Highgate Contemporary was a unique one-off exhibition, featuring an eclectic group of artists in the unusual setting of a Victorian house in London. With work spanning from oil painting, photography and weaving, to papercuts and collage, it was truly cutting edge. Each artist draws inspiration from nature, the use of light, found materials and masters of the past. Although separate in their practice, they have an organic approach in their creations, and share a common passion about the environment.
Highgate Contemporary is a non-profit venture, entry is free and all those works that were not bought remain for sale.
Catalina Christensen: Inspired by journeys and the freedom of wild and isolated places, including the Arctic, Antarctica and the Andes, Catalina portrays the experience of being in nature through a painting language that depicts the essence of place rather than physical reality. Her core is process and materiality whilst incorporating colour, texture and surface. Her art evolves on the canvas, and each consecutive mark leaves a trace capturing the history of the painting. Working in egg tempera, all her pigments are made by herself thus ensuring an environmentally safe practice. Formally trained as an Architect, Catalina received a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School. Catalina is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a co-founder of the Wilderness Art Collective. She has exhibited at the V&A, The Royal Academy and in solo and group exhibitions in the UK and Europe.
Clare Dudeney: Clare’s work captures the subjective experience of being through relationships of colour and shape. She traces fleeting thoughts, feelings and emotions to create abstract landscapes with the unexpectedness of encounters with nature. The fragmented forms reveal memories, tender observations of rippling water, rock formations, bark and the body. Weaving is a meditative process, like taking a walk with threads. Mixing many fine yarns to create soft transitions and vibrant contrasts – like splashes of watercolour. The works hang, so they can move in the air and be touched. She embraces an everyday encounter with a blank sheet of paper or fabric. Breaking the sheet apart, painting each piece, and putting it back together, like a puzzle. She focuses on the connections and boundaries between interlocking shapes. Clare received an MA in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School in 2018 (Distinction) and was elected Chair of Students and Student Trustee (2018-19). She has worked for 15 years in climate change advocacy. Currently leading programme of work on creativity and climate justice for the environmental charity Sustainability First, which includes artist residencies, discussion events, schools’ outreach and art & writing prizes.
Amelia Prett: Amelia works across a range of mediums including performance, photography and ceramics. ‘The Light Show’, photographed during lockdown 2020, documents a series of self-portraits and abstract shapes cast by shadows and light on the walls of her home in Margate. “These moments of natural beauty both comforted and entertained me, connecting me with the outside world. I had the space and time to observe the changing patterns of light, emerge and dissolve around me, transforming my interior space into a canvas. Whilst capturing the playful performance, I developed a relationship with the shadows and light, learning the importance of timing. It formed, then faded before my eyes, momentarily reappearing from behind a cloud, stronger and brighter than, then disappearing completely.” Amelia received a 1st class (BA hons) in Performance and Visual Art (Theatre) at the University of Brighton.
Lara Preiti: Lara is a multi-disciplinary artist working across ceramics, glass, paper and print. ‘Shadow Workings’ charts Lara’s navigation of her experience with home as an in-between, liminal place. She has arrived at shadows as a visual articulation of this ungraspable relationship, a sense of place that is as much distant as it is present. As the shadow of a tree drapes softly over a building, it transforms it, becomes it and these separate entities merge whilst remaining apart. Her papercuts reflect the movement of their maker and the migration that preceded her. Verging on abstraction, they transform the landscapes they are in and reframe them for the looker. They imprint shadows; dream-like tableaus to intercept any given surrounding. To make these dream sequences is to try to capture the ungraspable home. Cyanotype is an evolution of the shadow play, a way to harness the shadows the papercuts create. The results are physical, tangible, almost ghost-like versions of Lara’s original cuttings. Lara received a 1st in BA Illustration from Camberwell College of Art and recently completed a three-month residency at TYPA, the Estonian centre for Paper and Print.
Luke Williams Luke’s painting practice is autobiographical, resulting in his process being impulsive rather than conceptual. His subject matter and painting styles are broad which are characterised by the delicacy and careful detail he observes as a picture restorer from the past masters. His current Entomological paintings ‘The Guild of St Luke’ are inspired by the 17th Century Flemish master, Jan Van Kessel the elder. The compositions represent his love and appreciation of the natural world, each insect jewel like, can be seen in different guises; busy, calm, playful but always fleeting. Luke’s art is deft, detailed, and thoughtful. He uses colour to enhance accurate, honest, and faithful observation giving pleasure to his viewers and above all to himself.
Before his apprenticeship at JH Cooke & Sons Ltd., Luke completed an Art foundation at Byam Shaw. He continues to develop his painting, while being inspired by the artist’s work he encounters.
For further information about the exhibition, the artists, works for sale and the NEXT exhibition please contact Mike Freedman at: michaelfreedman1942@gmail.com
