Jim Unsworth

Jim Unsworth was born in Wigan, Lancashire, in 1958. He studied at Reading University (1976-80). The fine art course at Reading was mostly devoted to painting, although Unsworth began to make sculpture whilst he was there. His father had been a coffin-maker and it was a revelation to Unsworth, with his inherited sense of practicality and of craftsmanship, that you could actually make things and be an artist.

On leaving college Unsworth worked in a studio in Greenwich among artists who gained a reputation for making welded steel sculptures. He stayed there for fourteen years. The professional ...