New art gallery for Highgate with a 'poetic vision'

Taking over a former fruit and veg shop, the gallery will promote both emerging and established artists and offer residencies with studio space and exhibitions. There are also plans for literary events discussions, poetry and live performance.

But first the invite-only gallery opens on October 9 with a collaboration between the two founders; Crouch End artist Pato Bosich, and Highgate-based Russian writer Irina D.

Irina D and Pato Bosich at their gallery Number Three Highgate (Image: Supplied)

Bosich explained: "We have been friends for a long time and always had a dream to open our own place with our own vision and this opportunity came up. We have a very attuned taste and take on art, and wanted a gallery which is not rigid or prescriptive, where the visionary qualities of art could be developed."

Mythologies features Bosich's artworks alongside Irina's poems - drawn from her play based on the Greek myth of Oedipus.

His multimedia works are also inspired by the classics and combine antiquity and the modern world. He regularly draws the Greek sculptures at the British Museum and his large canvases - using a range of materials from stone slates, parchments, to wood and adhesive - interweave fragments of classical sculpture with ancient and modern ruins against barren landscapes.

Mythologies features Pato's artworks and Irina's poetry in a dialogue between the ancient and modern worlds (Image: Courtesy of Number Three Highgate)

"The exhibition came about through out friendship, and the paintings combine with the literary element in a wonderful way. Irina began to be interested in the myth and to write songs about it, and my paintings are inspired by the British Museum where I have been going one day a week for seven years to draw. Slowly elements of antiquity, Greek and Babylonian sculpture seeped into my work. Through this admiration and exposure I feel I have learned this language of antiquity. When she showed me the poems it clicked together."

Bosich believes that Greek myths remain relevant and help to shape contemporary thinking, while Irina's play Oedipus.Complex, is a reinterpretation of Sophocles' tragic story with a modern exploration of the human psyche.

Bosich, who hails from Chile and trained at Camberwell College of Art, says his cycle of paintings, The Apotheosis of the Hero, portrays Oedipus visiting the Delphic Oracle.

Edipous with daughters by Pato Bosich (Image: EugeneCodjoe UrbanSerenity)

"There is a focus on the hero who rebels against his fate and the fact of his existence. That moment of being both torn and elated speaks to a contemporary sensibility."

He says the makeover of Number Three looks "truly fantastic."

"It is always a challenge" he says of running a gallery, but with support from patrons he adds: "Hopefully it will be a commercial gallery and a nest for creativity. You learn to live with the anxiety. I left Chile when I was 19 with romantic dreams of the art of Europe and had this trial by fire when I had to support myself. I arrived in London where I lived in squats slowly making my way. It gives you an edge and makes you work hard."

The Return of the Hero by Pato Bosich (Image: Courtesy Number Three Highgate)

Mythologies runs at Number Three Highgate from October 9 by appointment only.

https://www.threehighgate.com/contact-1