Biography

‘I’m not obsessed with materials’, says Alison Wilding OBE RA (b. 1948 Blackburn, UK). ‘If I’ve used a huge variety of stuff over the years, it’s because there’s lots of it freely available in the world. I don’t believe in a hierarchy of materials. All materials, however mundane, can be transformed’.1 Wilding is one of the most important British sculptors of the post war period. Her (mostly) abstract sculptures, as the artist describes, cross both scale and materials, often in single works that push together unexpected and emotive relationships. From small tabletop or wall mounted works, to giant, room filling installations, made from alabaster, wood, steel, rubber, paper, copper and sand, Wilding’s recurring interests in balance, weight, line, material, and concealment are continually evident in a body of work that has constantly evolved since she first began exhibiting in the 1970s.

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Wilding studied at Nottingham College of Art in 1966, at Ravensbourne College of Art and Design from 1967 to 1970, and then the Royal College of Art from 1970 to 1973 (where she was the only woman in her year group). Rising to prominence in the 1980s as part of the so-called New British Sculpture, Wilding has since been twice nominated for the Turner Prize (1988 and 1992) and was made a Royal Academician in 1999. Karsten Schubert London began representation of Wilding in 1987. She has exhibited internationally with solo shows at MoMA, New York (1987), the Serpentine Gallery, London (1985) and a retrospective at Tate Liverpool (1991). Her work is also on permanent display in the Tate Britain, London.

Wilding has constantly experimented with the boundaries of sculpture, side-stepping any traditional value orders, using the found and the made, the expensive and cheap with equal importance. ‘I like stuff and not particular materials’, the artist once explained. Wilding’s works sit on the floor, lean precariously against walls, stand proud and, at times, seem to shift in proportion and definition as the viewer moves around the work. The involvement of the viewer, who must kneel, peer inside, duck under or step over the pieces to experience a reveal, has been a central focus of the artist’s production since her early exhibitions of multi-part installations.

Alongside Wilding’s practice of sculpture making is a consistent interest in producing drawings. For Wilding, these works on paper possess a freedom that is impossible to replicate in sculpture, a practice without gravity in which ‘the right way up’ is always open for interpretation. These works on paper and the artist’s famous notebooks, in which works are numbered, thoughts are discussed, and ideas are sketched out, provide a fascinating and at times unexpected insight into this artist famed for her sculptural configurations.

After graduating from the Royal College of Art in the 1970s, Wilding began her career in London. Her early exhibitions reflect the popularity of conceptual art at the time, but even these works show that Wilding was, above all else, a sculptor of materials and shadow. An early work, Without Casting Light on the Subject (1975), is a photograph of a table and desk lamps with a printed text below. The text describes the objects shown, as well as the impossibility of one of the lamps illuminating the objects from its position. Move forward to Wilding’s Echo (1995), a large floor piece composed of strips of steel slotted together, partially concealing a brass ball hidden within the structure’s interior like a pearl in an oyster. In both these works, the artist’s interest in what can been seen, and what something appears to be, are a central motivation. Echo, whose title comes from myth of Echo and Narcissus from Ovid’s epic poem of vanity and adoration, reveals another aspect which reoccurs throughout Wilding’s work: stories and people. Wilding may be an abstract sculptor, but her practice is very much related to human desires and bodily encounters. As Wilding has expressed, ‘sculpture can be sexy’.

Wilding’s work of the mid-80s onwards becomes increasingly confident and unique to her own, ever more masterful visual language. Her works can be at once hard and playful, experimental yet grounded in an understanding of the language of sculpture, from Bernini to Brancusi to Sera. Alison Wilding continues to push forward her art, working in her East London studio daily and researching, looking and thinking about sculpture constantly. The evolution and ambition of the work continues to expand and evolve, as she propels her practice with an ever-broadening set of possibilities.

[1] A conversation between Alison Wilding and Sarah Whitfield, ‘Beauty/Speed/Devastation’, in Acanthus, Asymmetrically (London: Offer Waterman, 2017), n.p.

