Why Breakout Artist Cato Should Be On Your Radar

There is one similarity that draws all of my favourite isms together. From Futurism and Cubism to Dadaism and Popism (if Pat Hackett can use the made-up word on the front cover of her sell-out Andy Warhol memoir: Popism: The Warhol Sixties, then so can we), with the foundation of each movement sharing one key principle which, after its introduction to artistic circles through the European Dadaists, altered the course of art for the remaining 20th century. Taken a guess yet? The clue lies in common everyday objects so grab yourself some scissors and a pritt stick and see what comes of it...yep, you guessed it: collage.

One young musician acquainted with the medium is South-London based artist and man-of-the-moment Cato, whose debut UK solo exhibition at Cooke Latham Gallery Seen! opens today. Viewing the process of making music as synonymous with the act of painting, Cato’s all-round artistic talents have culminated in a series of larger-than-life portraits, all of which skilfully combine acrylic paint with airbrush techniques to create collaged works that bite. 'Collage is something I learned from my older sister Jazz', Cato tells me ahead of the show's opening. 'It is one of the funnest ways to make an image as the pieces find their own way to tell a story. It’s always a surprise where they end up and the scene is open to be changed until it sparks your imagination and collapses into place'.

Staying faithful to the medium's political roots (you only have to look at the work of John Heartfield, Hannah Höch and John Stezaker to know that collage is no kiddies play), Cato's work interrogates the formulas of traditional portraiture while speaking of identity and black culture. Although hanging on to no specific genre, Cato anchoring his work in these themes is certainly no coincidence, an intentional act that's fed by the artist compulsively observing (and avidly collecting) found photographs of local Peckham characters - where his studio resides. In addition to such ephemera, one reference that sparks endless inspiration for Cato is the photography of Malik Sidibe, particularly the revered artist's infamous studio portraits. 'I love the joy he captured', Cato tells me. 'The personality in his subjects, you get to peek inside their world'. However, instead of just looking to the informal style of portraiture Sidibe championed, Cato's appreciation goes deeper than that. 'There’s a sense of aspiration and style that always catches my eye. I relate to the way these people were inspired by other cultures and made it their own.'

Although counter-realist in its subject matter, there is a restlessness to the images Cato creates that is at once playful yet serious, political yet joyous; a complete contradiction that separates the artist from other collagists working today by reflecting the reality and scale of human emotion. 'There's always more than one feeling circulating through me... it might be hope mixed with dread, or joy crossed with sorrow', Cato noted when addressing this fierce juxtaposition. However, it's also key to note that above wanting to showcase how humans are multifaceted beings, Cato places equal importance on wanting 'to get across some real ambiguity of emotion', essentially asking "Who's feeling what, and why?".

Confrontational in tone, such probing questions are made palpable from the get-go in this exhibition, conveyed via the artist's approach to framing his subjects as active participants - conscious of being viewed and of viewing each other. While some works depict characters engrossed in mutual observation, others play on this voyeuristic nature as individuals are featured casting self-conscious glances beyond the frame to stare directly at you, the other observer. This polarity undoubtedly sits at the beating heart of the show, making itself known before you're even sat face to face with such works. 'Taking its name from the Jamaican expression ‘Seen!’ – which references not only the act of seeing but means 'to be understood' – the exhibition hints to a camaraderie between the artist and the sitter', notes the press release. 'An attempted understanding of their sense of identity and circumstances'.

What separates collage from other artistic mediums is its easy access. Emerging as a reaction against the First World War, the reason collage became one of the most prolific techniques of early modernism lies in the fact that the medium doesn't actually rely on anything at all. As long as you have access to newspapers, magazines, maps, tickets, propaganda posters, photographs, or anything of the sort, you're free to go. It's also an art form that is as versatile as its contents, with Cato himself seeing few differences between the process of making music and the act of making art, a belief that situates Cato's artistic practice in the same context as his musical hero, the American DJ, music producer, multi-instrumentalist and rapper Madlib.

'Growing up in Brighton, me and my friends would hang out making music', Cato tells me. 'We would make a beat by piecing together samples in a unique way from different genres and collaging them into something inspiring to set the scene, then becoming the characters in the scene...this is the same way I make a painting, by sampling photography with cinema stills and paintings, then casting the characters to create a dialogue between them. There's a certain aesthetic that artists like Madlib and the Alchemist create that we were inspired by as musicians, and that is used in my paintings. It starts with a swing and a melody that asks for a reply.'

Other artistic sources embedded in Cato's work come from luminaries like Kerry James Marshall, Romare Bearden, and Basquiat as well as filmmakers Lotte Reiniger and Ralph Bakishi - their indelible mark made apparent through Cato's expert illusion of animation; a trope reflected in the artist's short films which see realism and proportion sacrificed for dynamism and surrealism. 'I want to show people how much fun it is to make things and inspire people to approach their art in a new way, like I have been inspired countless times', Cato voiced. Like collage never lacks in materials, Cato's references also come in abundance, weaving a rich tapestry of ideas from one artwork to another that comes together to not just tell the story of Cato's subjects but the artist behind them.