Move over Damien, meet the new talent

Arty types talk about Matthew Higgs in superlatives, with flattering descriptions such as 'the most influential curator of contemporary British art'. Although the 36-year-old read Fine Art at Newcastle Polytechnic, he never wanted to be an artist. 'I prefer organising things to doing things,' he explains, a skill he discovered as a teenager when he set up a fanzine for Joy Division.

When Higgs moved to London in the late Eighties, his ambition was to somehow rekindle that teenage enthusiasm. He managed to do so with Imprint 93, an ongoing publishing venture through which he commissions artists like Chris Ofili and Martin Creed to produce offbeat work, such as print a guest list stolen from the ICA. Imprint 93 led to curating shows such as Then and Now at the Lisson Gallery and the recent Andy Warhol exhibition at the ICA. Higgs is also the associate director of exhibitions at the ICA, and teaches at Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Art. There are more shows in the pipeline, although nothing is confirmed, but since Higgs has done an impressive ten shows in the past 12 months, he's probably relieved to be having a break.

Call the ICAon 020 7930 0493 for more details

Roddy Thomson and Colin Lowe

Although Thomson (36) and Lowe (35) met on the fine arts course at St Martins about ten years ago, they didn't actually like each other. It was only after they had left and started working together - hanging pictures in hotels - that they bonded. Not that the two of them had an easy introduction into the art world - one of their first works as a team was the Harangutang Letters, a collection of begging letters they had written to prospective sponsors. Based in Hackney, Lowe describes their work as 'deliberately funny on the surface, but then poignant underneath'. A case in point is the piece they're working on at the moment - a black cab on bricks. Called Enthusanasia, it's about suicide. Of course.

Call 07759 496 302 for more details

Rebecca Warren

Warren's already something of a star after showing at the Saatchi Gallery's New Labour exhibition. So much so that the great art patron himself, Charles Saatchi, collects her work.

After graduating from Goldsmiths and Chelsea, Warren spent a year as the artist in residence at the Ruskin School, Oxford University, before basing herself in East London. Her clay sculptures are described as looking like 'smashed and molten lumps' until closer inspection reveals a human form, often in a somewhat erotic pose. Her work is available through Maureen Paley Interim Art - a gallery that also has Turner Prize winners Gillian Wearing and Wolfgang Tillmans on its books - and prices range from around £5,000 to £8,000.

Call 020 7729 4112 for more details

Rachel Howard

When Rachel Howard was 18, she moved from County Durham to London to study at Goldsmiths College of Art. It was a fertile time: Mark Wallinger was her tutor, Damien Hirst and Sam Taylor-Wood in their third year. When Howard left art school in 1991, she funded her own work by becoming Hirst's assistant. 'Damien said that the only spot paintings worth having were the ones I'd painted - I did a lot of spots in the five years that I worked for him. I used his space to do my own work, and learned so much about the ins and outs of the art world from him. It was when there were only three of us in the studio, and the most perfect apprenticeship. The day I stopped working for Damien was the day my first show opened in London: I've never stopped showing since.' She adds: 'My first really good show was in Vienna in 1997, then I showed at the Saatchi Gallery in 1998, and in New York that same year. My first solo London show in 1999 sold out.'

Howard recently showed in New York and in Los Angeles in an exhibition 'that went brilliantly, with a review in the Los Angeles Times - that was more exciting than anything else'. Now 31, with three children, she is currently working on an exhibition of new paintings at the Anne Faggionato Gallery in the West End, with an accompanying catalogue that includes a conversation between the artist and her former employer, Hirst - who pays tribute to her spot-painting prowess in his biography, to be published this winter.

Appropriately enough, Howard uses household gloss paint to produce paintings of luscious colour fields, exploring both her control of the paint and its intrinsic wayward qualities. Priced between £2,000 and £10,000, Howard's work is likely to be found eminently collectable. Buy it if you can.

Rachel Howard, Paintings 2001, 22 November to 22 December, Anne Faggionato, 20 Dering Street, W1 (020 7493 6732)

David Risley

Twenty-nine-year-old David Risley worked as a chef before becoming an artist and curator. Now, he runs an art gallery above Zwemmer Art Bookshop in Litchfield Street where art-world 'tastemakers' such as Charles Saatchi, Jay Jopling, Serpentine Gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones plus Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota are frequently spotted. Anton Zwemmer started the gallery in one small room in 1929 and showed work by artists such as Picasso, de Chirico and Dali. Last year, Risley reopened the gallery, which he originally intended to act as a project space. He collaborated with established galleries such as Modern Art Inc, The Approach and the Lisson, and set up an auction with Afterall magazine which featured famous names such as Peter Doig, Paul McCarthy, Ed Ruscha and Mona Hatoum. The success of the gallery's opening programme caused Risley to give up his own art work and run the gallery as a full-time commercial business.