Ö÷²¥´óÐã

The Ö÷²¥´óÐã today announces the names of the six unknown artists selected by Charles Saatchi to take part in School Of Saatchi, a four-part series which starts tonight on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two at 9pm.

With advice from an esteemed panel – artist Tracey Emin, critic Matthew Collings, art collector Frank Cohen, head of art galleries at The Barbican, and Kate Bush – Saatchi selected these six artists whom he felt have a raw talent and creative edge.

They have attended a unique art school established just for them where, over 10 weeks, they have been given the opportunity to develop their work through a series of commissions and with guidance from key figures in the art world today – including Martin Creed and Mat Collishaw.

At the end of the series, viewers discover which one of the artists Saatchi has chosen to have their work appear in Newspeak – British Art Now, his exhibition at The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. That artist is also offered the additional opportunity of receiving a free studio for three years.

The six artists are:

Suki Chan, aged 32, lives in East London
Suki studied fine art textiles at Goldsmiths College and has recently completed an MA in Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art. Born in Hong Kong, her parents moved to Oxford when she was six. Although she studied fine art at college, Suki has now been inspired to concentrate on film, video and photography, sometimes combining them with everyday objects to create mixed-media installations.

Probably the most experienced of the six artists, she works from her tiny bedroom in a flat above a shop. Her ultimate aim is to be in a position to make new work for spaces that she finds inspiring.

Matt Clark, aged 25, lives in London
Matt graduated in 2007 from Central St Martins. Art has always been his passion and was the only subject he was interested in at school. Since finishing his fine art degree, he has established himself in London with a studio in Brixton. He has put on a number of shows and is also working part-time as an art technician for an exhibitions service.

He's interested in the fantastical and his recent installation work explores an apocalyptic theme. He sees this series as a great chance to work beyond his current means.

Ben Lowe, aged 33, lives in West London
Ben is a painter. He never attended art school but has been has been working successfully as a commercial artist for 10 years, undertaking art commissions for specific spaces such as a home or hotel. Ben is practical about having to earn a living to pay the bills but wonders whether a lack of formal training has held him back in the art world, so now he now wants to see if he can forge a successful career through developing his personal work - which is more introspective and figurative than his commercial pieces. He is hard-working and determined, even cancelling his honeymoon to take part in the series.

Saad Qureshi, aged 23, currently studying in London
Saad studied fine art at Oxford Brookes University and is currently working towards his MFA in fine art painting from Slade School of Art. He became interested in art because of a very good teacher he had at school and his main aim is to be a full-time practicing artist.

When he was 10, Saad's parents emigrated from Pakistan to the UK - where they lived in Bradford throughout the 2001 riots before moving to Oxford. He works in mixed media, from installation to sculpture to painting, and explores issues of cultural identity and themes of belonging and identity.

Eugenie Scrase, aged 20, lives in London
Eugenie, the youngest of the six selected, is currently studying Fine Art Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art where her tutors were very encouraging about her wanting to take part in the series. She was born in France but moved to Britain in the early Nineties with her family.

At school Eugenie spent most evenings in the art department. She is interested in the strangeness of things, and her sculptures and installations are formed out of curious found objects, some of which she replicates by making them herself.

Samuel Zealey, aged 23, from Essex
Samuel completed a BA in fine art painting at Wimbledon College of Art last year. He is a sculptor and has established his own studio and works part time as an art technician. With his mother being a printmaker and his father a sculptor, when he was younger Sam rebelled against being an artist because that's what his parents did.

He's now changed his mind and really wants to be a successful artist. His interests lie within the sciences and his ideas are motivated by, for example, magnets and vacuums and making larger installation based work. On the selection day, his piece of work involved a treadmill.

For these six artists, School Of Saatchi is a totally unique chance to develop their talents and, for the one chosen by Saatchi to be given a space at his exhibition, this really is an opportunity like no other.

Matthew Collings, one of the panel who helped advise Saatchi on which six should be selected, sums up what lies ahead:

"Opportunities like this do not arise every day and in most people's lives they never arise. These artists have got to come up with something that's got to be impressive, so there's a great deal of pressure that Saatchi is putting on them."

School Of Saatchi starts on Monday 23 November on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two at 9pm. The four-part series is part of The Modern Beauty Season – a range of programmes coming to Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two and Ö÷²¥´óÐã Four which look at the concept of beauty in modern art.

Notes to Editors

Anyone aged over 18 could apply to take part in the series. All media were considered but, at the time of applying, the entrants could not be represented by a gallery.

KA