brave Projects
London, UK | — | —
Victoria Comstock-Kershaw
Victoria Comstock-Kershaw
Arts Editor and Podcast Host
Victoria Comstock-Kershaw
Arts Editor and Podcast Host

Victoria Comstock-Kershaw is an arts journalist, reviewer, and critic. She is the founder and editor of the ‘thinking woman’s magazine’ Fetch London, art critic for Saltzpeter on Substack, and co-founder of the critical collective CriticsOnCritics.

Her writing explores the intersection of art, culture, and contemporary life and examines how criticism can illuminate both the politics and poetics of contemporary artistic practices.

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Diaries

The Engagement Cupboard

The Engagement Cupboard

People can become problematic when they are turned into material for creative practice. In ‘The Engagement Cupboard’, Oliver Herbert explores his own uneasy relationship with engagement, public practice and the fantasy that culture sits neatly on one side, waiting to be delivered to another. Beginning with an A Level Art project that still makes him cringe 25 years later, Herbert reflects on his recent work as Schools and Young People’s Curator at The Showroom, asking what it means to enter a community, plan a programme, and slowly realise that the curriculum is outside of the gallery walls - Labubus and alien slime babies in tow.

13 May 2026

Was Timothy Chalamet Right About Art?

Was Timothy Chalamet Right About Art?

Timothy Chalamet said no one cares about ballet. He also asked a professional dancer to promote his film. Victoria Comstock-Kershaw reflects on what Chalamet was really getting at in his infamous CNN interview, what Bourdieu has to do with Sydney Sweeney’s nazi jeans, why the MET Gala has celebrities instead of curators on its chair, and how the artist in 2026 is left choosing between Instagram Reels and the same five PR companies in London.

6 May 2026

Why Don’t Rich People Buy Good Art Anymore?

Why Don’t Rich People Buy Good Art Anymore?

Victoria Comstock-Kershaw begins with two visits – to Villa Kérylos on the Côte d'Azur and the Poldi Pezzoli in Milan – and the question they produced: where is the twenty-first century equivalent of a rich person organising their entire life around a conviction about beauty? From Federico da Montefeltro's studiolo through the Grand Tour galleries and Victorian country houses, to Alec Monopoly, KAWS figurines and Kim K’s knockoff Donald Judds, she argues that the contemporary ultra-rich are fundamentally incapable of patronage in any meaningful sense.

29 Apr 2026

Can We Separate Art from Artist?

Can We Separate Art from Artist?

Can we separate art from artist? Victoria Comstock-Kershaw argues that we not only can, but must, and that refusing to do so is making criticism weaker, culture flatter, and all of us a little bit stupider - and makes the case for Kanye West and Jay-Z’s 2011 album ‘Watch the Throne’ as the greatest piece of twenty-first century art.

25 Mar 2026

Is the Artist Residency Worth It?

Is the Artist Residency Worth It?

The artist residency is one of the few things in the art world that artists will defend with genuine warmth. It can change your practice, your network, your sense of what you're even making work for. It can also cost you a month of lost income, a donated work and a $25 application fee for something that turns out to be a big fat scam. Underregulated, uneven and increasingly crowded with programmes that range from life-changing to exploitative, we set out to work out whether the artist residency is actually worth it.

18 Mar 2026

How Should Artists Price Their Works?

How Should Artists Price Their Works?

What's your artwork actually worth? A 2024 study analysed 34,000 auction sales and found that the visual qualities of an artwork barely influence its price. The honest answer involves your social network, your collectors' net worth, and a behavioural economics concept called the endowment effect. We asked artists, gallerists, and researchers how to approach the ever-difficult task of pricing.

11 Mar 2026

What Does a Solo Show Mean Today?

What Does a Solo Show Mean Today?

From refusal to rite of passage, the solo exhibition has travelled a long way. Once a workaround for artists shut out of academies and salons, it now sits at the centre of how careers are built, valued, and remembered. Drawing on conversations with artists, curators, and gallerists, Victoria Comstock-Kershaw traces the history of the solo show from acts of artistic insubordination to today’s prestige format, asking whether one artist in one room can still be a space for experimentation rather than expectation.

25 Feb 2026

Can We Trust the Art Critic?

Can We Trust the Art Critic?

