MEANS once again shares the work of two exciting grassroots artists. This post marks the third of our new online series, where we showcase two artists whose work we particularly admire. Check them out below!
Zoë Douglas-Cain
Zoë Douglas-Cain is a collage artist living and working in London. Her work tends to celebrate women in the world placing them as the central subject caught up in a variety of settings and guises rarely meeting our gaze. The work is largely humorous sometimes cheeky and positions women engaged in reverie and play alongside each other or in their own space autonomous and self possessed. Colour is crucial to her work. Zoë’s art has been showing in London and beyond in the UK since 2013 including The Crypt in Euston, Peckham Safehouses, Kommune in Sheffield and the Botanical Gardens in Dundee. More recently she has provided work for the art zines ‘Collect Art’, ‘I am Not A Size’ and ‘Mare’ zine, as well as providing artwork for the cover of an E.P. by a Finnish rap group.
‘By The Balls’ (2019) has something ‘magical’ suggested in it through the rabbit, and the children gambling around in space: the piece celebrates childhood, fantasy and a desire for the magical. In a child’s imagination anything can happen.
Find out more about Zoë’s work on instagram: @zoedouglascain
Adarsha Ajay
Adarsha Ajay is a UK-based contemporary artist whose work embodies powerful transformation. Rooted in her own lived journey, she creates a unique visual language that delivers bold, healing messages to humanity, especially to women navigating silence, resilience, and rebirth. Through a fusion of cultural traditions, symbolism, and storytelling, her art becomes both a mirror and a beacon, offering strength, hope, and connection.
Her work is deeply personal, shaped by a life marked by emotional abuse, depression, and single motherhood. Through these challenges, she rediscovered the healing power of art, which now lies at the heart of her creative practice. Adarsha’s distinctive visual language bridges traditional Indian art forms with Western conceptual frameworks, weaving sacred symbols, intricate patterns, and narrative elements into her emotionally charged compositions. Her paintings explore themes of womanhood, dual identity, trauma, and spiritual transformation, drawing from both Hindu and Christian spiritual traditions. Central to her work is the exploration of the feminine divine and the silent, powerful process of inner rebirth. Adarsha’s art transcends aesthetic appeal—it is visceral, honest, and grounded in lived reality. She creates cultural bridges that connect East and West, past and present, and women’s experiences across the globe.
Desire & Divinity explores the tension between sacredness and sensuality in feminine identity. The kneeling nude within a yantra is both vulnerable and powerful—engaged in prayer, but also self-confrontation. Surrounded by divine symbols, she becomes both temple and terrain.
Find out more about Adarsha’s work:
https://adarshaajay.my.canva.site/
https://www.instagram.com/adarshaajay/?hl=en
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