In this episode, artist Anna Pakosz joins host Victoria Constock-Kershaw to discuss how her journey from Hungary to the UK, beginning with the Tracey Emin Artist Residency in Margate, shaped her evolving practice. Anna reflects on how movement, gesture, and material experimentation, from dance to rust and blackboard paint, converge in her work to explore presence, rhythm, and transformation.

Pakosz opens up about finding her voice in London’s fast-paced art scene, the shift from structured environments to artistic independence, and the balance between control and surrender in her creative process. Pakosz also shares insights on her debut solo exhibition Long Takes at Deák Erika Galéria in Budapest, and her plans for future residencies in warmer places.

A conversation about process, vulnerability, and trust, in materials, in the body, and in the unknown.

In the first episode of season two of the brave podcast, hosted by Victoria Comstock-Kershaw, Will Jarvis, founder and CEO of Gertude, reflects on his journey from painter to art world innovator. After studying painting at Camberwell College of Arts, Jarvis co-founded The Sunday Painter, marking his entry into the art industry.

Throughout the conversation, Jarvis explores multiple layers of the art ecosystem, from artists and collectors to galleries and the wider market structures that shape them. With Gertude, he is redefining industry standards by championing transparency and empowering artists to sell their works directly through the app, introducing a new model for visibility and sustainability within the arts.

Jarvis’s insights highlight a shift towards greater accessibility and openness in the art world, as Gertude bridges the gap between artists and audiences while encouraging a more direct, equitable exchange of creativity and value.

In this episode, Belarusian-born multidisciplinary artist Viktoryia S. Dijk reflects on her journey in conversation with Kildine de Saint Hilaire.

Viktoryia traces her path from early studies in Belarus to pursuing graphic design in The Hague, and more recently completing her MA in Fine Art at the Royal College of Art in London. She shares how her practice evolved from classical training in figure drawing towards large-scale, process-driven canvases that dissolve the human form into colour, energy, and presence.

Her work combines layers of pigment, animal glue, and water, creating paintings that feel both anatomical and abstract, alive with their own inner force. She speaks candidly about navigating self-criticism, the liberating turning point she experienced at the RCA, and the ongoing question of when a work is truly finished.

Viktoryia also discusses growing up in Belarus, the influence of her upbringing and family, and her deep connection to the London art scene, which she describes as a place of belonging and creative energy. For her, creativity is not only a practice but a way of living, a continual process of understanding oneself.

In this episode, multidisciplinary artist Lily Bunney shares her journey and practice in conversation with Kildine de Saint Hilaire.

Lily reflects on how she arrived at her artistic name while working as a teacher and wishing to keep her students from finding her online. She delves into her relationship with social media, her background teaching mathematics, science, and art to pupils aged 11–16, and how her love of art continues to shape her creative thinking.

Her practice spans pixelation, found imagery, distance, abstraction, technology, and beyond. She revisits her pivotal exhibition at Guts Gallery, Girls Peeing on Cars, and speaks about the significance of that “here I am” moment. Over the years, she has experimented with a wide range of mediums including wood, puppetry, writing, crochet, animatronics, and painting. Today, she is immersed in her pixelated paintings, a process she describes in depth.

Lily also discusses the creative community that surrounds her, the current energy and challenges of London’s contemporary art scene, and the often tricky dialogue around being an artist and talking about sales.

Her practice strikes a careful balance between responding to fast-moving cultural conversations and allowing the time required to produce meaningful narratives that resonate with the times we live in.

Eilen Itzel Mena is an Afro-Dominican American artist, writer, and community organiser from the South Bronx, New York. She holds a BFA from the USC Roski School of Art & Design in Los Angeles and an MFA in Painting from the UCL Slade School of Fine Arts in London. Her work has been exhibited internationally, supported by numerous residencies, grants, and awards, most recently the Adrian Carruthers Studio Prize for her Slade MFA Degree Show presentation. She is currently an artist-in-residence at ACME’s Early Careers Programme in London.

Eilen spoke to Kildine de Saint Hilaire about how her practice navigates themes of joy, purpose, community, ancestry, and colonial history within the African Diaspora and Latin America. She shared her reflections on building meaningful connections through her art and social practice, and on her role as a creative collaborator for Honey and Smoke, a global platform fostering artist-led inquiry into the pressing themes of our time.

Looking ahead, Eilen hopes to deepen her engagement with communities and histories that inform her work, continuing to explore art as a space for dialogue, healing, and collective imagination.

Tatiana Cheneviere is the founder of Pipeline, a contemporary art gallery in London that opened in late 2022. With a background that includes seven years at Gagosian, Tatiana brings a balance of institutional professionalism and independent experimentation to her approach. Pipeline focuses on emerging artists and is structured to foster layered, thoughtful practices through both its main exhibition space and the end room "In the Pipeline", where artists introduce a single work ahead of their solo exhibition.

In this brave talk, Tatiana spoke to Kildine de Saint Hilaire about her journey from practicing painting to building a gallery that functions as both studio and exhibition space. She shared her belief in the gallery as a site of creative exploration and discovery, where she and the artists work together in search of something unresolved. She reflected on the importance of visibility, curatorial risk-taking, and developing artist relationships based on trust and mutual respect.

Looking ahead, Tatiana hopes Pipeline will continue to offer space for deeper engagement with artists’ practices. Her vision is for the gallery to serve not only as a platform for exhibition but as a creative tool that invites audiences to think critically, slowly and openly about the work on view.

This feature of brave talks was in collaboration with Pipeline.

Our third episode features artist, Charlie Russell, in conversation with Kildine de Saint Hilaire.

Charlie Russell, a London-based artist, explores themes of light, memory, and domesticity through a blend of traditional painting and digital aesthetics. With an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2024) and a BA from Camberwell College of the Arts, University of the Arts London (2023).

Charlie's work challenges conventional living spaces by transforming organic shapes into indeterminate forms. Also, her art captures the emotive power of light, from sunlight warming concrete structures to streetlamp glow refracted through raindrops, reflecting on its transformative influence on personal narratives.

Tune in to this podcast before Charlie's residency at Casa Santa Ana in Panama.

Our second episode showcases Samah Rafiq, ahead of her solo exhibition in London this upcoming October.

Samah earned an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2024, within this episode, she explores her artistic journey since university, from initially working in her room to a studio in Hackney. She reflects on navigating Instagram's algorithm and her solo exhibition in Germany, last November.

This podcast was supported by our partners, 1 Warwick by Maslow’s.

Samah Rafiq joins Kildine de Saint Hilaire in conversation.

Our first episode features brave's resident photographer, Sarah Larby, a London-based visual artist and fine art photographer.

From her educational journey, books she has created to unexpected encounters like her artwork appearing on a bus stop, we explore Sarah's fascinating story and more!

Sarah Larby is in conversation with Kildine de Saint Hilaire.