Published 22/08/2019
Nancy Cadogan is an American-British artist based in Northamptonshire, however her work takes her across continents. Born in 1979 in Cincinnati, Nancy has lived and worked in Morocco, Ghana, New York and Italy, and has also enjoyed stints in Crete and Cyprus in early childhood with her father, the eminent archaeologist Gerald Cadogan.
Nancy attended Oxford High School followed by City and Guilds of London Art School before graduating from Canterbury Christ Church University with a Degree in Fine Art Painting in 2002. She has shown her work in New York and London, and most recently she has featured in group shows in Miami and Southampton, USA, plus a group show and solo show in London.
In 2017 Nancy Cadogan became one of 93 women artists chosen to exhibit their work in Soho House’s new hotel, The Ned, London, in its permanent Vault 100 exhibition highlighting the disparity between female and male CEOs. She was also named as one of the ‘Top 20 New British Art Talents’ by Tatler magazine in 2008, describing her as ‘the new Paula Rego’. She is married with three children and lives in Northamptonshire.
We are pleased to share our recent interview with Nancy.
1. What is your earliest memory of an artwork and who was it by?
One of the first exhibitions I saw that got me really excited was Thomas Eakins at the National Portrait Gallery. Now, these are not my favourite paintings at all, but I found them magic aged 10. I also went to the Hockney dachshund show! As a family we were mad about Hockney, and the colour and joy he conveys still is so uplifting.
2. You grew up in different countries around the world, do you think this has affected your choice of colour palette?
I have noticed that in this show, I am trying to convey heat a lot! I spent time in Cyprus as a kid. And then travelled around later on, to Morocco and Ghana and we spend a huge amount of time in Italy! Without a doubt these colours are in the paintings.
3. What is your favorite time of day to be in your studio?
I love being in the studio in the night, when everyone is asleep and I feel that all the characters come alive!
4. Where did you study?
I did my foundation at City and Guilds and then followed some painters down to Canterbury Christchurch, where some of the school of Euan Uglow were teaching.
5. Your last show, Still Reading, was about the beauty in books and the interior world you can be lost to if you allow yourself... tell us about your new show Ground Zero?
It is an extension of the ideas of the book show. These paintings are all done from imagination and, I hope, are allowing the viewer to lose themselves even more in an imagined world.
6. You reference other famous paintings within the works in this new show, why did you pick these particular works from art history?
I have tried to keep a huge amount of randomness in the works, the idea being that I am responding to what pops into my head. I am constantly thinking of other artists and their work, and so the motifs in these paintings are what seemed to make sense to the work and help create their own sense of being.
7 Following the opening of your new show at Saatchi we hear you are also now part of the British Art Fair?
Saatchi have amazingly given me a 2-part show. The first and main exhibition being Mind Zero from the 1st - 22nd September, and the second being ‘footnotes’ which will be over the British Art Fair.
8. If you could pick 5 artists, dead or alive, to have dinner with who would they be and why?
1. Rubens, as I reckon he would be amazing to have chats with,
2. Holbein, for his meeting with the tudors and his painting invention,
3. Hogarth, for his humanity,
4. Matisse, he must have been a very nice man to make such beautiful and uplifting work,
5. Vanessa Bell, for being part of a magic scene.
Thanks to Nancy for answering our questions.
Discover more of her her work in the Bridgeman archive.
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