Exhibition at Highgate Gallery: Fates and Furies
4 – 17 July 2025
Vivien Thomason is a consummate colourist. She drips, swirls, layers and streams colour sometimes balanced and harmonious, sometimes menacing and unexpected. Her abstract works are a clear statement about the power of colour to energise our senses and feed our thoughts and fantasies.
The traumas of the earth and the rage of long-forgotten victims are all recurring themes. Unashamedly gothic, Vivien often incorporates apocalyptic figures storming from the canvas like ‘Furies’ on a quest to avenge the injustices and misogyny of the world. Vivien also re-works Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings, reclaiming the exploited young women as empowered ‘witches’, no longer weak or submissive. Other compositions include ‘maps’ of the sea and land incorporating bird and animal motifs, ‘necklace’ paintings with large carved beads layered over mourning ‘figures’, lost in lament. Regardless of the dramatic themes, touches of humour are also in evidence. Her paintings are rendered and dripped in liquid acrylics.
After a lengthy career in fashion, Vivien picked up her paints and poured her passions onto canvas. Her career made her profoundly aware how colour can appeal and affect mood. It also clarified how women are treated and often exploited in the industry. After years of faster and faster fashion, Vivien seeks to make amends by creating work that references the state of our world today and the climate catastrophe.
Gallery times: Wednesdays to Fridays 13:00-17:00,
Saturdays & Sundays 10:00-16:00
Mondays & Tuesdays Closed
Private View: Friday 04 July 2025 18:00-20:30
Exhibition at Highgate Gallery: Fates and Furies
4 – 17 July 2025
Vivien Thomason is a consummate colourist. She drips, swirls, layers and streams colour sometimes balanced and harmonious, sometimes menacing and unexpected. Her abstract works are a clear statement about the power of colour to energise our senses and feed our thoughts and fantasies.
The traumas of the earth and the rage of long-forgotten victims are all recurring themes. Unashamedly gothic, Vivien often incorporates apocalyptic figures storming from the canvas like ‘Furies’ on a quest to avenge the injustices and misogyny of the world. Vivien also re-works Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings, reclaiming the exploited young women as empowered ‘witches’, no longer weak or submissive. Other compositions include ‘maps’ of the sea and land incorporating bird and animal motifs, ‘necklace’ paintings with large carved beads layered over mourning ‘figures’, lost in lament. Regardless of the dramatic themes, touches of humour are also in evidence. Her paintings are rendered and dripped in liquid acrylics.
After a lengthy career in fashion, Vivien picked up her paints and poured her passions onto canvas. Her career made her profoundly aware how colour can appeal and affect mood. It also clarified how women are treated and often exploited in the industry. After years of faster and faster fashion, Vivien seeks to make amends by creating work that references the state of our world today and the climate catastrophe.
Gallery times: Wednesdays to Fridays 13:00-17:00,
Saturdays & Sundays 10:00-16:00
Mondays & Tuesdays Closed
Private View: Friday 04 July 2025 18:00-20:30
Exhibition at Highgate Gallery: Fates and Furies
4 – 17 July 2025
Vivien Thomason is a consummate colourist. She drips, swirls, layers and streams colour sometimes balanced and harmonious, sometimes menacing and unexpected. Her abstract works are a clear statement about the power of colour to energise our senses and feed our thoughts and fantasies.
The traumas of the earth and the rage of long-forgotten victims are all recurring themes. Unashamedly gothic, Vivien often incorporates apocalyptic figures storming from the canvas like ‘Furies’ on a quest to avenge the injustices and misogyny of the world. Vivien also re-works Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings, reclaiming the exploited young women as empowered ‘witches’, no longer weak or submissive. Other compositions include ‘maps’ of the sea and land incorporating bird and animal motifs, ‘necklace’ paintings with large carved beads layered over mourning ‘figures’, lost in lament. Regardless of the dramatic themes, touches of humour are also in evidence. Her paintings are rendered and dripped in liquid acrylics.
After a lengthy career in fashion, Vivien picked up her paints and poured her passions onto canvas. Her career made her profoundly aware how colour can appeal and affect mood. It also clarified how women are treated and often exploited in the industry. After years of faster and faster fashion, Vivien seeks to make amends by creating work that references the state of our world today and the climate catastrophe.
