Artist: Callum Harvey

Caught in the Sun’s Red Loom, Callum Harvey’s second solo exhibition at Pipeline and latest body of work, follows the mimicry of repeated forms and light throughout nature.

Harvey’s paintings explore the subtle interplay between natural forms and design. In his most recent work, he takes elements of specific forms such as the nacre of a shell or the mechanics of a magpie’s feathers to understand how they behave in design and architecture, often overlapping or repeating themselves in different ways.

Harvey uses paint as a vehicle to understand how these forms are connected. Images of sunlight reflecting on water or breaking through trees are made from a scattering of light rather than pigment. He applies a unique layering technique, building up thin layers of transparent oil paint which form a flattened surface, acting as a window to the colour beneath. Within his dedication to surface, Harvey’s abstracted natural forms are rendered papery flat. Strange and ambiguous and unified in their palette, his paintings gradually come into focus through a low contrast and layers of paint, resulting in hyper stylised depictions of nature.

Callum Harvey (b. 1998) lives and works in Cornwall, UK. He completed his BA at Falmouth University in 2020 and received a scholarship to study for his MA at the Royal College of Art graduating in 2023. Solo presentations include Art Rotterdam (2024); Pipeline, London (2023). Group exhibitions include Art Works Gallery, Singapore (2024); Huxley-Parlour at Miart, Milan (2024); Studio West, London (2023); Kingsgate Project Space, London (2023); Safehouse, London (2023); Centre Space Gallery, Bristol (2023) and Huxley-Parlour, New York (2023).

Special thanks to Ariane and Stratis Limnios for supporting the artist in this exhibition.