Kanto Ohara Maeda and Lacey Law. Photo credit: Tilly Buckroyd
In 2025 Jerwood Foundation awarded Sir John Soane’s Museum a total grant of £105,000 over three years to support the Jerwood Artist in Residence Programme. Each year two artists, whose work engages deeply with drawing as a conceptual, material, or procedural foundation, are hosted at the Museum for three months.
Sir John Soane’s Museum has announced that the 2026 Jerwood Artists in Residence are Kanto Ohara Maeda (b.1998) as the Summer Resident and Lacey Law (b.1992) as the Autumn Resident.
During their residencies Lacey Law and Kanto Ohara Maeda will occupy Soane’s historic Drawing Office at the central London Museum dedicated to his legacy. The Drawing Office offers a unique environment for the two artists to explore the past, present, and future of drawing as a critical and experimental practice. During their respective terms, Law and Maeda will be developing new work in response to the context of the historic spaces and the wider legacy of Sir John Soane’s Museum.
Law and Maeda will follow last year’s inaugural Jerwood Artists in Residence - Simon Farid and Mohammed Qasim Asfaq - who worked in the atmospheric Drawing Office, within the heart of the Museum. It is the earliest surviving example of a working architectural office, having been originally installed in Sir John Soane’s home in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1823.
Norwich-based tattoo artist and woodblock printmaker, Lacey Law is a lifelong devotee of drawing and hand crafts. Renowned for her elaborate compositions on skin and paper, Law’s work explores the relentless human desire for beauty in our surroundings, and the compulsion for decorating the spaces we inhabit – including our own bodies. Blending traditional printmaking with contemporary tattooing, she creates detailed woodcut- and etching-style pieces with fine linework, featuring bold contrast, and strong texture
Born in Japan, raised in East Sussex and now London-based, Kanto Ohara Maeda is a multidisciplinary artist and animator, whose practice is founded in drawing. He studied architecture in Edinburgh and animation at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London. Maeda often centres architectural spaces as his main characters that determine the atmosphere of his work, deriving a place of slowness and composition.
Lara Wardle, Executive Director and Trustee Jerwood Foundation said:
Our ongoing partnership with Sir John Soane’s Museum underlines Jerwood’s commitment to supporting excellence in the arts in the
UK. The Jerwood Artist in Residence Programme offers a unique opportunity to artists, to enable them to develop their drawing practice within the exceptional and inspiring setting of Sir John Soane’s Museum and its historic Drawing Office.
Will Gompertz, Director of Sir John Soane’s Museum, said:
We are delighted to be welcoming another two wonderfully talented artists this year. They have very different practices, but their work is united by a deep appreciation of Sir John Soane’s Museum. We look forward to seeing what new conversations, interpretations and possibilities will emerge through their work in Soane’s Drawing Office.
The generous support from Jerwood Foundation enables us to continue a sustained dialogue between contemporary practice and the collection, highlighting the continued relevance of the Museum to artists working today.
We extend our sincere thanks to the 2026 Residency Selection Committee for their insight, care and expertise throughout the selection process: Michael Landy, Erin McKellar, Muyiwa Oki and Zoé Whitley.
For further information please visit Sir John Soane’s Museum
June 10, 2026