Gallery times: Wednesdays to Fridays 13:00-17:00,
Saturdays & Sundays 10:00-16:00
Mondays & Tuesdays Closed
Private View: Friday 04 July 2025 18:00-20:30
Exhibition at Highgate Gallery: Fates and Furies
4 – 17 July 2025
Vivien Thomason is a consummate colourist. She drips, swirls, layers and streams colour sometimes balanced and harmonious, sometimes menacing and unexpected. Her abstract works are a clear statement about the power of colour to energise our senses and feed our thoughts and fantasies.
The traumas of the earth and the rage of long-forgotten victims are all recurring themes. Unashamedly gothic, Vivien often incorporates apocalyptic figures storming from the canvas like ‘Furies’ on a quest to avenge the injustices and misogyny of the world. Vivien also re-works Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings, reclaiming the exploited young women as empowered ‘witches’, no longer weak or submissive. Other compositions include ‘maps’ of the sea and land incorporating bird and animal motifs, ‘necklace’ paintings with large carved beads layered over mourning ‘figures’, lost in lament. Regardless of the dramatic themes, touches of humour are also in evidence. Her paintings are rendered and dripped in liquid acrylics.
After a lengthy career in fashion, Vivien picked up her paints and poured her passions onto canvas. Her career made her profoundly aware how colour can appeal and affect mood. It also clarified how women are treated and often exploited in the industry. After years of faster and faster fashion, Vivien seeks to make amends by creating work that references the state of our world today and the climate catastrophe.
Gallery times: Wednesdays to Fridays 13:00-17:00,
Saturdays & Sundays 10:00-16:00
Mondays & Tuesdays Closed
Private View: Friday 04 July 2025 18:00-20:30
Exhibition at Highgate Gallery: Fates and Furies
4 – 17 July 2025
Vivien Thomason is a consummate colourist. She drips, swirls, layers and streams colour sometimes balanced and harmonious, sometimes menacing and unexpected. Her abstract works are a clear statement about the power of colour to energise our senses and feed our thoughts and fantasies.
The traumas of the earth and the rage of long-forgotten victims are all recurring themes. Unashamedly gothic, Vivien often incorporates apocalyptic figures storming from the canvas like ‘Furies’ on a quest to avenge the injustices and misogyny of the world. Vivien also re-works Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings, reclaiming the exploited young women as empowered ‘witches’, no longer weak or submissive. Other compositions include ‘maps’ of the sea and land incorporating bird and animal motifs, ‘necklace’ paintings with large carved beads layered over mourning ‘figures’, lost in lament. Regardless of the dramatic themes, touches of humour are also in evidence. Her paintings are rendered and dripped in liquid acrylics.
After a lengthy career in fashion, Vivien picked up her paints and poured her passions onto canvas. Her career made her profoundly aware how colour can appeal and affect mood. It also clarified how women are treated and often exploited in the industry. After years of faster and faster fashion, Vivien seeks to make amends by creating work that references the state of our world today and the climate catastrophe.
Gallery times: Wednesdays to Fridays 13:00-17:00,
Saturdays & Sundays 10:00-16:00
Mondays & Tuesdays Closed
Private View: Friday 04 July 2025 18:00-20:30
Exhibition at Highgate Gallery: Fates and Furies
4 – 17 July 2025
Vivien Thomason is a consummate colourist. She drips, swirls, layers and streams colour sometimes balanced and harmonious, sometimes menacing and unexpected. Her abstract works are a clear statement about the power of colour to energise our senses and feed our thoughts and fantasies.
The traumas of the earth and the rage of long-forgotten victims are all recurring themes. Unashamedly gothic, Vivien often incorporates apocalyptic figures storming from the canvas like ‘Furies’ on a quest to avenge the injustices and misogyny of the world. Vivien also re-works Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings, reclaiming the exploited young women as empowered ‘witches’, no longer weak or submissive. Other compositions include ‘maps’ of the sea and land incorporating bird and animal motifs, ‘necklace’ paintings with large carved beads layered over mourning ‘figures’, lost in lament. Regardless of the dramatic themes, touches of humour are also in evidence. Her paintings are rendered and dripped in liquid acrylics.
After a lengthy career in fashion, Vivien picked up her paints and poured her passions onto canvas. Her career made her profoundly aware how colour can appeal and affect mood. It also clarified how women are treated and often exploited in the industry. After years of faster and faster fashion, Vivien seeks to make amends by creating work that references the state of our world today and the climate catastrophe.
