Richard Wilson
Richard Wilson was born in London in 1953 and studied at the London College of Printing (1970-71), Hornsey College of Art (1971-74) and Reading University (1974-76). He held his first solo show - '11 Pieces' at London's Coracle Press Gallery - in 1976, since when he has had 50 exhibitions devoted to his work around the world.
Wilson is a kind of architectural magician who can transform anything from a window to a room, building or boat into something extraordinary, unexpected and even surreal. One of his best known installations, 20:50, was shown at Matts Gallery, London, in 1987 and acquired by Charles Saatchi. It takes the form of a room filled to waist height with used sump oil. The viewer enters via a narrowing channel, becoming virtually surrounded by the dark reflecting mass that effectively turns the world upside down. (He is also a musician, who formed the Bow Gamelan Ensemble with Anne Bean and Paul Burwell in 1983, releasing records on the Pulp label and with Audio Arts before the group disbanded in 1990.)
He is represented in many public collections, including the Weltkunst Collection at IMMA, Dublin; the Government Art Collection; the British Museum; the Arts Council; the British Council; Ulster Museum, Belfast; Leeds Museums and Art Gallery; the Centre of Contemporary Art, Warsaw; and the Museet for Samstidskunst, Oslo. British Land Corporation, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and Colección Bergé, Madrid, are among his corporate collectors, while public works include a sculpture at the entrance to the Utility Tunnel, Tokyo - a Tachikawa Public Art Project (1994); Over Easy at the Arc, Stockton (1999); Slice of Reality, North Meadow Sculpture Project, Millennium Dome, London (2000); Set North for Japan (74?33'2'), Echigo Tsumari Project, Niigata Prefecture, Japan (2000); Off Kilter, Millennium Square, Leeds (2001); and Final Corner, World Cup Project, Fukuroi City, Japan (2002).
Richard Wilson has received many awards, most notably the DAAD residency in Berlin in 1992. He was Maeda Visiting Artist at the Architectural Association, London, in 1998 and nominated for the Turner Prize in both 1988 and 1989.
