Alison Wilding RA

(b. 1948)

Alison Wilding is a British sculptor and printmaker known for abstract works that combine industrial and organic forms with an experimental use of materials. Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, she studied at the Nottingham College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. She emerged as an important figure in British sculpture during the 1980s and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1988. She was elected a Royal Academician in 2000. Wilding’s sculpture frequently juxtaposes contrasting materials including metal, wood, glass, resin, and found objects, creating works that explore balance, tension, transformation, and spatial ambiguity. Alongside sculpture she has produced drawings and prints that reflect similar concerns with structure, texture, and process. Wilding worked with Curwen Studio and later Curwen Chilford Prints, producing lithographs and editioned prints working with Contone, Continuous tone lithography which Stanley Jones specialised in, and co-invented, allowing photographic imagery to be transposed into lithography without a dot matrix. These collaborations reflect Curwen’s continued engagement with contemporary British sculptors exploring printmaking during the later twentieth century.