Collection: All the Wicked Are Here

All The Wicked Are Here is the latest body of work by figurative painter Ruby Read, a striking series of 150 oil portraits that captures the faces, presence... Read More

All The Wicked Are Here is the latest body of work by figurative painter Ruby Read, a striking series of 150 oil portraits that captures the faces, presence and spirit of Ruby’s peers at the Royal College of Art. Created as her final project for her Master’s degree, this ambitious collection is both a personal and collective archive of a transformative period in Ruby’s artistic journey.

Each portrait represents one of the 150 students on Ruby’s MA course, a diverse group of fellow artists, makers, and thinkers with whom she has studied, shared ideas, and grown creatively over the course of the programme. Painted in oil, the portraits are intimate yet immediate, unflinching yet full of humanity. In this way, All The Wicked Are Here becomes not only a visual record, but a tribute to the people who shaped Ruby’s time at the RCA.

Ruby’s distinctive style- expressive, layered, and emotionally charged- is evident throughout the series. While each face is treated with care and individual attention, the project also invites reflection on collectivity, community, and the shifting ways in which we see ourselves and others. The result is a wall of faces that look back at the viewer: honest, complex, and powerfully present.

At the heart of the collection is Ruby’s own self-portrait. Painted in the same manner and scale as the others, it sits quietly among the group. With this, Ruby signals her dual role: both artist and participant. The series becomes a meditation on belonging, observation, and the artist’s place within their subject.

The title, All The Wicked Are Here, is both playful and poignant. It nods to the creative energy, mischief and vulnerability that run through a group of emerging artists, and also hints at the intimacy and trust required to depict others with such rawness.

This is not simply a graduation project, it is an act of witnessing, a testament to a specific time, place, and group of people. Above all, it reflects Ruby Read’s ongoing interest in identity, perception, and the emotional charge held in a painted face.