In Heaven As It Is On Earth (October 13th - November 12th 23)

Emma Biggs studied Fine Art at Leeds University at the time of punk. She went on to work for Vivienne Westwood, while her partner worked for Malcolm McLaren. In the 80s she set up a craft-based workshop – Mosaic Workshop - and has worked in mosaic ever since, making mosaics for clients as various as Prime Ministers, boxers, pop stars, churches, and cathedrals. Her work can be seen all over the world – from private houses, to mosques, cafes, and restaurants. All that marble and glass dust has given her a lung condition, so unable to cut mosaic, she is using her skills to make protest banners and hangings about the variety of the natural world, made largely from plants she grows in her small garden. Part memorial, part protest, her banners have been shown in the British Textile Biennale, at The World Transformed, in galleries and are in private collections in the UK and Germany.  One is installed in the Office of Global Justice Now.  

For many years, she has collaborated with her partner, the artist and writer Matthew Collings, as ‘Biggs & Collings’, they are represented by Vigo Gallery. 

Matthew Collings studied painting at the Byam Shaw art school in the 1970s.  He is well known for popular TV programmes and books about art.  His series ‘This Is Modern Art' won a Bafta among many other awards.  His book ‘Blimey! The London Artworld from Bohemia to Britpop' was published by David Bowie. He has always been a painter.  His collaborative work in that medium with Emma Biggs, has been ongoing for over twenty years.  He has recently also developed a solo practice, which he calls “Alternative Art History.”  It began with a massive production of drawings, two thousand in three years, all sold on the internet. This year he transitioned to paintings as well as drawings, sold through Vigo Gallery. The critic Louisa Buck visited his exhibition at London’s Wellington Arch over the summer and wrote: 

“Alternative Art History gave me such joy!  Taking the loving piss but also an affectionate and deeply knowledgeable mash up of centuries, idioms and individuals, and using such a formidable range of techniques which make them funnier but also more meaningful and beyond a gag. The captions are also artworks in their own right!”

Emma and Matthew see their first show together but as separate entities as unified in its concern with present day weirdness and oncoming apocalypse. 

Emma approaches it via nature, Matthew via culture.