At the centre of Andrew Szczech's practice is a response to the breakdown of structures – both physical and ideological. His paintings are built through a process of erosion and repair: gessoed surfaces are cracked open, layered with pigment, burnished, and then stilled. What remains is a kind of weathered skin – distressed, luminous, enduring. Recent paintings draw on fragments of late-Victorian wallpaper from the V&A archive. Alice Back Emerging Artist Award 2025.