Brianna Lois Parker
Brianna Lois Parker (b. 1998) is a Caribbean-British oil painter whose practice explores memory, identity, intimacy, and the poetics of everyday life. Parker creates emotionally charged works that intertwine personal narrative with cultural symbolism.
Rooted in lived experience, her paintings emerge from moments of observation, conversation, and memory, transformed into layered compositions. Her work examines the emotional weight carried within ordinary spaces and encounters, offering paintings that feel at once deeply personal and universally recognisable.
Parker received a First-Class Honours degree in Fine Art (BA) from Kingston University in 2021 and is currently based in London, where she lives and works.
Her work has been recognised across contemporary art and broadcast platforms. Parker was awarded the Margate Art Prize by Tracey Emin and was commissioned by Netflix to create a painting for Portrait of a Top Boy, an exhibition celebrating the BAFTA award-winning Top Boy at Somerset House. Her work was later featured online by the National Portrait Gallery. She also appeared on Portrait Artist of the Year, where her approach to portraiture and use of colour reached a wider audience. Parker was shortlisted for the Jackson’s Art Prize, placing within the top 0.2% of 12,964 submissions and receiving the Judge’s Choice Award
EDUCATION
Kingston University, London, UK - 1st class BA (Hons), 2021
EXHIBITIONS
2025
The Hari Art Prize, Hari Hotel, London, UK
The Mayor of London’s Black History Month - ‘Standing Firm in Power and Pride’, Gallery OCA, London, UK
Island in the City, Curated by Sherece Rainford and Louis Chapple, ROSL & Gallery OCA, London, UK
Mirroring Dialogue, Curated by Ronan Mckenzie and Tione Trice Thurloe Place, London, UK
Jackson's Art Prize, Bankside Gallery, London, UK
Her, Camden Open Air Gallery, London, UK
2024
In Plain Sight, Curated by Habib Hajallie, Dartford, UK
Hardware, Curated by The Connor Brothers, London, UK
What I Thought I Knew, Curated by Ronan Mckenzie, London, UK
2023
Game Changers, The Bingham Riverhouse, London, UK
Portrait of a Top Boy, Curated by Ronan Mckenzie, National Portrait Gallery
(online), Somerset House, London, UK
Ambivalent Paradox, Omaka Gallery, London, UK
Margate Art Prize, Awarded by Tracey Emin, Ramsay & Williams, Guesthouse
Hotels, Margate, UK
2022
Home, One Paved Court, London, UK
2021
Ascension, Zari Gallery, London, UK
KSA Degree Show, Online
AWARDS/HONOURS
2025
Shortlisted for Hari Art Prize
Selected for artist residency with Fishtank Workshop
Winner of Judges Choice Award, Jackson’s Art Prize
2024
Featured on Sky’s Portrait Artist of the Year - painting was selected by Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath
Selected for mentorship by Habib Hajallie
2023
Winner of the Margate Art Prize, Awarded by Tracey Emin
Commissions
2023
Portrait of a Top Boy, Curated by Ronan Mckenzie, National Portrait Gallery (online), Somerset House, London, UK - commissioned by Netflix
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