Neil Wood
Neil Wood is a professional sculptor and fine artist with many years' experience lecturing in fine art and sculpture at institutions in the UK. He has worked in various settings; in education, as artist-in-residence and visiting lecturer, alongside his practice producing sculpture for exhibition and public commissions.
Employing a Modernist methodology to explore the human condition in the 21st century, Neil uses the figure as a vehicle to experiment with materials and visual language. He attempts to express ideas about the world we inhabit and the nature of human experience and relationships. Recent work explores social and political injustices inflicted on the underprivileged and displaced worldwide.
Recent Work
Refugee is a critique of the complicity of governments and regimes in the injustices, oppression and cruelty inflicted on the underprivileged and dispossessed. This body of work focuses on individual relationships, families, children etc, to humanise and depoliticise in favour of an emotional understanding. The course handling of the form, the textual qualities of the metals, and the patination are intended to suggest the harshness of the subject.
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Displaced is a body of sculptures, works on paper and relief panels which explore a general socio-political theme of inequality imposed by circumstance. It attempts to convey an emotional response to humanitarian challenges of the twenty-first century, albeit through a formal sculptural language that draws on a twentieth century aesthetic and sculptural tradition.
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The Intolerable Condition
In Art and Revolution: Ernst Neizvestny and the role of the artist in the USSR (1969), John Burger concludes that art has a role to play in challenging ‘the intolerable condition of inequality in the world’. These works represent a challenge to the condition of inequality, exploitation and oppression of the individual progressing conceptually from a condition of passivity to one of revolt.
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In his review of the exhibition ‘New Aspects of British Art, Venice Biennale (1952) Herbert Read referred to the work of Lyne Chadwick, Ken Armitage et al as a ‘geometry of fear’ - the collective anxiety brought about by the uncertainty of a cold war nuclear age, coupled with memories of two devastating World Wars. Fears and anxieties in a global context continue today unabated and multiplied.
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This notion of a ‘geometry of fear’ has enormous resonance in this work. The idea that an abstract concept like fear might have a tangible, measurable geometry holds great sculptural appeal. These figures explore a geometry of ideas; The Geometry of Resilience – The Geometry of Resistance – The Geometry of Rebellion – The Geometry of Revolution.
Public Commissions
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SELECTED BIOGRAPHY
b-1963
education
Rochdale College of Art, Foundation Certificate in Art & Design, 1984-85
Wimbledon School of Art, BA Hons Degree in Fine Art – Sculpture, 1985-88
Keele University, MA Visual Art in Contemporary Culture (Theory), 1995-97
Staffordshire University, PGCE Level 7 DTTLS, 2008-09
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exhibitions
Cannizaro Park, London, group exhibition, 1986- 88
Carters Gallery, Cheshire, solo exhibition, 1991
Ridware Art Centre, Staffordshire, solo open-air exhibition, 1991
Wedgwood Memorial College, Staffordshire, permanent collection, 1991
Custard Factory, Birmingham, group exhibition, 1994
Shelton Studio Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, solo exhibition, 1995
Hanover Gallery, Liverpool, solo exhibition, 1996
Big Peg Gallery, Birmingham, solo exhibition, 1996
Chancellors Gallery, Keele University, group exhibition, 1998
Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, group exhibition, 1998
Coombes Contemporary, London, group exhibition, 2000
No9 The Gallery, Birmingham, group exhibition, 2001&02
Friary Gallery, Lichfield, solo exhibition, 2001&02
Bruton Street Gallery, London, group exhibition, 2002
Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford, Accurate, group exhibition, 2003
Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford, group exhibition, 2008
The Art Lounge Gallery, Birmingham, group exhibition, 2008-09
Biscuit Factory Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne, group exhibition, 2008-09
Artwave West Summer Exhibition, Dorset, group exhibition, 2018
Francis Iles Gallery, Quarterly Collection Exhibition, Rochester, group exhibition 2018
The British Art Fair, The Saatchi Gallery, London, represented by Katherine House Gallery 2018
London Art Fair , Business Design Centre, London 2019
Bircham Gallery, Norfolk, group exhibition 2019
'Form & Promise II' Foss Fine Art, London, group exhibition 2019
London Art Fair , Business Design Centre, London 2020
'Essence' Little Buckland Gallery, Broadway, group exhibition 2020
'Form' Saul Hay Gallery, Manchester, group exhibition, 2020
'Nexus' Little Buckland Gallery, Broadway, group exhibition 2020
'Equinox' Little Buckland Gallery, Broadway, group exhibition 2021
'100 Things' Katherine House Gallery, Marlborough, group exhibition, 2021
'Littoral' Little Buckland Gallery, Broadway, group exhibition 2021
'Showcase at Spring', Cheltenham group exhibition 2022
'Legacy' Saul Hay Gallery, Manchester, group exhibition 2022
VERTO , solo exhibition, Spring Gallery Cheltenham 2022
Guest Artist, The Sculpture Gallery, Leeds, May 2024
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commissions
‘Mercury’ Goodyear UK Ltd, Wolverhampton, large public sculpture commission, 1998
‘Walking Together’ Diocese of Lichfield, St Nicholas’s Church, site specific commission, 2002
‘Violin’ Safeway’s supermarket, Greater Manchester, large scale public commission, 2003
Pritchard Holdings, Staffs Technology Park, two major public sculpture commissions, 2003-04
‘Heritage’ Cannock Council, Sculpture Commemorating Mining Industry, Unveiled by Arts Minister Estelle Morris, 2004
‘Falcon’ Pritchard Holdings, Cannock, 6 metre sculpture, 2005
‘Wedding Party’ Birmingham City Council, New Central Registry Office, 2005
‘The Glow Tree’ Oxford City Council, 6 metre community arts project & commission, 3006
Laser Process Ltd, 3 metre public sculpture, 2005/6
‘Together We Can Fly’ Pendeford College, Wolverhampton, Workshops & commission, 2007
Hilllstone Primary, Birmingham, workshop & sculpture commission, 2007
The Upper House, Barlaston, Staffs,sculpture commission 'First Dance' 2015
GE Grid Solutions UK, Three sculpture commission, 2016
Stafford Borough Council & Beacon Business Park, Public Sculpture Commission, 2017
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lecturing
Staffordshire University, p/t lecturer in bronze casting (summer schools), 1992.93.94
Staffordshire University, p/t lecturer in sculpture and drawing, 1994-95
Stafford College, p/t lecturer in figurative sculpture, 1994-98
Stafford College, Head of HND Fine Art & Sculpture, 1999-04
Frink School of Figurative Sculpture, Visiting Lecturer & workshop coordinator, 2005
Stafford College, Part Time lecturer, Art & Design, 2006
Edexcel, GCSE External Moderator in Art & Design, 2008-09
Stafford College, Course leader – FdA Contemporary Art Practice, 2009-14
Stafford College, HE Coordinator, 2010-14
projects & collaborations
Artists Newsletter, series of six articles on sculpture techniques, 1993-95
Oxford University Press, book cover illustration, 2001
Oxford City Council, Collaborative community arts project, workshops & mentoring, 2006
Pendeford College, Wolverhampton, Collaborative community arts project & workshops, 2007
Hilllstone Primary, Birmingham, workshop & sculpture commission, 2007
Shugborough Estate – Organiser of open-air sculpture trail, 2010 & 11
Open Art 07Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford, Selector & Judge, 2007
Making Moves Craft Commissions, Programme Selector and Educational Partner, 2012
STart. Coordinator of Heritage Art Trail, Stafford, 2013
Broken Mould Studios Founder/Director, 2013 – present
Broken Mould Studios – Armatures for Sculpture Workshops, 2014
Sculpture Village, Southwell, Notts, Sculpture Trail & Workshops, 2014
Open Art 14Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford, Selector & Judge, 2014
Artist in Residance, Dean Oakes School, Wimslow, 2015