RICHARD WILSON
Born in 1953, Richard Wilson is one of Britain’s most renowned sculptors. He is internationally celebrated for his interventions in architectural spaces which draw heavily for their inspiration from the worlds of engineering and construction.
Wilson has exhibited widely nationally and internationally for over 35 years, with major museum exhibitions and public works in countries such as Japan, China, USA, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Australia, Iraq, as well as throughout Europe. Wilson has also represented Britain in the Sydney, São Paulo, Venice Aperto Biennials and Yokohama and Aichi Triennals.
Wilson’s work is characterised by architectural concerns with volume, illusionary spaces and auditory perception. His seminal installation 20:50, is a room of specific proportions, part-filled with highly reflective used sump oil creating an illusion of the room turned upside down. It was on display at the Saatchi Gallery, London from 1991 until 2014. In 2016 it was acquired by the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania. This work was described as ‘one of the masterpieces of the modern age’ by art critic Andrew Graham Dixon in the BBC television series The History of British Art.
For Traps, 2012, a drum kit was purchased and ‘skinned’ – having all of the plywood shell and plastic heads that gives the instrument both its visual solidity and its ability to function, cut away – leaving only the edges of the forms as a line drawing in space.
In the exclusively work commissioned by Gazelli Art House, 'Blocka Flats', takes a piece of household furniture reconfigured into a form reminiscent of an urban landscape on a micro scale, the preparatory sketch for this work hang near their sculptural counterparts.