Nigel Bengstrom

Nigel Bengstrom has been painting professionally for ten years and, although he has had no formal training, his natural talent has enabled him to show prolifically. He concentrates on the theme of commuting. By using old copies of the Financial Times as his canvas, he builds up layers of acrylic paint to create a sense of colour. He creates anarchic paintings, like the monstrous sum of a herd of disembodied body parts creating an explosive moving mass threatening and inhuman and probably very familiar to regular users of London Transport. Nigel’s work generally focuses on movement: a chaotic army of suited warriors, bursting in a mass of limbs towards the glimmer of a tube station. Recent topical works include the Bear Trader series of paintings. Here he responds to the current economic downturn in his own unique manner.

A Bear Market is characterized by falling prices and an expectation that they will continue to fall. When the market is bearish, it leads to a slow down of economy together with a rise in unemployment and inflation. Those who invest in a rising market and think that it will continue to be so are called bullish investors while those who trade in falling markets and think that it will continue to be so are known as bearish players.