Workshop: Reaching, Touching, Shedding

Join artist Helena Samarasinghe for a playful, hands-on drawing and collage workshop inspired by themes of sport and belonging explored in her exhibition Reaching, Touching, Shedding.

Taking place during May half-term, the session is open to all ages, with a particular welcome to children, young people and families. Through collage and large-scale drawing, participants will experiment with bold, gestural line-making on newsprint.

Working both individually and collaboratively - using movement, gesture and the whole body - you’ll help build a shared, energetic composition together. No experience needed.

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This workshop is programmed alongside Reaching, Touching, Shedding, an exhibition of new work by Helena Samarasinghe, BA Fine Art Drawing alumna (2024), and winner of the Vanguard Prize (2024). Developed during her studio residency, the exhibition brings together richly worked, large-scale drawings and cut-outs exploring sport, power, integrity and belonging.

Drawing on the bold contours of Kalighat painting, the work amplifies scale and physical intensity, positioning sporting performance as a site for negotiating visibility, agency and resilience.

Exhibition runs: 15 May - 17 July 2026
Thursday - Saturday, 11am - 4pm

All welcome – free entry, but booking is essential.
Exhibition runs: 15 May – 17 July 2026, Thursday - Saturday (11am - 4pm)

About Helena Samarasinghe
Helena Samarasinghe is a British–South Asian artist working primarily in drawing. A 2023 graduate of BA Drawing at Camberwell College of Arts, her practice uses sport as a personal and political framework to engage with postcolonial discourse, centralising brown female identity. Stylistically inspired by the bold, gestural lines of Kalighat painting, her work is situated within a lineage of feminist resistance. Her subjects, characterised by tensed muscles and discerning expressions, use sporting performance to convey embodied resilience.

About the Vanguard Prize
The Vanguard Prize supports emerging artists and strengthens Vanguard Court’s strong links with Camberwell College of Arts. Since 2010, it has supported recent graduates to develop their practice and careers through a year’s free studio residency and mentoring, culminating in an exhibition at the College.

The residency was previously awarded to Murray O’Grady (BA Fine Art: Sculpture 2010), Philip Li (BA Ceramics 2011), Phillip Booth (BA Fine Art: Painting 2012), Lauren Allen (BA Fine Art: Painting 2013), Alex Deveraux (BA Fine Art: Sculpture 2014), Queenie Clarke (BA Fine Art: Drawing 2015), Billy Crosby (BA Fine Art: Painting 2016), Rosie Ward (BA Fine Art: Sculpture 2017), Gwendolyn Spink (BA Fine Art: Drawing 2018), Isobel Finlay (BA Fine Art: Drawing 2019), Niccolo Binda (BA Fine Art: Drawing 2020), Amir Dehghan (BA Fine Art: Photography 2021), Robin Pickering (BA Fine Art: Painting 2022), Stella Pearce (BA Fine Art: Painting 2021), Helena Samarasinghe (BA Fine Art: Drawing 2023), Luke Chin-Joseph (BA Fine Art: Sculpture 2023).

Image: Helena Samarasinghe, sculpture maquette, 2025.