Richard Wilson

Richard Wilson is one of Britain’s most renowned sculptors. He is internationally celebrated for his interventions in architectural space, which draw heavily from the worlds of engineering and construction. In April 2014, Richard Wilson unveiled Slipstream, a 78-meter sculpture commissioned by Heathrow Airport to welcome passengers to the UK’s new Terminal 2 airport. The work was a response to the artistic challenge of capturing movement. It is Europe’s longest sculpture and is set to become one of Britain’s most viewed public installations, estimated to be seen by 20 million passengers a year.

Another seminal installation, 20:50–a sea of reflective sump oil, which is permanently installed in the Saatchi Collection–was described as "one of the masterpieces of the modern age" by art critic Andrew Graham Dixon. Wilson’s commissioned contribution to Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture, 2008, Turning the Place Over, comprised a vast ovoid section of a façade that rotated three dimensionally on a spindle. His regional cultural Olympic exhibition at the De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill 2012, had a hydraulically teetering replica coach positioned at the edge of the building’s roof. 

Wilson has exhibited widely nationally and internationally for over thirty-five years with both major museum exhibitions and public installations. He represented Britain in the Sydney, Sao Paulo, and Venice Aperto Biennials and the Yokohama and Aichi Triennals; has been twice nominated for the Turner Prize, and was awarded the prestigious DAAD residency in Berlin. He was one of a select number of artists invited to create a major public work for The Millennium Dome, London, and the only British artist invited to participate in Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2000, Japan. Wilson was Visiting Research Professor, University of East London, 2004, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at the University of Middlesex, 2008. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Art in 2006 and is serving Honorary Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy Schools.

Courtesy of Plinth