Julian Wild
Julian Wild’s works allude to minimalist sculptures disrupted by interventions and gestures within their form. He uses colour as a signifier and signal maker. Recent works are based on fictitious actions or events in which metal appears to bend or be crushed by a force. Intense colour and highly polished surfaces gives the work an unreal quality, allowing it to sit in the space between finish and failure.
Julian Wild has exhibited at venues including: Modern Art Oxford, Chatsworth House (Sotheby's), Sculpture in the City, Canary Wharf, V22, William Benington Gallery and The Ann Norton Sculpture Garden in Florida.
He has completed commissions for: The University of Oxford, Cate Blanchett, Modern Forms, Fidelity lnvestments, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Crest Nicholson, Schroders Investment Management, Jerwood Sculpture Park, The Lightbox Gallery and Canary Wharf Group. He is currently working on a new permanent commission for The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail.
He was awarded The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Arts club Trust Studio Bursary from 2009-2012. He was awarded an individual Arts Council Grant in 2011, in 2005 he was a finalist in the Jerwood Sculpture Prize and won the Millfield Sculpture Prize in the same year.
Julian Wild is a fellow of The Royal Society of Sculptors and was Vice-president of the organisation from 2015-2019. He is Sculpture Leader and a Senior Lecturer at The Art Academy London.
He lives and works in Sussex, UK.
I was thrilled to be asked to be a selector for this year's exhibition. The selection process is unique in that each selector can be decisive in the artists that they pick without having to form a consensus of opinion with the other judges. I hope that my selection reflects my idiosyncratic interests and the kind of art that I truly care about. Rejection is a difficult thing for an artist to deal with: there were many more artists that I wanted to pick for my selection. I hope that my selection and the exhibition as a whole showcases some of the extraordinary creative talent working in the UK right now.
