023 – The New Forest (and the existing forest), WSA Sculpture Space, Winchester
Selected exhibitions
2026 (upcoming)- TEARS FINAL SHOW, TKE studios, Margate
2026- THIS IS LOVE, curated by Dame Tracey Emin, TKE Studios, Margate
2026- Still or Sparkling?, Pomus, Margate
2025- TEAR, Darbyshire ltd, London
2025- Lido stores open 2025, Margate, UK
2025- TKE Summer Fair, Margate, UK
2025- TEAR 2026, online exhibition of the Tracey Emin Artists Residency artists 2025-26
2024 – You Crazy Child, Turps Gallery, London
2024 – WSA BA Fine Art Degree Show, Winchester School of Art, Winchester
2023 – 5 Years Time, WSA Artists Collective, The Alfred’s Arcade, a-space arts, Southampton
2023 – Come Together, WSA Artists Collective, The Railway Inn, Winchester
2023 – Fragments, Winchester Gallery, Winchester
2022 – All Together Now, West Side Foyer, Winchester School of Art, Winchester
Public Talks and Interviews
2024 – Panellist, Southend Creatives BIG Conversation
Selected Appointments and Workshops
2022- 2024– Founder, Winchester School of Art Artists Collective
2024– workshop assistant, Focal Point Gallery
2023-2024– Administration assistant and social media manager, WSA Painting Prize, Winchester School of Art
2023-2024– WSA Artists Collective social media manager
2023- 2024– Outreach assistant, Winchester School of Art
2021 – 2023 – Focal Point Advisory Board Member, Focal Point Gallery, Southend
2023 – Art Workshop Assistant, Southend City Jam, Focal Point Gallery
2022 – 2023 – National Saturday Club Assistant, Winchester School of Art