Introducing Sculptor Juliette Bigely

It's truly inspiring when an artist achieves success having mastered their craft as a second career. When this triumph is reached after two previously successful careers, it becomes almost legendary. Such has been the career path to date of our latest addition to the Cavaliero Finn portfolio, sculptor Juliette Bigley.

Before embarking on her training as a metalsmith, Juliette already had a number of fine feathers in her cap. She had had a successful career as a trained classical singer, she'd got a Masters in English Literature and a Masters in Voluntary Sector Policy from the London School of Economics under her belt, followed by a career in healthcare management. Then, in 2010, a short evening course in Jewellery making at Central St Martins School of Art started a complete obsession with metal and form that changed her career path once again. She went on to study a BA and then an MA in metalsmithing at The Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design and has been working as a metal sculptor ever since, collecting countless awards and accolades as she goes along, including an acquisition by the V&A Museum of one of her pieces in 2017. You can not help but stand back in awe of this quietly determined and articulate woman who is soon to add an MA in Philosophy to her long list of academic qualifications.

Cavaliero Finn first became aware of Juliette's work at Homer Faber 2018 where, after winning the Crafts Council's Collect Open Award, she was invited to exhibit her work in Venice by the Michelangelo Foundation as part of the Best of Europe exhibition, just three years after completing her MA.

The piece that caught our attention was an installation of hand-crafted mixed metal objects called TABLE (shown above). Drawing on the traditions of still life and silversmith work, these objects were conceived by Juliette to represent an interpretation of a table at the end of a meal. Their matte finish, clean lines and minimalist forms had us hooked immediately and are characteristic of Juliette’s abstract sculptures.

Juliette uses base and precious metals to explore how we experience our emotional and physical place in the world and how we negotiate the interface between the physical world that surrounds us and the intangible worlds of emotion, belief, thought, language and memory. Focussing particularly on lines and thresholds, Juliette's work is sculptural and often comprises groups of objects. Each abstract sculpture, is a physical manifestation of her own abstract thinking.

"Our lives are lived through and brightened by the objects that surround us, by the cup out of which we have our first cup of tea in the morning, a particular knife to which we always return when chopping vegetables, a particular chair we like to sit in to read or a precious object inherited from a grandparent. These objects frame our interaction with the world and exploring their characters and how they shape our identities, is the basis of my work as a maker.

"I use the vessel – a form that will hold – as a canvas on which to explore how we experience our emotional and physical place in the world. Particularly, I look at how we negotiate the interface between the intangible world of thoughts, memories, opinions, feelings, dreams and ideas and the tangible world in which we live."

Like most of our artists' work, Juliette's sculptural objects straddle the gap between fine art and fine craft and we are delighted to be representing her. We have several pieces on the website currently available and we look forward to seeing her work develop as she creates new work for Cavaliero Finn's forthcoming shows.