Nadeem Chughtai

Nadeem Chughtai was showing signs of artistic promise from an early age, courtesy of his creative drawings, so it came as no surprise that looking back on his school years the now acclaimed contemporary figurative and abstract artist, Chughtai fondly recalls art class above any other. “I remember my teacher, Ms Slack showing me an image in order to inspire me when deciding on my A-Level final piece” says Chughtai, adding; “The atmosphere and mood created in that piece had a very strong influence on all the work I produce to this day”.

Born in Epsom, England in 1973, Chughtai followed up his secondary schooling with attendance of the almost obligatory local college art foundation call which most practising contemporary artists of today experienced, along with a good percentage of us would-be artists. In Chughtai’s case study took place at Epsom School of Art and Design, choosing to supersede this with additional study at Northbrook College in Worthing on their Illustration course. All the time in the background Chughtai had been selling his artwork to all interested parties and even negotiated a deal as an enterprising teenager with his local squash club which saw him gain free membership in return for his hand-rendered posters advertising the club’s facilities.

Fast forward a few years and in 1997 Chughtai embarked on an arranged period of work experience which was to launch him as a professional artist in his own right. He spent the summer of that year employed by Pinewood Studios, and working in their art department. Chughtai’s remit that summer was to work alongside professional artists on an upcoming feature film the studios were very excited about; that film being ‘The Avengers’. Having convinced the powers that be that he was more than up to the role, Chughtai was offered an enviable position with the studios in 1999 that saw him spend the next five years working as an apprentice scenic artist, during which time Chughtai shared the responsibility of producing realistic scenery and visual backdrops on a series of big budget movies under the tutelage of industry icon, Steve Mitchell. Films such as ‘Alexander, Love Actually, Johnny English, About A Boy, James Bond’s Die Another Day’ and a small feature film that many people probably haven’t heard of called, ‘The Bourne Supremacy’.

Having clearly loved his job, Chughtai still privately hankered after making a living from his own brand of art which he still continued to do for his own end in the meantime and around his career commitments, and finally arrived at the decision to go it alone. Moving into his first studio at the end of 2003, Chughtai dedicated all his time and efforts into the origination of his own, bespoke art work
having turned his back on the set design career he’d enjoyed hitherto, and started arranging exhibitions of the compositions he’d created thus far.

Feedback was encouraging and it wasn’t long before he started to make a living from his art as he’d always dreamt of doing at some point in his professional life, and just a couple of years down the line Chughtai was acknowledged by the industry he now served and felt a part of by scooping the New Artist’s Competition at the Birmingham NEC in 2005. In recognition of his accolade as well as benefitting from a heightened awareness and appreciation for the work Chughtai had produced to that point, one of the UK’s leading fine art publishers, Washington Green approached the contemporary star in the making, offering to represent him and help publicise his work henceforth. Since then Chughtai’s commercial collaboration with Washington Green has brought about the release of hundreds of his original pieces to a far broader demographic, which itself has been increased twentyfold by the reproduction of these signature pieces as limited edition prints.

Looking at that signature art of Chughtai and the recurrent theme in his largely figurative and abstract work is the character which tends to appear in most compositional pieces. Describing who and what this representation of a person is and what it stands for, Chughtai explains; “The character I use was created as my tool to express what I wanted to say. It can be any one of us, it just represents the human species”, before adding; “I am a keen observer of everyday life so my ideas are created from images I see all around. I also dig deep into thoughts, feelings and emotions that I may be experiencing at the time”. Chughtai also speaks of the similarities between so many of us on so many everyday levels, and with that in mind he hopes that by expressing his in innermost or outermost feelings, however transient, on his canvases will engender a feeling of reciprocation in his viewer’s minds. What’s more, Chughtai always graphically emphasises the role light plays in his compositions, and specifically the way in which it compromises shadows, forms, mood and atmosphere for better or for worse.

Chughtai now works independently and continues to exhibit and sell his work worldwide.