Featured Artist
Nigel Majakari

Nigel Majakari is a visual artist and founder of Ca’lyah, a design company based in Copenhagen and London. Ca ́lyah brings together award-winning designers with traditional artisans to enable inclusion and opportunity for craftspeople in underserved communities.

Shaped by over 25 years of working and living in some of the toughest communities around the world, Nigel brings to his artistic work formative experiences of social and economic deprivation, the complexities of international politics, and inspiration and hope derived from individual and collective action overcoming injustice and hardship. Nigel cites his creative influences amongst others as the New York abstract expressionist movement of the 1950s and the visual works of August Stringberg and Joseph M W Turner.

Nigel Majakari was born in Wigan, a former coal mining and textile town in the Northwest of England. Leaving school at 16, he later went on to study theology in London and Philadelphia and holds an MBA from the University of Liverpool. Nigel is married to Christina and lives between the Swiss Alps and the south coast of Sweden.

Through his paintings and photographic art he explores the material and poetic dimensions of nature, and its potential to mirror the yearnings of what sometimes is called the soul. Through his work, he wrestles with persistent and fundamental human questions of longing, transcendence, freedom and responsibility towards each other and nature.

The mountains and the sea speak to us in a language other than words, but most of us have lost the ability to understand and listen. The realities of a warming planet are never far from my view, especially the melting glaciers. Science and technology may help us solve many challenges relating to the future of the planet, but it cannot save us from the essential problem, of ourselves.

In Nigel Majakari’s thought the climate crisis is like a relationship breakdown. Most human societies are disconnected from the voice and rhythm of nature. And in the worst case have become the abusive partner. He wants his artwork to cause reflection on the underlying reasons why our relationship is broken. But even more, Majakari wants his work to awaken the desire to listen and respond to nature’s voice calling out.

For his sea compositions, he immerses himself alone in the water for up two hours, often wild swimming a distance of 2-3km. The practice allows him to experience the flow and sensations of the cold water conditions, aligning his body and mind with the environment. By committing himself to the sea, especially during the winter months the experience purges all distractions. This process creates a heightened sense of interconnectedness. Out of the intensity flows freedom of expression drawn from experience.

Nigel Majakari‘s artistic development has been inspired by creative influences such as the New York abstract expressionist movement of the 1950s, and the visual works of August Stringberg and Joseph M W Turner. I am self-taught and experiment with a variety of abstract, impressionist, and realist methods using acrylic paint and photographic art.

more. www.nigelmajakari.com