The exhibition helping one nail tech realise she was an artist all along
By Jess Watts | 25 April 2026 | News & Events
When a client approached Hull-based nail tech, Lucy Allman, with the idea to launch an art exhibition featuring her work, Lucy was shocked. She had never seen herself as an artist before – but all that was about to change…
When the Covid-19 pandemic left Lucy redundant, she turned her attention to the nail world. “I wanted a career to fit around my children,” she says. After choosing Magpie Beauty for her core nail products, Lucy completed the brand’s conversion course, qualifying as a nail tech.
Now, Lucy owns home salon, The Nail Shed – from which she offers services including strengthening manicures, nail art and brow and facial waxing. The Nail Shed attracts an array of clients, and one such visitor turned out to be the catalyst for a whole new adventure.
An exciting idea
Lucy Brooke is the curator of The Feminine Urge Collective – a group of ‘female and non-binary artists based in the North who aim to address the lack of perspective and voice from female and trans artists, and artists who are working class, live with a disability or are Northern’.
When Lucy Brooke first came up with the idea to create an art exhibition, she decided to include the work of her nail tech, Lucy Allman. “Nail art – like so many other visual arts, requires training, an understanding of materials and good ideas of perspective and technique,” The Feminine Urge Collective curator states.
Lucy Allman adds: “Lucy [Brooke] believed in me before I believed in myself. She told me to apply for the exhibition, and now, I truly believe I am an artist.”
The exhibition
Taking place in Hull from 1-17 May 2026, the exhibition collates art from a plethora of talent, all working with the same theme: Mother. “The curator, Lucy Brooke, chose ‘Mother’ for the exhibition’s theme as she felt it was under-explored from a critical point of view: if we all have a mother, why don’t we talk about her as much as we could?” Lucy Allman explains.
When considering the theme, and the media she was working with, Lucy Allman was excited. “Being a mother myself – and having a very complicated relationship with my own mother, I knew my interpretation would be a healing process,” she says. “To translate that into nail art, I delved into my childhood memories, as well as the life lessons and relationships that shaped me into the adult I am today.”
The creative process
Lucy Allman decided that each nail she created would be completely unique. “I wanted to split the work into sections: childhood, teenage years and finally, mother,” she shares.
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The nails comprise a variety of materials, one of the more unconventional being real hair which Lucy had kept from her children’s first haircuts. “It was so hard to manipulate,” Lucy reveals, adding: “I chose to use their hair in the piece as a nod to the idiom, I wouldn’t hurt a hair on their head.”
Other mixed media items were used, and Lucy notes that it took time to get used to some of the products she incorporated into the final designs. “I hadn’t used 3D clay before, but decided to add Cris Clay [by Canadian nail brand, Crisania Neri] to the piece – and it was a dream. I loved working with it,” she says.
Lucy’s creative process began in December 2025. “I set myself a deadline, and each Sunday I took time out in the morning to create one nail,” she reveals. “I actually finished sooner than expected because I was so hyper-focused!”
A wider influence
Including nail art within the Mother exhibition is a win for nail techs everywhere, and Lucy Allman hopes that, by highlighting nails within the artistic sphere, she can help ‘give other nail techs the courage to step outside of their comfort zones, try new things and believe in themselves’.
The Mother exhibition will take place at the Pier Street pop-up space in Hull and is open from 1-17 May 2026. Alongside the showcase, the exhibiting artists will be running workshops relating to their fields of expertise – including collage, floral arranging, beaded badge making and poetry.
Follow the collective on Instagram, @afeminineurge, for more information.
Keep up-to-date with Lucy Allman & The Nail Shed via @the.nailshedhull.
