Nomad Exhibits Debuts with Art from Across the Industry

All that is required for one to classify as an artist is simply to make art. No matter if you call it your hobby or your full-time job, considering yourself an artist, comes with a certain necessity to to it - making art as a way of breathing and living, a way to outwardly express the inside, or reflect the outside. 

The world is, in fact, swarming with artists - from the people working on the scaffolding across the street, to the creatives in an advertising agency. 

Kath Sawszak-Pierce, Nomad’s executive new business and PR consultant knows this, and even though she admits to me she doesn’t paint herself, she excitedly tells me she loves looking at art, curating art, and generally surrounding herself with it. So, naturally, when she walked into Nomad’s new home in Borough last year, she thought the one thing any sensible art enthusiast would - “These walls would make an incredible space for a gallery.”

The edit and post production house had just moved from their previous home in Covent Garden to a much larger, warehouse space in Borough, with the goal of building edit, colour, VFX and sound studios all under one roof. The one thing they didn’t anticipate was that they’d become the host of what now is one of the most loved and well-received events in the industry - Nomad Exhibits.

“I have so many industry friends who are talented artists and deserve to display their creations in galleries, but I have only seen photos of their art on social media,” Kath says.

This led to last Thursday, when the first Nomad Exhibits featured 13 amazing artists, 40 pieces of art and welcomed over 200 people, despite the rain. Artist Graham Fink was there too, utilising innovative tech to draw portraits of the guests with his eyes.

Kath says that to get the ball rolling she started contacting friends in the industry whose art she admired, and had seen on social media. She purposefully looked for different mediums to include in the gallery, evidenced by the variety of pop-art, classical oil painting, painting on wood, and much more at the exhibition.

“The art started arriving at different times, but having seen pictures and knowing the sizing of each piece, as well as having my interior design experience, allowed me to choose where each piece would be hung, to ensure the exhibition had a proper flow.”

Kath has been hosting and organising events in the industry for pretty much her whole 25 years in it, and assures me of her confidence in the project. “I knew an art exhibition featuring artists within our community would interest lots of people. What better way to celebrate creativity and bring people together?”

In the last hours prior to the event, the Nomads were “all hands on deck” prepping for the opening party, while Kath and Ben Mallett were getting busy hanging the last pieces of art where they belonged. 

“It’s definitely one of my favourite events that I’ve ever organised,” she adds. “I know I would have made my Mum, an oils landscape artist, very proud.”

Creative consultant and freelance creative Rosie Arnold shares that she was “honoured” to be invited to the first exhibition. Talking to me more about her process, she says, “I started life passionate about art, but realised when I was at art school it’s hard to make a living as an artist, so I went into advertising. I was hugely lucky to start at what was then a small creative hot shop called Bartle Bogle Hegarty [BBH]. I had a fantastic career working for 33 years at the same place.”

Rosie says her inspiration was consistently fueled by art during this time and in 2007 she took a sabbatical to go to the Royal College of Art, returning back to BBH after. In 2012, she was president of D&AD in its 50th year, where she became part of the team that introduced the first new Pencil in its history - the White Pencil.

“After a brief foray as head of art at AMVBBDO, I left advertising to pursue painting more seriously,” she finishes. “I hope to have as much fun and success in this new venture.”

“It turns out this ‘Nomad Exhibits’ idea is really cunning,” says writer and creative director Tom Juneau. “On one level, it spotlights Nomad as a supportive creative partner. On the other, it appeals to the vanity of advertising egos. As an added bonus, it furnishes Nomad with lots of art that can be swapped out as soon as they get sick of it. Very smart.”

Tom has made his way around the industry - Saatchi & Saatchi, VCCP in London, 180 in Amsterdam and Creature in Seattle. But long before he set foot in Adland, he managed a gallery of contemporary art, prior to which he attended art school for five years, “throwing clay at tutors and hauling things out of skips.”

“They’ve changed over the years, but the cast that features in them hasn’t - scientists, pot plants, dead flies and moths, plastic animals, celestial bodies. I set up the scenes like a director blocking a play. The stage is a window frame. The actor is a tiger… falling. It’s night time. Dark trees loom. But the truth is, the tiger is plastic and the moon is a 40 watt bulb. High drama, in a studio corner.”

