HICA, a new art-space located approximately 12 miles south of Inverness, opened on the 24th August with ‘Concrete Now!’ an exhibition of work by David Bellingham, Richard Couzins, Alec Finlay, Peter Suchin and Chris Tosic.

The gallery occupies part of a house, attached to a working farm, which looks out over the impressive scenery around Loch Ruthven. The exceptional setting of this non-commercial space creates a very particular context for contemplating the work on show. The contrast between the dramatic landscape and the small ‘white-cube’ gallery highlights the relations between artist, viewer and the wider world, between human-scale activity and ‘the bigger picture’.

An artist-run project, HICA will be specifically concerned with exploring the history and current influence of Concrete Art, a movement that began with the production of geometric paintings and sculpture in the early 20th Century.

This inquiry, combined with the gallery’s location, enable the space to work as an experimental laboratory, providing means of understanding any artwork placed within it.

The works of the five artists in this exhibition explore the variety of ways that a concrete approach has developed from its origins. By the middle of the last century a great many artists, working within a wide variety of groups and movements had further expanded on Concrete Art’s understanding of form and content, meaning and representation, and found new ways to explore its ideas through a variety of art-forms, including Concrete Poetry and Concrete Music.

HICA, throughout its exhibition programme, will be considering the increased, but more dispersed influence the term ‘Concrete’ has had since this time, a period where it seems very widely applicable, but perhaps strangely under-used.
The Concrete Now! exhibition will be open on Sundays 2 - 5pm, or by appointment, and runs from 24th August till 28th September.

To contact HICA for further information please see:

e-mail: h-i-c-a@freeuk.com  
http://www.h-i-c-a.org