Meet Renee Stewart: exploring the intersections of Caribbean heritage and Black British culture

Renee Stewart is one of 3 artists who worked with UAL's Brand and Creative team to create the collages used for our 2025 Black History Month campaign.

We spoke to Renee to learn more about the artist behind the work.

Hi Renee! Can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background?

Hi, my name is Renee and my background is in Graphic and Communication Design which I studied at Central Saint Martins. A lot of my work is centred around the themes of culture and identity, mainly through mediums like collaging, publications and a little bit of digital media. My practice is constantly evolving. Currently, I find myself being drawn towards family archives and vernacular images, seeing how I can reimagine and repurpose them in different ways.

How did your journey with art begin?

I did Fine Art in Secondary School and really enjoyed it, but then went and did Graphic design in college because it allowed me to work with a wider range of mediums and what was initially a curiosity and ‘dabbling in’ to see if I liked it, ended up being something I loved.

Who or what first encourage you to pursue creativity seriously?

My parents. Both my parents are creatives. They studied Graphic Design at LCC (that’s also where they met!), so they’ve always been very supportive of me. My mum went from graphic design into fashion and now she teaches and my dad does UI and UX design, so it definitely runs in the family!

How has your identity shaped the way you create?

There is a lot of influence from my Caribbean heritage. As the years have gone by, I’ve leaned towards a certain type of imagery surrounding Caribbean culture but also trying to merge my experience of being a Black British woman as well. My practice is influenced by the merging of two worlds and feeding in the intersectional aspects of my identity.

Being a Black woman has influenced me quite a lot in what I create. For example, I worked on a magazine, addressing workplace culture and how Black women are treated in the workplace, especially when it comes to the microaggressions we can face, so my identity has definitely trickled into what I create.

What themes or messages do your most often explore in your work?

I often explore the theme of nostalgia in relation to my culture. Looking at the past through the lens of what my parents and grandparents grew up in and trying to understand the time they lived in and also comparing it to what we have today.

How do you want people to feel when they experience your art?

I want people to see themselves in my work. Whilst my work is personal, I have found that people I’ve shown my work to, can relate and find themselves in it and I think embedding a sense of empathy in my work allows it to be personal and also speak to broader context and audiences.

For example, I worked on a project around grief and looking at subjectivity of memory, by remembering my great-grandfather and the memories I had of him.  When people saw it, they told me that this is also how they remembered their grandparents and how they also put the pieces together. Empathy and personal storytelling is at the forefront of my work and in this way people connect with it in different ways.

Who or what are your primary inspirations (artist, movements, personal experiences, cultural heritage, etc)?

Magazines, from the aesthetic to the messages in it and how they are organised. Films also inspire me a lot, they spark ideas when I watch them.

What has been your proudest achievement so far?

My first exhibition, which had been set up by my friend. It was called ‘Women of Colour’ and it was a bunch of female artists coming together to showcase their work. There were a wide range of mediums, from sculpture to painting, collaging and photography. IT was amazing to have people come up to me and speak with me about my work.

What challenges have you faced in your journey as an artist and how have you navigated them?

I’ve faced the internal challenge of being harsh on myself for being multi-disciplinary. In working with so many different mediums, I’ve felt conflicted about whether I should just hone in on one thing, especially as I watch my peers around me doing that. Yet overtime, I’ve been able to accept that and reframe my thinking around it.

Merging different mediums together is what formulates my practice in the first place, so overcoming that internal barrier has been necessary for me and remember it’s okay to like different things.

What role do you think Black artists play in shaping wider cultural conversations today?

I think it’s multitude of different things, from sharing our own experiences and differing cultural backgrounds and traditions which helps to shape the overarching cultural landscape.

When it comes to Black artists, we’re offering a multi-layered approach to our work, pulling from a wide range of sources, which is why I think a lot of creativity comes from Black artists, because of just how much we’re inspired by and then connecting that with our personal experiences to communicate what we want to communicate.

How do you celebrate your heritage or community through your creative practice?

I’ve made one or two publications, mainly using poetry and photography. I love using literature to communicate the nuances of Caribbean culture and it’s a great way to feel what Caribbean culture is about, from a visual perspective.

You’ve been selected as part of the Black History Month campaign for UAL — what does this recognition mean to you personally?

It means a lot! When someone reached out to me for this project, it felt heart warming that someone saw my work and reached out because of that. Doing Zine workshops recently has helped me understand my style and how I want to communicate Black issues.

The theme is 'Standing Firm in Power and Pride' - how do these values show up in your life and work?

I feel like I stand firm in power and pride every day. As a Black person, it’s already embedded in your everyday life anyway, not necessarily at the forefront, but somewhere in the background. I try to stay confident, remain authentic and not let the outside world tell me who I can and can’t be is, all of which is how I stand firm in power and pride.

How does your work contribute to reclaiming or reshaping narratives around Black identity, history, or futures?

I try and reclaim narratives through archival material but relating it towards present issues. For example, my most recent project was about looking at food helps to shape part of Caribbean identity and I spoke about it in relation to different generations and to see if there is a thread weaving in between past and present versions of Caribbean food.  I reclaim narratives through a mixture of visual storytelling, interviews and archival imagery  and take the audience through a journey using different forms of communication.

What message of power and pride would you like to share during Black History Month?

Hair is so important to Black culture and over the years women have begun to embrace their natural hair more which I love. Hair in all its different natural forms is something I want to see more of.

What do you hope to take away from engaging with this campaign?

I hope to take away a different perspective on how I can communicate things around Black culture, focusing more on joy and capturing everyday stories and ‘now-ness.’

What do you hope audiences take away from engaging with this campaign What do you want them to feel?

I want them to feel a sense of grounding, a sense of connection towards their own roots and accurately represented. I want them to know that they are seen.

What advice would you give to young Black creatives starting their journey now?

Be open, experiment. You never know what direction you’re going to be heading in unless you try different things. Along the way you’ll find your style and themes will emerge as you create prototypes. Trust the process, it takes time to figure out what you like and don’t like!

Final question! What excites you most about the future of Black art and culture?

There’s been an increase in the merging of work from people who have a Caribbean heritage,  with work from people in the African diaspora and it would be interesting to see how Black culture could intersect with other cultures,  and how that could create something beautiful and hasn’t been made before.