He continues: “It’s always good to see people exposing themselves. Awkward maybe, but empowering. At a time of constrained budgets and uncertainty, Nomad Exhibits is offering up another stage, enabling people across the industry to put on a different kind of play.”

For Ewan Paterson, previously at DDB London, DDB Chicago, The&Partnership, MullenLowe and BBH Sport, becoming a portrait artist or a professional footballer were the two career paths he wanted to pursue as a teenager. Neither of them, though, were on the career officer’s list at the comprehensive school he attended in the West Midlands.

“As a kid, the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh, with its huge, imposing portraits was my favourite place,” he explains. “Along with Panini stickers of World Cup football teams, my favourite books were those of Renoir, Rockwell, Singer Sargent, MC Esher and Frank Frazetta.”

After two universities and three years as a geologist on oil rigs, Ewan found himself in the wonderful job of an advertising creative. “[It’s] about as good as you can get if you love ideas as much as execution,” he says. “While advertising has got in the way of being a painter, it’s been such a fantastic way to earn a living. Many decades down the line I do one-day-or-so a week helping advertising friends and then paint, draw, bin, start again the rest of the week.”

Ewan tells me he loves artists whose work is disarming, jumps off the canvas - painters who play with realism and magic at the same time, producing beautiful and sometimes unnerving work. A critic once told him, “Ewan, you have an impactful realism that fuses pop art boldness with strong graphic composition.” 

Ewan has over 40 Cannes Lions and seven D&AD Silver Pencils, but when standing in front of his paintings at Nomad he is certain:

“Advertising juries were very good and generous to me. But one painting in the Royal Academy’s summer show would be better than all those awards.”

Similarly, Andy Clough, joint ECD at neverland creative, tells me he’s been “doodling nonsense” ever since he can remember. Being from the North of England, his late teenage years were heavily influenced by the Hacienda’s acid house movement, mixed with a love of slapstick animation - Tom & Jerry, Roadrunner and the “twisted humour of ‘30s rubber hose style.”

Illustrating is what helps him calm his overactive mind, as any creative knows. “It’s incredibly hard to switch off. I love getting lost in my work, layering it with dots and textures, pumped full of bright vibrant colours. Often weird, often silly and most definitely unique.”

For Andy, exhibiting at Nomad was nothing short of fantastic. “Kath knows everyone who’s anyone in advertising, so this was a great opportunity to not only showcase my work, but also see some faces I haven’t seen in a while. Rosie Arnold and Mark Denton, legends throughout my career, were exhibiting there too. It was a win, win for me.”

Mark Denton’s series of the blue lady - famously eating a doughnut, smoking a cigarette with rollers in her hair, and holding a pot of blue paint - were also there. So was the blue lady herself, who modelled for the portraits - freelance graphic designer Kate Henderson! 

Mark and Kate told me the story of the paintings, finding its beginning in their creative partnership. Kate had asked Mark to paint her for a business card, which eventually led to the blue lady portrait series now known all over the world. Needless to say, I took the business card itself. 

So, after a night of laughing, hearing some crazy stories and looking at art, the verdict is in: Nomad Exhibits was a tremendous success. This is precisely why Kath, and Nomad London partners Liv Lawton and Martin Goodwin have decided it’s going to be a quarterly event. The current show runs until the end of May, so anybody keen to take a look can get in touch with Kath, Liv or Nomad’s Sales Rep, Ben Mallett.

“Nomad Exhibits welcomes artists of any levels, mediums and genres to come forward and enjoy seeing their art in an exhibition. Please get in touch with me if you’re keen to exhibit. I would love to see your work,” says Kath.

“And to the artists - Andy Clough, Antoine Langevin, Ewan Paterson, Graham Fink, JJ Keith, Julia Knight, Mana Catford, Mark Denton, Peter Salmi, Rosie Arnold, The Man Who Draws Faces aka Luca Bertoluzzi, Tom Juneau and Zak Emerson - thank you so much for taking part in our first exhibition. I’m a huge fan of your art and feel lucky to have curated Nomad Exhibits featuring your masterpieces in it.”