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Works

Cuckoo, 2015

Galvanised steel, cast fiberglass balloons, sand
Four objects: 20 x 35 x 32 cm (7 7/8 x 13 3/4 x 12 5/8 in), 24 x 33 x 38 cm (9 1/2 x 13 x 15 in), 24 x 44 x 38 cm (9 1/2 x 17 3/8 x 15 in) (with two balloons), 20 x 38 x 36 cm (7 7/8 x 15 x 14 1/8 in)
Courtesy: © Alison Wilding

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Bedrocked, 2013

Alabaster, cast silicone rubber, acrylic, sand
68 x 57 x 54 cm, 26 3/4 x 22 1/2 x 21 1/4 in
Courtesy: © Alison Wilding

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Surge, 1995

Neoprene, perspex, cast resin
38 x 340 x 252 cm (15 x 133 7/8 x 99 1/4 in)
Courtesy: © Alison Wilding

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X, 2018

Patinated brass
27 x 24 x 3.5 cm (10 5/8 x 9 1/2 x 1 3/8 in)
Courtesy: © Alison Wilding

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Harbour, 1994

Cast silicone rubber, alabaster
130.5 x 152 x 158 cm (51 3/8 x 59 7/8 x 62 1/4 in)
Courtesy: © Alison Wilding

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Assembly, 1991

Powder coated steel, PVC
123 x 174 x 547 cm (48 3/8 x 68 1/2 x 215 3/8 in)
Courtesy: © Alison Wilding

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In a Dark Wood, 2012

Reclaimed laminated iroko, acrylic
210 x 370 x 217 cm (82 5/8 x 145 5/8 x 85 3/8 in)
Courtesy: © Alison Wilding

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Ruff, 2010

Brass, nylon, jasper, acrylic paint
8.5 x 20 x 19 cm (3 3/8 x 7 7/8 x 7 1/2 in)
Courtesy: © Alison Wilding

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  • Cuckoo, 2015
  • Bedrocked, 2013
  • Surge, 1995
  • X, 2018
  • Harbour, 1994
  • Assembly, 1991
  • In a Dark Wood, 2012
  • Ruff, 2010

Press

Alison Wilding’s Beautiful, Deadly Things

Ella Nixon, ArtReview

November 2024

Casting Light

Sammi Gale, Plinth

October 2024

Alison Wilding keeps up a careful balancing act

Lucy Waterson, Apollo

October 2024

6 Standout London Gallery Shows to See During Frieze Week

Jo Lawson-Tancred, artnet

October 2024

Frieze week highlights: a Japanese printmaking dynasty is feted in Dulwich

Arjun Sajip, Apollo

October 2024

Sculptor Alison Wilding: ‘Some of my works are very huggable. But I don’t want anyone else to touch them’

Chloë Ashby, The Guardian

September 2024

Alison Jacques now represents Alison Wilding

Mark Westall, FAD Magazine

March 2024

The Art Market: Alison Jacques has taken on representation of the sculptor Alison Wilding

Melanie Gerlis, Financial Times

March 2024

Interview: Sculptor and Summer Exhibition Curator Alison Wilding

The Wick

August 2023

Alison Wilding review – pure sculpture from an artist whose time has come

Jonathan Jones, The Guardian

October 2019

The Edges and Boundaries of Alison Wilding

Skye Sherwin, Frieze

August 2019

Fascinating puzzles that pose mysterious questions - Alison Wilding, Whitworth, Manchester, review

Mark Hudson, The Telegraph

April 2019

Alison Wilding and Florence Peake in conversation

Hatty Nestor, Studio International

March 2019

What Can’t Be Seen: An Interview With Alison Wilding

Grace Ayre, The Quietus

August 2018

Exhibitions

Alison Wilding: Testing the Objects of Affection

20 September26 October 2024

Books

Alison Wilding: On Paper

Sophie Kullman, Anna Lovatt, Penelope Curtis, Rosie Cooper

2024

Alison Wilding: Vanish & Detail

Dr Penelope Curtis, Anna Moszynska and Carmen Juliá

2022

Alison Wilding

Jo Applin, Briony Fer

2018

Alison Wilding: Territories

Renee Baert

1998

News

Alison Wilding: By the Mark - and the Line below the Loaf

Heong Gallery, Downing College, Cambridge

Alison Wilding: Sculptor’s Drawings

Whitworth Art Gallery

‘Alison Wilding: On Paper’ Book Launch

Alison Jacques, London

Alison Wilding

in The Guardian, interview by Chloë Ashby

Alison Wilding

in ‘Art in Stone’, Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera, Barcelona

By the Mark - and the Line below the Loaf: Alison Wilding in conversation with Rosie Cooper

Howard Theatre, Downing College, Cambridge

Alison Wilding & Ian Kiaer

in ‘Drawing Biennial 2024’, Drawing Room, London

Announcing representation of Alison Wilding

The artist’s inaugural exhibition will open in September 2024