Biography – Nigel Goldie

It has been a while since I updated this website for a number of reasons, the most pressing and the factor that has led to a period of limited time in my studio, has been the amount of time I have given to local community matters. Initially the Assynt Foundation and in recent times the Assynt Development Trust – all worthwhile, but hard to combine an active chairing role, with pursuing arts activities. In time I intend putting some material on this website on the building of the arts studio at Glencanisp and linked activities involving some arts residencies for others that I have enabled to take place.

Meanwhile in the last nine years – the period during which I have not managed to put on a major show – the last being Out of the Depths in an ex- fish sellers premises in Lochinver in 2016. Now in 2025 I am putting on ‘Out of the Ground’ at the Inverness Botanic Gardens planned to take place from early August with the installing of the larger more robust work in the gardens. This will be followed later in the month with the opening of a wide range of other work in one of the large glass houses. The work on show in ‘out of the ground’ all being linked by being made from either timber (from trees) or other plants and organic materials from nature. In a number of ways I continued my enagement with sculpture in these years intially by focussing on working with clay and (having a kiln) I was able to make and fire a range of work (not currently shown on this website), while also exploring further use of kelp for sculpture and also other materials found in nature, such as the stems/stalks/petioles of plants and trees. From these I made a range of work some of which I am now showing in ‘Out of the Ground’.

Previous career and interest in sculpture

My interest in form and the exploration of working three dimensionally has evolved over time and has taken a number of different directions. Lacking a formal art education I have developed my primarily sculptural practice through a range of short courses and self exploration of varied materials and methods as described on the home page.

I benefited greatly from the high standards of tuition and facilities at the City Lit in London where I have taken a range of courses over several years. The current government policies of reducing funding to such adult education colleges is a travesty that will deprive many people in their middle years and older from exploring and developing their inner creativity.

I have had varied and worthwhile work as an academic teacher and researcher and as a senior manager within local government among other forms of casual and free-lance work including manual occupations. Not all of this is relevant to my art, but much of it has been and it continues to inform how I work and the ideas and concepts I seek to develop through it.

Having a sociological imagination (C Wright Mills coined this phrase) and a curiosity about human consciousness and the ways subjectivity becomes reified and embodied in artistic forms is a good starting point to contemporary artistic practice. My art may reflect many of the discontinuities in my personal life, but it is also a way of connecting across time and the multiple identities we all inhabit.

I have shown my work in a number of end of year shows at the City Lit. One piece made while on studying there was short listed in 2008 for the finals of the Victoria and Albert Inspirations competition and was subsequently on display in the V&A. More recently I have shown my work in a variety of settings most likely unusual venues such as; a large supermarket (with shoppers walking through it); the crypt of a church; an ex fishseller’s shed; the garden of a pub/restaurant in Ullapool; a lochside setting within the Assynt Foundation; Clarence House & St James Park in London; as well office spaces and a local housing estate on verge of demolition in London as well as others such as An Talla Solais’s member shows in Ullapool.

2009

November 28th to December 20th
Sculpture at the Rock Tower. Tuffnell Park Road, London N 7. With Hinchee Hung.

2010

February 4th – 7th
Unearthed at the Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, Euston Road, London NW1 2BA Joint show with five other artists

March 27th
Behind Closed Doors at the Market Estate Project, North Road, London N7
(see also more images). With Hinchee Hung (//guardian link)

June 19th to July 4th
In Transit, Islington Exhibits, Waitrose Holloway Road N7 With Andy Charalambous and Hinchee Hung.

8th – 19th September
Totem in the Start Exhibition, Clarence House, The Mall, London SW1. With Hinchee Hung.

2011

5 – 12 June
Highly Strung in Hoxton, London N1 With Hinchee Hung a show of suspended art

2012

19 – 29th July
Re-turned Islington Exhibits, Waitrose, Holloway Road N7

Sept -Oct
Work in group show An Tallis, Ullapool, IV24

Oct
Broch Arising public art installation as part of Assynt Festival

Dec 2012 – April 2013

‘Save the Conker’ as part of Look Out Art Trail with Hinchee Hung and John O’Leary, St George’s ward Islington N7. Funded by Islington Council.

April 2013 – June
‘Hanging in Holloway’, Busworks London N1, joint show with Belle Robinson

May 2013
Member show An Talla Solais, Ullapool

October 2013
Open air show of large (and small) work Assynt Festival, Lochinver IV 27

Summer 2014

Glencanisp Lodge

Summer 2015

Open air show in grounds of the Ceilidh Place in Ullapool

July 2016

‘Out of the Depths’ Solo exhibition of work all made from materials found on local beaches and shore line, held in an ex-fish selling building in Lochinver Harbour

August 2019 Open Studio display of large work in the outdoors and other in the studio

September 2021 Seaweed Festival, Isle Martin & Ullapool

September 2024 Glenmorangie House as part of “Habitats”

Nigel Goldie

Website by diditon.com