Vicki Salmi is a working-class, AuDHD visual artist. After working for 30 years in various administrative support roles, Vicki graduated from UCA in 2024 and received an official diagnosis for ADHD the same week as completing her MA Fine Art (Distinction), after receiving a BA Fine Art with first class Honours.
Whilst studying, upon realizing her neurodivergence, it became apparent why she had always felt that she never quite fit in. Her practice was, and still is, a rebellious exploration of chaos tempered by the need to find order, to make things fit when they don’t; a relentless battle between impulse and control, hyperfocus and distraction, sensory overload and procrastination, imperfection versus perfectionism, joy and frustration, always dual states that seem to contradict. Initially, this was an automatic, unconscious process, but as her studies progressed, it exposed what fuels her creativity. It became the focus of her MA and continues to underpin her artistic aesthetic.
A prolific maker, the core of her practice is process-driven art through mark-making using various mediums, including painting, print, collage, stitch, and digital. She is happiest when working on large-scale paintings but constantly fragments this into smaller-scale works, including film and book art.
Vicki has exhibited widely, including in solo and group shows and received commissions from Light Up Ramsgate, Looping the Loop, POW Thanet, and The Cross in London, as well as bursaries and awards from West Dean College, The Nick Jack MA Fine Art Scholarship, and UCA’s Business Enterprise Award for Makers. She was a member of the UCA atelier project with Yinka Ilori.
She is currently looking forward to having her work ‘Elephant NOT in the Room’ exhibited in the Outside In show SHELTER at The New Art Gallery Walsall (2025) and Christie’s London (2026).