Gallery times: Wednesdays to Fridays 13:00-17:00,
Saturdays & Sundays 10:00-16:00
Mondays & Tuesdays Closed
Private View: Friday 04 July 2025 18:00-20:30
Exhibition at Highgate Gallery: Fates and Furies
4 – 17 July 2025
Vivien Thomason is a consummate colourist. She drips, swirls, layers and streams colour sometimes balanced and harmonious, sometimes menacing and unexpected. Her abstract works are a clear statement about the power of colour to energise our senses and feed our thoughts and fantasies.
The traumas of the earth and the rage of long-forgotten victims are all recurring themes. Unashamedly gothic, Vivien often incorporates apocalyptic figures storming from the canvas like ‘Furies’ on a quest to avenge the injustices and misogyny of the world. Vivien also re-works Gauguin’s Tahitian paintings, reclaiming the exploited young women as empowered ‘witches’, no longer weak or submissive. Other compositions include ‘maps’ of the sea and land incorporating bird and animal motifs, ‘necklace’ paintings with large carved beads layered over mourning ‘figures’, lost in lament. Regardless of the dramatic themes, touches of humour are also in evidence. Her paintings are rendered and dripped in liquid acrylics.
After a lengthy career in fashion, Vivien picked up her paints and poured her passions onto canvas. Her career made her profoundly aware how colour can appeal and affect mood. It also clarified how women are treated and often exploited in the industry. After years of faster and faster fashion, Vivien seeks to make amends by creating work that references the state of our world today and the climate catastrophe.
Gallery times: Wednesdays to Fridays 13:00-17:00,
Saturdays & Sundays 10:00-16:00
Mondays & Tuesdays Closed
Private View: Friday 04 July 2025 18:00-20:30
A playful evening of vocal performance with boundary-pushing singers Eleanor Westbrook and Oskar McCarthy, celebrating the radical spirit of 20th and 21st-century vocal music.
The programme explores pioneering works by Cage, Xenakis, and Aperghis, alongside daring reinterpretations of older music and contemporary works from both established and emerging composers. Featuring Ben Smith on piano, plus a balloon and a toy glockenspiel.
Eleanor Westbrook is an expressive interdisciplinary performer working at the intersection of opera, physical theatre, clowning, and experimental music. She has appeared across the UK and Europe, from the Edinburgh Fringe to Southbank Centre, and collaborated with companies such as Belarus Free Theatre, Waste Paper Opera Company, and Kneehigh Theatre. Her original works have been featured at Soho Theatre’s Fool’s Moon and the De La Warr Pavilion. Known for her visceral energy and surrealist storytelling, Eleanor is committed to reimagining classical forms through a contemporary lens. She is artistic director of TUFT, producing large-scale performance events in Hastings Castle and Caves, and is currently developing a multidisciplinary production of Titus Andronicus.
Oskar McCarthy is a dynamic actor-singer performing new music and old music in new ways. He has premiered operas by Avner Dorman, Robert Reid Allan and Bertie Baigent, and commissioned new work including Laura Bowler’s Lines, Letters and Disinformation for baritone and tape, performed at Snape Maltings and Café OTO. He has recorded works by Meredith Monk and Ion Marmarinos, improvised operatic monologues with composer/violist Zeo Fawcett, and collaborated with Rufus Elliot on durational six-hour vocal installations. A VOICEBOX alumnus, he trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and recently worked with the Royal Opera House’s Opera Lab, part of the Jette Parker Programme. He is co-Artistic Director of Festival Voices, performing at venues including Kings Place, Bold Tendencies, and Southbank Centre.
Join Ellie and Oskar on a voyage into the squelching heart of Contemporary Vocal Sünd.
Georges Aperghis Recitations 9 & 11 (1977)
John Cage Aria (1958)
Jonathan Cole TSS-k-haa (2008)
Liz Dilnot Johnson Pig (2022)
Cheryl Frances-Hoad Le Vampire (2021)
G. F. Handel Ah mio cor (1735 / 2025)
Chris Kirkham (arr.) Bonny at Morn (trad. / 2022)
Geoffrey Poole Heynonnynonny Smallprint (2009)
Iannis Xenakis Pour Maurice (1982)
Annelies Van Parys 3 Haiku’s (2012)
Errollyn Wallen Deadalus (2004)
Judith Weir Ständchen (1997)