Michael Lyons

Michael Lyons was born in Bilston, Staffordshire, in 1943. He studied at Wolverhampton College of Art (1959-63), Hornsey College of Art, London (1963-64), and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1964-67).

Lyons has taught in art colleges throughout most of his career, most significantly in what is now Manchester Metropolitan University from 1974 to 1993, becoming Head of Sculpture there in 1989. He was a founder member of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and has acted as adviser on exhibitions there. In 1984 he had a short-term residency at Grizedale Forest and in 1987 took part in a Symposium of Steel Sculpture at Kleinewefers Steel Works, Krefeld, Germany. In that year he was also Artist in Residence at Lethbridge University, Alberta. He has exhibited regularly, mostly in Britain and occasionally in Europe, since 1966. Probably the first British artist to introduce steel sculpture into China, Michael Lyons was Artist in Residence at the National Academy of Art, Hangzhou, in Zheziang Province, for six weeks in 1993.

Meticulous preparation for the final sculpture, drawings, maquettes, and sometimes larger models are important in the realisation of Lyons's metal sculpture. Sources may be organic or architectural, and are worked towards a considerable degree of abstraction. Although Lyons has a well-equipped workshop and realises many of his large sculptures himself, some of the monumental pieces need to be constructed by engineers and fabricators working to his instructions. Small works may be made in bronze, larger pieces in steel, some painted.

In 1994 Lyons was elected Vice President of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. He lives and works in Yorkshire.