Free Studio in Streatham Hill Awarded to Loretta Yussuff

ASC is delighted to announce Brixton-born figurative artist Loretta Yussuff as the 2025–2026 awardee of our free studio at ASC Streatham Hill.

Artists’ Studio Company, in partnership with Lambeth Council, is excited to welcome Loretta as the latest recipient of the ASC x Lambeth: Streatham Hill Free Artists Studio Scheme. Her one-year rent-free residency began in September 2025, providing a vital professional workspace in the heart of her home borough.

About the Artist

Loretta Yussuff is a British figurative artist of Nigerian–Lithuanian heritage. Her practice explores universal human emotions and psychological states through Black figuration, drawing on Christian and Western art traditions. Her work is characterised by rhythm and expressive colour, which play a central role in communicating both internal and communal experiences.

Loretta’s creative journey began in Fashion Design, graduating with a BA from the University for the Creative Arts in 2020. During a period of intensive self-education, she taught herself to draw from her bedroom, which served as her first home studio before going on to graduate from the MA Fine Art: Painting course at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London (UAL).

Current Studio Focus

During this residency, Loretta is focused on a figurative painting series exploring the quiet and invasive feeling of shame and its manifestation within the physical, emotional, and financial spheres.

Building on her MA research, she is currently pushing the spatial and material possibilities of painting by creating works on sewn canvases. By drawing on garment construction techniques from her fashion background (cutting, stitching, and layering), she allows the canvas surface to carry physical tension and distortion that mirrors the psychological states within her subjects. Her goal is to develop an immersive visual language that holds both intimate personal experience and a wider communal resonance.

In Her Own Words

Reflecting on the importance of the studio and its location, Loretta said:

“Lambeth is home, where I grew up and where my way of thinking was formed. Having my first studio here means building my practice in the place that shaped me.”

The ASC x Lambeth Partnership

The Streatham Hill Free Studio scheme was developed in partnership with Lambeth Council, specifically designed to support artists, designers, or makers resident in the borough who face barriers to accessing workspace. The initiative provides a bright, 196 sq ft self-contained studio at ASC Streatham Hill, allowing local creatives the stability to grow their practice over a one-year period. Loretta was selected from a pool of applicants by a panel representing both ASC and Lambeth Council.

About ASC

ASC is a leading charitable provider of affordable workspaces for artists and makers in London. Since 1995, we have supported thousands of creatives by providing the space and stability needed to sustain a professional practice in the city.