Bill Woodrow was born near Henley, Oxfordshire, in 1948. He studied at Winchester College of Art (1967-68), St Martin's School of Art (1968-71) and Chelsea School of Art (1971-72). Woodrow's first solo exhibition was held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, in 1972, since then he has exhibited worldwide, his most important individual shows being at the XXI São Paulo Biennial…
read the full biography
Bill Woodrow was born near Henley, Oxfordshire, in 1948. He studied at Winchester College of Art (1967-68), St Martin's School of Art (1968-71) and Chelsea School of Art (1971-72). Woodrow's first solo exhibition was held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, in 1972, since then he has exhibited worldwide, his most important individual shows being at the XXI São Paulo Biennial in 1991, 'Fool's Gold', an exhibition of bronze sculptures at the Tate Gallery, 1996, and 'Bee Keeper', an exhibition at the South London Gallery, 2001. Like many sculptors, drawing is important to Woodrow, and a major exhibition, 'About this Axis', Drawings 1990-1995, was shown at the Camden Arts Centre, London, in 1995, then at the Harris Museum, Preston. Woodrow was one of the finalists for the Turner Prize in 1986.
Woodrow's early work was made from materials found in dumps, used car lots and scrap yards, partially embedded in plaster and appearing as if they had been excavated. He went on to use large consumer goods, such as refrigerators and cars, cutting the sheet metal and allowing the original structure to remain identifiable, with the cut-out attached as if by an umbilical cord to the mother form. Collecting all manner of things, altering them and giving them a new context, allowed Bill Woodrow an element of narrative in his work. When in the 1990s he began to make work in bronze, the stories remained, for example in a seminal work, In Awe of the Pawnbroker 1994, in which the meaning of the pawnbroker's symbol is unravelled. This sculpture has a number of elements that add up to what is virtually an installation. One of few artists selected to make a sculpture for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, Woodrow chose to explore a recurring theme in his work, the destruction of our planet and the insistent strength of nature over man.
Bill Woodrow was a Trustee of the Tate Gallery from 1996 - 2001. He lives and works in London.
