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Der Greif Studio x Ashville Cardiff
Ashville is a real estate and investment company, committed to transforming buildings in the UK into thoughtful and sustainable workplaces. Der Greif Studio collaborated with Ashville, organising the curation and installation of Welsh and UK-based artists within their newly refurbished office building, Castlebridge, in Cardiff.
The Concept – “Living Landscape”
Der Greif Studio‘s curation for Castledbridge brings together seven Welsh and UK-based artists from our community to create moments of inspiration and pause throughout the public spaces and meeting rooms.
The artworks move between natural and built structures, reflecting Ashville's role as a shaper of the urban environment and Castlebridge's close relationship with Bute Park, Sophia Gardens and the River Taff. They create points of connection between architecture and landscape, encouraging a deeper sense of place.
As Castlebridge itself has been given new life after years of neglect and shifting ownership, the works turn attention to what is often overlooked: a passing cloud, the rhythm of scaffolding, a wash of light across a wall, each mirroring the building's own transformation.
The Artists:
Featuring emerging artists from Der Greif Studio’s community: Mohamed Hassan, Robert Law, Lauren Kaigg, Hugh Fox, Michael Tiedke, Zillah Bowes and Laurie Broughton. From Pembrokeshire-based Mohamed Hassan, whose project »Threads of Belonging« explores migration, identity and the search for place within a changing Welsh landscape, to Llandegfan-based Robert Law, whose series »Holyhead - Sea Change?« shines a light on a fiercely independent town in North Wales with a proud, close community and rich heritage.
The selection also extends beyond Wales, with works by Lauren Kaigg (Bristol), selected by Aperture Editor-in-Chief Michael Famighetti for his Der Greif 2024 Guest-Room; Hugh Fox (Brighton), whose series »Seeing the Familiar« finds quiet poetry in ordinary, overlooked moments of the built environment; and Michael Tiedke, now based in Germany, whose series »The Path of the Fossils« made during his time in Wales traces the delicate balance between people and nature along the trail connecting Cardiff, Lavernock and Penarth Pier.
Cardiff is further represented by Zillah Bowes, whose "Gwawr/Dawn" series was commissioned for the opening of the Welsh Parliament and recognised by the Arts Council of Wales Future Fellowship 2023–2025, and Laurie Broughton, a documentary photographer who immerses himself in Cardiff’s communities to look beyond the surface and reveal the textures of place and belonging.
Hugh Fox's (b. 1976 – based in Brighton, UK)) is a photographer working across portraiture, documentary and observational photography, drawn to the ambiguity between the staged and the found. He studied Fine Art at Brighton University, where a multidisciplinary mix of photography, film, sound and sculpture shaped the curious, playful approach that defines his practice today. His work has won Gold and Silver at the AOP Awards, the Sony World Photography Awards Professional Portfolio, and Portrait of Britain five years running. Through his work, he uncovers the quiet poetry hidden in everyday, overlooked moments of the built environment.
Mohamed Hassan (b. 1984, Egypt – based in Milford Haven, Wales) moved to Wales in 2007, studying photography at Carmarthen School of Art before completing a master's in Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales. His work draws on his own experience of migration and displacement, tracing the personal within the wider story of a shifting country. Through long-term, immersive projects, he explores identity and the search for place, finding connection in landscape, community and the spaces we call home. His work has been shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize and is held in the collections of the National Museum of Wales and the Government Art Collection.
Michael Tiedke (b. 1991 – based in Bochum, Germany) is a documentary photographer whose practice traces the delicate balance between people and nature. He studied photography in Germany before completing a BA in Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales, and is currently pursuing a master's in Photographic Studies at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences. Drawn to the fleeting and the imperfect, his work transforms everyday moments into visual narratives, inviting reflection on the subtle poetry of transience and change. He is the winner of Portrait of Britain Vol. 7 and was longlisted for the German Photo Book Prize.
Zillah Bowes (based in Cardiff, Wales) is a multi-disciplinary artist working across photography, film and writing. Her practice is rooted in a spiritual enquiry into climate change and biodiversity, exploring the relationship between the individual and the natural environment. She won the British Journal of Photography International Photography Award and her work is held in the collections of the National Museum of Wales and the Welsh Parliament. Awarded the Arts Council of Wales Future Wales Fellowship 2023–2025, her practice continues to find in landscape a space for stillness, reflection and meaning.
Lauren Kaigg (b. 1992 – based in Bristol, UK) is a visual artist working in photography and moving image, drawn to the overlooked and the strange within everyday experience. Inspired by philosophy and psychology, her work explores existential themes through the surreal found within the real, blurring the boundary between what is observed and what is imagined. Her work was selected by Aperture Editor-in-Chief Michael Famighetti for the Der Greif 2024 Guest-Room.
Robert Law (b. 1966 – based in Llandegfan, Wales) is a documentary photographer whose practice examines overlooked rural and urban environments and the people within them. Combining landscape and portrait, his work develops a distinctive visual style rooted in close observation and a deep respect for his subjects. His work has been featured in Creative Review and It's Nice That, and he seeks to honour the reality and truth of a place, shining a light on communities and the quiet tensions of places navigating change.
Laurie Broughton (b. 1990 – based in Cardiff, Wales) is a documentary photographer specialising in social issues and community-based projects. By immersing himself in the communities he photographs, he develops a deep understanding of his subjects, challenging preconceived notions of identity and cultural stereotypes. His long-term practice looks beyond surface assumptions, seeking to reveal the textures of place and belonging that are so easily overlooked.