Writing about being asked to speak at the ICA in 1977 for a conference on the Crisis in British Art, Victor Burgin said the following: “I never did learn what the ‘Crisis in British Art’ was; nor, I suspect, did anyone else. In retrospect I now see a textbook example of what psychoanalysis terms projection: the crisis sensed was not in ‘art’ but in criticism itself.” Writing in early 2026, we set out to speak to critics to find out just how this crisis has mutated, and whether there’s any hope for those of wanting to trust critics again.

4 Feb 2026

Condo 2026: Critic's Picks

Condo 2026: Critic's Picks

It’s sometimes difficult to know how to judge a show in Condo. Is it solely down to the art, or is it the way the host space and visiting gallery create a new context together? The following shows, presented in no particular order, demonstrate in my humble but correct opinion the many kinds of “good” you can find across this year's exhibitions. This is less a definitive ranking than a small taxonomy of Condo success: sometimes it’s host/guest alchemy and the generation of a third thing; sometimes it’s simply two strong programmes sharing space; sometimes it’s a pairing that only makes sense once you’re in the room - and sometimes it’s just pure visual pleasure.

28 Jan 2026

What Can We Expect from the Art World in 2026?

What Can We Expect from the Art World in 2026?

Happy 2026 everyone! As we all know, ins and outs lists are boring and passé, unless they’re yours. I’ve gathered a few of my own predictions for the coming year.

19 Jan 2026

Has Social Media Made Art Worse?

Has Social Media Made Art Worse?

Is the internet the best cultural infrastructure we’ve ever built, or the reason everyone’s making the same work, saying the same things, and spiralling in public? brave speaks to artists across generations about what social media gives, what it takes, and what’s left

12 Jan 2026

How Do Curators Actually Pick Artists?

How Do Curators Actually Pick Artists?

Exhibitions don’t appear by magic. They are built through relationships, timing, labour and decisions most artists are never taught to read. Victoria Comstock-Kershaw looks at how shows actually come together, and why understanding the structure matters more than believing the myth.

15 Dec 2025

Should You Go to Art School?

Should You Go to Art School?

“I wouldn't be where I am without art school.... But then again I wouldn't be where I am without art school.” Art schools promise community, credibility and a career. Most artists get debt, precarity and a second job. Victoria Comstock-Kershaw talks to artists, advisors and curators to ask: in 2025, is art school still worth it - or is the work all that really matters?

5 Dec 2025

Podcast

James Dearlove: The Trilling Wire

James Dearlove: The Trilling Wire

We are excited to launch season three of brave podcast with artist James Dearlove, who joins host Victoria Comstock-Kershaw to discuss his painting pr…

5 Mar 2026

Jonny Tanna: Harlesden High Street, Building Community Through Art

Jonny Tanna: Harlesden High Street, Building Community Through Art

Jonny Tanna is the founder of Harlesden High Street, a gallery rooted in northwest London that centres artists of colour, outsider practices, and comm…

5 Jan 2026

James Marshall: Access, Confidence and Communication

James Marshall: Access, Confidence and Communication

Curator, writer and founder of communications agency The Inventive, James Marshall joins Victoria Comstock-Kershaw for a new brave podcast episode to…

22 Dec 2025

Eva Dixon: Fearlessness

Eva Dixon: Fearlessness

Artist Eva Dixon joins Victoria Comstock-Kershaw for a new brave podcast episode to unpack the ideas behind, ‘Mercury 13’, Eva’s exhibition inspired b…

8 Dec 2025

Esther Gatón x anteroom: Vowels

Esther Gatón x anteroom: Vowels

Host Victoria Comstock-Kershaw sits down with artist Esther Gatón at her exhibition Vowels, with anteroom for an episode of brave podcast. Together, t…

26 Nov 2025

Elizabeth Dimitroff: A Boy Falling Out of the Sky

Elizabeth Dimitroff: A Boy Falling Out of the Sky

London-based painter Elizabeth Dimitroff joins brave host Victoria Comstock-Kershaw for a rich and thoughtful conversation recorded on the eve of A Bo…

17 Nov 2025

Anna Pakosz: Long Takes

Anna Pakosz: Long Takes

In this episode, artist Anna Pakosz joins host Victoria Comstock-Kershaw to discuss how her journey from Hungary to the UK, beginning with the Tracey…

3 Nov 2025

Will Jarvis: Shaping a More Equitable Art Ecosystem

Will Jarvis: Shaping a More Equitable Art Ecosystem

In the first episode of season two of the brave podcast, hosted by Victoria Comstock-Kershaw, Will Jarvis, founder and CEO of Gertude, reflects on his…

20 Oct 2025