The Inspirations Behind London’s Rising Art Stars

Ebun Sodipo, Georgia Merritt, and Isabelle Bucklow reveal their influences, obsessions, and the forces driving them forward, all while draped head-to-toe in ISSEY MIYAKE.

What drives an artist? Even the most celebrated creatives have their fascinations. Édouard Manet’s scandalous Olympia inspired Paul Gauguin’s haunting Spirit of the Dead Watching. David Hockney often looked to Pablo Picasso. Lubaina Himid remains enamored by Giovanni Battista Moroni’s The Tailor, admiring his “intense expression—and those outrageous pantaloons,” as she told The Guardian. Art, it seems, is an endless loop of discovery, obsession, and inspiration.

With these connections in mind, I arrived at Waddington Studio, where three figures from London’s contemporary art scene—Ebun Sodipo, Georgia Merritt, and Isabelle Bucklow—were to be captured for the SSENSE X ISSEY MIYAKE shoot.

Sodipo, a 31-year-old multidisciplinary artist, was glowing, her hair and makeup finished. Though she grew up loving manga, her path led her to Camberwell College of Arts, where she pursued sculpture. Now, her work celebrates Black trans women across history, the present, and the future, weaving narratives that span time and emotion. Her series of compelling films and collages, titled , explores the ever-expansive notion of desire. “I want to remedy the fact that we’re not present in historical archives,” she says. Curious about her inspirations, I asked who she admires. “Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley always deserves a shoutout,” she shares.Merritt, 27, describes her minimalist, interiors-focused practice—somewhere between sculpture and design—as an attempt to capture a fleeting sense or feeling of a moment through materiality. One of her standout pieces, , is made from stainless steel and cotton, blurring the lines between furniture design and installation art. With her immaculate eyeliner complete, the Goldsmiths graduate shares the obsessions that have shaped her career, including artists like Walter De Maria, Gregor Schneider, Rosemarie Trockel, and Shiro Kuramata. And the contemporaries who inspire her? “Miranda Keyes and Grace Prince are names people should be looking at right now,” she says.

Meanwhile, 28-year-old art critic and writer Bucklow, who holds a master’s in anthropology from University College London and looked sublime in ISSEY MIYAKE’s signature pleats, has often focused on gestures, bodies, and movement. She grew up admiring the essays of Brian Dillon and, as the cofounder and coeditor of and a contributor to publications like and , has a keen eye for contemporary artists who deserve a spotlight. “I’m excited about the Mike Kelley exhibition coming up at Tate and Geumhyung Jeong at the ICA,” she says. “In the world of dance, I’m fascinated by what Pam Tanowitz is doing, and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker is coming to Sadler’s Wells this fall.”

Listening to these three individuals, each shaped by their unique influences and driven by their own obsessions, it was impossible to not feel a surge of motivation for what’s unfolding in London. While the past provides a foundation, it’s the burgeoning talents of artists like Sodipo, Merritt, and Bucklow that are forging the trajectory of this city’s creative landscape.