BEATRICE ZAGATO
Steve met Beatrice through an Italian company called Art Apartments. Beatrice won a competition they held in 2017 called “London is Open”. She won a one months residency to stay in London and her goal was to work and collaborate with a London Based Artist. After trying to collaborate with other artists which did not lead anywhere, Beatrice finally met Steve and they clicked! Although they spoke different languages, so communication was hard, they soon realised they found it very natural and easy to communicate through art. They realised they had so much in common and shared the same romantic views about London, city life and the ocean.
Steve started off painting his birds to get things going giving the work a sense of freedom and adventure. Beatrice then began turning his 2 dimensional images into 3 dimensional artworks by cutting the wings and curling the paper back into itself continuing the original lines and movement Steve had created. Steve felt it added extra life to his birds and together they were taking them into new directions. Scratching away at gold leaf, writing over photographs and adding layers to their paintings using a range of different mediums Steve and Beatrice added depth to their work exploring different ideas about the freedom and the struggles within a major city. Their work and ideas developed fast and with in a few weeks they had a good body of work which was shown at a successful exhibition in Chelsea held by Art Apartments. Beatrice’s residency came to an end and she had to return to Italy.
They decided to continue their collaboration and Beatrice received a grant to come back to London and they both got a studio on Columbia Road for a month. They worked hard together pushing their work further focusing in their use of line and colour and how this creates movement through their work. They produced a good body of work which Art Apartments agreed to arrange another show but this time more of a “work in progress’ exhibition to be held later in the year. Also during this visit they started work on ideas for workshops they could run, with the idea of bringing people together through art like they had been brought together. After careful planning they spent a day at a charity called Pursuing Independent Paths where they ran an art work shop for adults with learning difficulties. They found the loved this and decided it was another field they wanted to continue to explore.
Beatrice had to return to Italy but they continued to develop their ideas for workshops their goal being to get people to communicate and interact through art just like they had when they first starting working together.
Beatrice returned once again to London and they ran the work shops they created one for children under 12, and also a work shop created for adults both held at The Estorick Collection Gallery, Islington, London. Both proved very successful. During this time they also had another exhibition in Islington London which was held across two apartments hosted by Art Apartments. Again another successful show during which they un rolled a large painting from a window and so it hung down the side of the building.
They are continuing working together although Beatrice is again back in Italy, who knows what they will create next… to be continued!
