Julian Wild (b. 1973)

Sculptor, living and working in Lewes, East Sussex. He graduated from Kingston University, London, with a BA in Fine Art in 1995, subsequently working as an assistant to Damian Hurst before setting up on his own. He has taken part in numerous group exhibitions, including ‘Beyond Limits’, Chatsworth House, and ‘Make Do’, V22, Ashwin Street, London, 2008, and ‘Sculpture in the City’, City of London, 2014–15. He was awarded the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and Chelsea Arts Club Trust Studio Bursary, 2009–12, the work produced during this residency being shown at the Leighton House Museum in an exhibition entitled ‘Wrestling Pythons’, an allusion to Frederic Leighton’s most famous sculpture, Athlete Wrestling with a Python; one of Wild’s exhibits, Indeterminate System, 2010, japanned hardwood, was subsequently placed on permanent display in the town hall’s civic reception foyer. His 5-metre-high, 12m long, painted and polished stainless steel Origin, 2017, was commissioned by the University of Oxford to stand outside its Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery. The Canary Wharf Group has acquired two of his works for permanent display: Origin (Vertical), 2017, painted and polished stainless steel, Crossrail Place Roof Garden, and Scribbleform, 2020, painted steel, Montgomery Square, both Canary Wharf, London. He has been a senior lecturer at the Art Academy, London, since 2016, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors (Vice-President, 2015–19).

Sources: Julian Wild website; Art Academy website; Royal Society of Sculptors website.

Terry Cavanagh November 2022