Introducing: Julika Pettigrew
Space, Structure, and Spontaneity:
Introducing Julika Pettigrew
Julika Pettigrew is a London-based abstract artist, originally from Germany (b. 1977). Her route into painting comes through an earlier career in interior architecture.
For Julika form, colour and light become the framework she then disrupts with intuitive mark-making. The first stages are expressive and instinctive, creating positive and negative shapes. She then “curates” the composition and adds accents with pastels or dry pigments.
Her practice is deals directly with materials, she is drawn to woven fabric, natural wood surfaces, and layered finishes. The texture isn’t decoration, it is part of both the method and final piece. The paintings operate through a quiet tension between control and instinct. There is a strong sense of order in how shapes are placed, the composition feels almost planned, yet the surfaces tell a different story.
Context and influences
' Mountains and Sea' Helen Frankenthaler, 1952
Julika Pettigrew’s work sits comfortably within a long history of abstract painting that values feeling and structure in equal measure. One useful reference point is Helen Frankenthaler, whose painting Mountains and Sea opened up abstraction by allowing colour to soak into the canvas rather than sit heavily on top. While Pettigrew’s surfaces are more built and tactile, works such as Early Morning Energy share a similar ambition. The painting creates atmosphere through space and restraint rather than overt gesture, allowing the surface to feel open and breathable rather than densely worked.
'Early Morning Energy' Julika Pettigrew, 2025
Another helpful comparison is Joan Mitchell, particularly in the way energy is distributed across the canvas. Mitchell’s paintings are often described as lyrical and rhythmic, with movement created through repeated marks rather than central imagery.
'City Landscape' Joan Mitchell, 1955
In Summer In The City, Pettigrew adopts a quieter version of this approach. The painting carries a sense of motion and interruption, but it is held within a controlled structure.
'Summer in the city' Julika Pettigrew, 2025
Lee Krasner offers a further point of connection, especially in the idea of painting as a process of editing and reorganisation. Krasner frequently reworked her canvases, cutting back and rebuilding until the composition felt resolved. Pettigrew works in a similar way. Her paintings often begin intuitively and are later refined through careful adjustment, which gives them a sense of confidence without losing their immediacy.
'Desert Moon' Lee Krasner, 1942
There is also a clear relationship to artists associated with Minimalism, particularly Agnes Martin. Martin’s work demonstrates how quiet compositions can carry emotional weight through repetition, spacing and restraint. 
'Mid Winter' Agnes Martin, 1954
Pettigrew’s more minimal works, such as One Step At A Time, operate on a similar principle. The impact comes not from dramatic gestures but from the careful balance of form, space and surface, giving the viewer emptiness within a calm composition. 
'One Step At A Time' Julika Pettigrew, 2025
Together, these references help place Pettigrew’s work within a wider art historical context without reducing it to imitation. Her paintings draw from established approaches to abstraction, but they remain rooted in a contemporary sensibility that values clarity, material presence and thoughtful composition.
Why Collectors Are Paying Attention
Julika Pettigrew’s paintings are underpinned by a coherent visual language, combining geometric structure with expressive surface work, which gives them both presence and longevity. The materials and finishes are considered and resolved, lending themselves naturally to contemporary interiors while retaining a strong sense of craft and intention.
Alongside this, Pettigrew’s growing exhibition history within established UK artist led platforms signals a practice that is gaining momentum without losing focus.
'See Saw' Julika Pettigrew, 2025
These paintings encourage you to notice how the eye moves across the surface. The interest lies in those shifts rather than in any single focal point This balance is central to her practice. The paintings feel considered without being rigid, yet expressive without becoming chaotic.