RISE by Henley Festival Emerging Artist Prize 2026 - Winner

Born in 1999, Niah McGiff is a London based artist whose paintings use the figure as a site of painterly interrogation, exploring interior emotional and psychological states.

Her practice returns to the distance between what is felt and what can be said, described by philosopher Joseph Levine as the explanatory gap. Fundamentally, her work is concerned with the materiality of paint itself, using gesture, colour and texture to carry emotional meaning where language begins to fall short.

McGiff trained at the Essential School of Painting, graduating with distinction from the Foundation Diploma in 2019, and went on to study Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London. She has exhibited across London and curates group exhibitions supporting emerging artists and community led initiatives, including a recent exhibition at Alexandra Palace.

Her recent body of work, GRAVITY, will be presented in a solo exhibition in London this year, followed by a second feature of the work in September at an independent gallery in Taipei, Taiwan.