Nigel Hall was born in Bristol in 1943 and studied at the West of England College of Art, Bristol (1960-64) and the Royal College of Art, London (1964-67). Following graduation he won a Harkness Fellowship, and until 1969 lived and worked in Los Angeles, travelling in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Hall's first one-man exhibition was held at the…
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Nigel Hall was born in Bristol in 1943 and studied at the West of England College of Art, Bristol (1960-64) and the Royal College of Art, London (1964-67). Following graduation he won a Harkness Fellowship, and until 1969 lived and worked in Los Angeles, travelling in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
Hall's first one-man exhibition was held at the Galerie Givaudan, Paris, in 1967. In fact, 50 of his 72 solo shows held between 1967 and 1996 were in galleries abroad - in New York, Los Angeles, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Tokyo, Zurich, Düsseldorf, Cologne and Rome. This international exposure has led to his work being represented in about 100 public and corporate collections and numerous private collections abroad and in Britain.
In 1970 he produced his first tubular aluminium sculptures in which he explored ways of encapsulating space in a linear manner, thus manipulating our perceptions of it. A sense of place and placement have always been integral to his work, and shadows play a role equal to that of line, mass or void, as do changes of aspect from altered viewpoints. An almost minimal refinement and economy of means has recently given way to robust forms which still remain very carefully considered in their configuration. These refer obliquely to mountain landscape, which alters dramatically when the viewer moves within it.
Site-specific projects have also featured regularly during Nigel Hall's career. These include a wall sculpture for the entrance to the Australian National Gallery, Canberra (1992); a two-part wall relief in painted and gilded wood for the entrance of Providence Towers, Dallas (1989); and a free-standing steel sculpture for the entrance to Thameslink Road Tunnel, London Docklands (1993), his largest structure to date.
