Biography

Nadeem Chughtai (b.1973 Epsom,UK)

Lives and works in London

Nadeem Chughtai completed his foundation in fine art at Epsom School of Art and Design before going on to study illustration at Northbrook College, Sussex.

Upon completing his illustration course Nadeem wanted to explore his passion for film making and in 1997 found work experience in the art department of feature film, The Avengers. Here, he was introduced to scenic art for the very first time and fell in love with it immediately, driving him to seek out and eventually gain an apprenticeship with Steve Mitchell, one of the film industry’s finest scenic artists.

During his time working with Steve, Nadeem received invaluable training and developed the skills and techniques that continue to influence his practice. The hands on experience of colour mixing, light and shadow, perspective, scale and contrast were gained from working on the production of realistic scenery backdrops on feature films including The Bourne Supremacy, Alexander, Love Actually and James Bond.

After five years working and learning as a scenic artist, Nadeem had a yearning to explore his own creativity and in late 2003 moved into his first art studio in Wimbledon, south west London.

It was then that Nadeem began to explore what he wanted to say with his work and how he could achieve it. He was interested in deep and complex themes relating to the human condition and thus created his faceless, anonymous character, realising that it could be used as the central tool to convey what he wished to share and one that everyone could relate to. This character featured in all of Nadeem’s work since its inception in 2004 up until January 2020 (on the eve of lockdown), when quietly, suddenly and without fuss, ‘the nowhere’ character left us. Opening up a path for Nadeem to explore further into his artistic practice without the use of a central ‘character’.

Nadeem primarily works in oil paint, as well as pastel, pencil and sculpture.