Alex Margo Arden (born 1994) is an English contemporary artist.
She won the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation Prize at Frieze London. In 2024, the Evening Standard named her one of London's most exciting young artists. In 2025, she was nominated for The Times Breakthrough at the Sky Arts Awards. She featured on the 2026 Attitude 101 list.
Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Royal Academy of Arts and the Arts Council Collection.
Early life and education Arden was born in Croydon, South London.
In 2013, Arden completed a Foundation course at Central Saint Martins. In 2016, she graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London, where she received the Hamad Butt Memorial Prize.
Later, from 2022 to 2025, Arden studied at the Royal Academy Schools.
Work Arden's work often involves a process of reinterpretation, re-staging and reconstruction of historical objects as a means of engaging with their histories. For her 2023 work Rock Paper Scissors, for example, she reconstructed the collages made on Islington Library books of Kenneth Halliwell and Joe Orton from 1959-1962, as a means of engaging with queer histories. In her 2025 exhibition she also reproduced and re-staged several famous artworks that have been the target of direct action by protestors.
Arden's work is research and conceptually-driven, so she works across a variety of media including sculpture, installation, painting, drawing, analogue photography, collage and performance "depending on what the idea calls for".
Arden's work Accounts used mannequins of male workers from the National Motor Museum tied together with a tug-of-war rope, and sat in front of a painting titled Daily Departmental Accident Record on the wall.
Career In 2019 and 2020, Arden collaborated with Caspar Heinemann on the exhibition and corresponding performance play THE FARMYARD IS NOT A VIOLENT PLACE AND I LOOK EXACTLY LIKE JUDY GARLAND at Cell Project Space. This was followed by Arden and Heinemann's second play Among My Souvenirs which was performed in 2021 at Barnens Scen in the Folkets park, Malmö, Sweden.
Arden had her first solo exhibition with Ginny on Frederick titled All Clear in 2022.
In 2023, whilst a student at the Royal Academy Schools, Arden's had her first exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, Rock Paper Scissors, which featured collages made from library books by Kenneth Halliwell and Joe Orton.
In 2025, Arden had a solo exhibition at London's Auto Italia South East titled Safety Curtain, which recreated artwork targeted by climate protestors behind a protective glaze. In the same year, she was nominated for the Times Breakthrough Award at the 2025 Sky Arts Awards.
In October 2025, Arden returned to Ginny on Frederick with her presentation By All Accounts for Frieze London. Her work Accounts (2025) was acquired by the Arts Council Collection. Sofia Hallström of Wallpaper named Arden a standout artist of Frieze 2025. Arden won the fair's inaugural Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation Prize. This involved the exhibition Nothing Personal at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, London, curated by Vittoria de Franchis, from 2026-27. The exhibition will involve the re-staging of the personal property of Amy Winehouse. Arden has engaged with Winehouse previously in her work, for example in her works Shoes Said to Have Belonged to Amy Winehouse (2024) and Perfume said to have belonged to Amy Winehouse (2024) shown at the group exhibition On Feeling at The Approach.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions YearTitleInstitutionLocationNotesRef2022All ClearGinny on FrederickLondonResponsibility, Responsibility, ResponsibilityArt-o-ramaMarseille2023Attention RestorationQuench GalleryMargateRock Paper ScissorsRoyal Academy of ArtsLondon2025Safety CurtainAuto Italia South EastCrisis ActsRoyal Academy of ArtsBy All AccountsFrieze London2026True as GooddiezAmsterdamNothing PersonalNicoletta Fiorucci FoundationLondon Group exhibitions YearTitleInstitutionLocationNotesRef2024How to Destroy AngelsHorse HospitalLondonRouge RavagerBio SkandiaStockholmVampire Problem?N/A GallerySeoulChannelCentre d'Art Contemporain de NîmesNîmesColor of PomegranatesGallery ArtbeatTbilisiOn Feeling The Approach GalleryLondonRecitalArcadia Missa2025The SyzygyChamp LacombeBiarritz2026Re/EnactmentsCoulisseStockholmSummer ExhibitionRoyal Academy of ArtsLondonCase HistoryVardaxoglouLondonMarilyn Monroe: A PortraitNational Portrait Gallery 2026–2028British Art Show 10: A Chorus of Strangers (2026–)Multiple locationsCurated by Ekow Eshun
Performances YearTitleInstitutionLocationNotesRef2019THE FARMYARD IS NOT A VIOLENT PLACE AND I LOOK EXACTLY LIKE JUDY GARLANDCell Project SpaceLondonWith Caspar Heinemann2021Among My SouvenirsBarnens ScenFolkets park, Malmö
Collections Arden's work is held in the public collections of:
Royal Academy of Arts Arts Council Collection
Awards Arden has been nominated and achieved the following awards:
2025 – Nominated – The Times Breakthrough Award, Sky Arts Awards 2025 – Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation Prize at Frieze London 2025 – Annabel Paradise Award for Sculpture, Royal Academy Schools 2025 – André Dunoyer de Segonzac Hon RA Travel Scholarship, Royal Academy Schools 2024 – Landseer Prize, Royal Academy Schools 2015 – Hamad Butt Memorial Prize, Goldsmiths
References