The Radar: Grace Clifford, Millie Rose Dobree and Grace McNerney
10 min read
In our monthly series, The Radar, we ask quick-fire questions to artists we’ve got our eye on. This roundup spotlights Grace Clifford, Millie Rose Dobree and Grace McNerney
Grace McNerney, Big Brother Season 5 Fight Night (With Christ The Redeemer), 2023, oil on canvas. Courtesy the artist
Grace Clifford
Grace Clifford, Cherubs, work gloves, 2024. Courtesy the artist
Born in Birmingham and currently living in Sheffield, Grace Clifford explores the connections between industry in the two cities, and the stereotypes and representation of working-class lives. As she puts it, “I think objects have feelings and sometimes feel so drawn to material it wakes me up in the night… My practice absorbs and spits out environments, ideas, feelings and experiences I encounter.”
Age: 24
Location: Sheffield, UK
Last dream you had: I tried to summon a dream so I could give you an interesting answer but I couldn’t!!
Favourite exhibition: I saw a really great exhibition called ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ in a train station in Poland a couple of years ago, it was about coal. At the time I was working in a factory (with coal) in the Black Country, whilst also working as a research assistant on a project that was also about coal. Really weird how it all lined up.
Favourite object you own: My favourite hated object is loads of steel I got from Anthony Caro’s studio after he died. I feel I can’t really do anything with it, because it’s his, but it’s gorgeous and obviously has this weird value that I feel obliged to care about. It’s a sort of looming presence in my studio that I enjoy using within my work.
Favourite art-world Instagram account: @birmzisgrime
Favourite movie: I watched two Despicable Me films B2B on a flight not long ago, they were okay actually!!
Favourite artwork: Deer Shelter by James Turrell at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, especially at 8 am on a rainy autumn morning
Loves: Horses
Hates: Horses
End-of-year goals: To be rich, famous and to stop being scared of everything
Grace Clifford, Fake pearl, takeaway container, 2022. Courtesy the artist
Grace Clifford, Stickers on protective welding curtain, 2024. Courtesy the artist
Grace Clifford, Bronze pub stool, 2022. Courtesy the artist
Grace Clifford, Welded steel (2023) held up by five fallow deer (2025). Courtesy the artist
Grace Clifford, Pickled fivers, 2020. Courtesy the artist
Millie Rose Dobree
Millie Rose Dobree, Hard Apology (I), 2025, oil on aluminium. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Theo Thompson
Alongside her visual practice, Millie Rose Dobree also curates, DJs and works as a fabricator at a bronze foundry, all of which influence her art, which takes shape via various ‘sampling’ techniques, including casting, printmaking and tromp l’oeil painting. Dobree collects vagabond signs and phrases found in the city or on the internet that she then ‘re-mixes’ into an eclectic range of objects.
Age: 26
Location: London, UK
Last dream you had: Too explicit to disclose
Favourite exhibition: Two that made a lasting impression on me in the past year were Isa Genzken, ’75/75′, at Neue Nationalgalerie, and Lutz Bacher, ‘AYE!’, at Raven Row
Favourite object you own: It’s between my bike, my Beats and my bear
Favourite art-world Instagram account: I don’t have one but my favourite Instagram account is @caffs_not_cafes because Isaac writes so heartwarmingly about London’s history
Favourite movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Favourite artwork: At the moment, Rose Finn-Kelsey’s Angel
Loves: Cycling around London with my headphones on, drinking Rubicon mango juice out of a carton with a straw, bringing people together, understanding something that first struck me as complicated, adventure, novelty, love, peace, letting go, getting a fresh set of acrylic nails, partying, shiny objects, colours, good manners, my life
Hates: That when something feels really good it doesn’t last forever, pigeons
End-of-year goals: To get my job back, make more bronze, make trance music
Millie Rose Dobree, YAY, 2024, oil on canvas. Courtesy the artist
Millie Rose Dobree, Feel FREE, 2023, wall paint on found balloon and poster. Courtesy the artist
Millie Rose Dobree, Please Don't Touch Me... I'm Broken, 2023, Airpod, Beano comic, confetti, drawing on tracing paper, found objects, resin, sour candy. Courtesy the artist
Millie Rose Dobree, i AM LOSt, 2024, acrylic and flock fibres on T-shirt. Courtesy the artist
Millie Rose Dobree, LOST, 2024, concrete and jesmonite. Courtesy the artist
Grace McNerney
Grace McNerney, Wasted Potential, 2023, oil on canvas. Courtesy the artist
Grace McNerney delves into the spectacle and humour found in the ordinary and transitional moments of life. She finds inspiration in office culture, the cult of celebrity and pop culture imagery. McNerney’s practice often takes the form of extensive series that explore these themes through film, painting and sculpture.
Age: 23
Location: London, UK
Last dream you had: I saw an old friend in an Instagram advert for Nestlé. They were doing the Disney Channel heart thing with their hand but for the Nestlé logo. I was thinking they might get sued for ripping off Disney, but I was happy they were in work.
Favourite exhibition: Isaac Julien’s at Tate Britain a couple of years ago. His film Looking for Langston has really stuck with me
Favourite object you own: My Princess Diana Portrait Annual, I think I’d be lost without it
Favourite art-world Instagram account: @nowicka__aleksandra
Favourite movie: Chicken Run
Favourite artwork: The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger
Loves: Recession pop, routine, cutting my own hair, mayonnaise
Hates: Ryan Reynolds, routine, audience participation
End-of-year goals: To get back into religion
Grace McNerney, Vintage Dice Shaker, 2024, oil on canvas. Courtesy the artist
Grace McNerney, Wedding Day, 2025, oil on varnished lace. Courtesy the artist
Grace McNerney, Don’t Worry I Get It (ii), 2023, oil on canvas. Courtesy the artist
Grace McNerney, Fawning, 2025, oil on acrylic wool. Courtesy the artist
Grace McNerney, Gomez, 2025, oil on canvas. Courtesy the artist
Grace McNerney, Dylan Thomas Advent Calendar, 2024, oil on canvas. Courtesy the artist
