Camilla Low

Camilla Løw is known for her abstract and graphic sculptures. Her hard-edged geometric forms test relationships between shape, space, and balance; some pieces occupy an ambiguous position between sculpture and functional object.

Camilla Low's prints encompass a variety of subjects and styles, reflecting her interests and artistic development. As with many artists, understanding the context of her work and the techniques she employs can enrich one's appreciation. Some artists, such as Julia Margaret Cameron, explored different avenues for distributing their work. Cameron sold her photographs through dealers like P. & D. Colnaghi, a leading print seller in London. Colnaghi also mounted and possibly printed some of her photographs. Cameron sometimes offered discounts to friends who ordered directly from her, rather than through Colnaghi. She also used William Spooner, another print seller, to distribute her work. Cameron understood the value of signed portraits and often had notable sitters such as Alfred Tennyson and John Herschel sign her photographs. She also had signatures lithographed on the mounts of portraits. In 1875, she collaborated with the Autotype Company to create carbon prints of some of her most successful images. Carbon prints were valued for their permanence and quality.

Camilla Low uses traditional painting materials, such as natural and chemical pigments in oil paint. She prepares her own canvases, using gessoed MDF, primed canvas stuck to MDF, or primed cotton canvas. She applies three coats of acrylic gesso primer to each. For brushes, Low favours filberts and flats, ranging in size, made of hog hair. She avoids synthetic brushes, as she prefers the springy resistance of hog hair against the canvas. She also avoids newer brushes, as she prefers the broader, more expansive marks made by well-worn, blunt brushes. When creating tones, Low builds up successive coats of fluid colour applied in short strokes and light dabs. She uses a limited palette, and avoids muddy colours.

Camilla Low is a contemporary artist. Her work has been exhibited in group shows such as 'Northern Graduates' at the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal (2005); 'The Manchester Academy of Fine Arts Autumn Exhibition' (2005); and 'MA Stars', at the Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester (2006). She had a solo show at the University of Salford in 2006. Low also participated in the 'New Lights' exhibition at various northern galleries, including the Mercer Gallery, Harrogate; the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; and the Lancaster City Art Gallery (2012-2013^[1]). She has participated in the 'Great North Art Show', Ripon Cathedral (2013), and the 'Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition', Mall Galleries, London (2013).

It is difficult to provide a comprehensive list of places where Camilla Low's work can be viewed, as exhibition schedules change. However, museum collections and past exhibition catalogues offer some insight. The Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in New York and Teylers Museum in Haarlem jointly presented an exhibition titled "Piranesi as Designer" (2007-2008^[1]). It is worth checking their websites or contacting their curatorial departments to enquire about any holdings of Low's work, or any records of her participation in group shows. Additionally, major museums such as the Vatican Museum in Rome, the Palazzo Giustiniani (also in Rome), the National Museum in Florence, and S. Miniato, also in Florence, may hold relevant works. Checking their online collections catalogues, or contacting the museums directly, might reveal further opportunities to view Low's pieces.

Camilla Low's origins are not definitively detailed in the reference passages. However, the texts do offer some insight into the lives of British citizens living and working in colonial India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) during the 19th century. Many British families had long-standing connections to India through the East India Company and the Indian Civil Service. It was common for children born to British parents in India to be sent back to Britain for their education. Some families, like the Pattles, had multiple generations involved with India. Others, like General Robert Cornelis Napier, were born in Ceylon, where the British cultivated coffee plantations. These passages suggest a context for understanding the artist's background, even without specifying her exact birthplace.

Camilla Low's artistic lineage can be traced through various figures and movements in art history. Wilfrid Blunt, a collector and historian of botanical art, helped Low understand her place in this tradition. He showed her examples ranging from ancient Egyptian reliefs to 17th-century Dutch flower painting, illustrating a history of accuracy and beauty in botanical depiction. Blunt identified Low's work as a direct descendant of these refined painters, linking her Monash Banksia Project to the tradition of accurate and beautiful 18th-century flower books. He noted the influence of George Dionysius Ehret on later artists and considered the Bauer brothers and Redouté to represent the height of botanical illustration. Low herself analysed the work of Ellis Rowan, a popular flower painter. While acknowledging Rowan's skill, Low felt her compositions were often crowded and lacked clarity, a style Low attributed to Rowan's 19th-century training. Low's approach, in contrast, focused on isolating individual specimens to create unique patterns.

Camilla Løw is a Norwegian^[1] artist born in 1976^[1], who spent her formative years in Glasgow, and built her practice around geometric sculpture. She engaged with Scottish art culture and studied Sculptured Environmental Art at the Glasgow School of Art.

Camilla Low's art is important because it continues a radical tradition of abstraction and elevates media outside painting. Anni Albers, for example, took up weaving, despite wanting to be a painter. She used thread to create 'visual resting places', a term borrowed from Wilhelm Worringer. These pieces reflected aspects of nature and philosophical thought. Albers's wall hangings have become an accepted art form, where thread has its own voice, without needing to represent anything else. Albers also designed functional materials, such as a sound-absorbing and light-reflecting wall covering for an auditorium. Her approach combined machine and handweaving, and synthetic and natural materials. Albers taught at the Bauhaus, and her work and writing guided many artists. Late in life, she became a printmaker, blending screenprint with photo-offset, etching, and lithography. Her book *On Designing* articulates ideas about art succinctly.

Camilla Løw's sculptures are abstract and graphic in character, working with hard-edged geometric forms. Her work tests relationships between shape, space, and balance.

Camilla Low was born in 1976^[1].