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HICA (the Highland Institute for Contemporary Art) is an artist-run space, located near Inverness in the North of Scotland.

The gallery occupies part of a farm building situated in hills close to Loch Ness and exhibits contemporary art of an international standard. Its relatively remote setting provides a very particular context for exhibitions. HICA, as an experimental art-space, also aims to re-examine the term Concrete Art.

Concrete Art initially developed in the early 20th Century as an understanding of non-representational artworks through their physical presence and properties rather than symbolic or other content. HICA wishes to consider the origins of Concrete Art and its later developments, to gain a clearer contemporary sense of it and reflect on the implications the term has for the understanding of any and all works of art: exploring meaning as the actual present materials and their relation to, their placing within, their context.

HICA considers the ‘context’ to also include the wider context, looking beyond the immediate gallery setting for other, more fundamental or extraneous input into the particular dialogue: the interactions between the art-activity and the wider world.

Exhibitions at HICA are presented as a programme of contemporary art and the works shown, in-themselves, may be more or less related to ideas of Concrete Art. In being shown at HICA though, they may also be viewed through the filter of the gallery’s Concrete concerns.

 

An annual publication documents each yearly series of shows, with accompanying essays. These essays reflect on the exhibitions and build on earlier discussion and inquiry into the nature of the Concrete. Please see the publication and individual exhibition pages on this site for further details.