Sculptor Alison Wilding was born in the north west of England in 1948. In the late 1960s and early 70s, she studied at three different art establishments: Nottingham College of Art, Ravensbourne College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art, finishing her final year in 1973. Wilding has worked in different mediums and was known as a multi-media artist at the start of her career, but is now most well-regarded for her multi-textured abstract sculptures. She uses a huge variety of materials to create her work, including silk, steel, bronze, was, wood, beeswax and oil.
One of her most famous pieces is her only public sculpture, which she created for the city of Sunderland in 1999. ‘Ambit’ is a series of steel tubes that floated on the River Wear and were lit up at night. It was also exhibited on the Manchester Ship Canal before being retired. Another well-known work is ‘Stormy Weather’, created in 1987. This uses pigment, beeswax and oil, worked into galvanised steel. Although she hasn’t yet won the UK’s most prestigious modern art award, she has been nominated for the Turner Prize twice, once in 1988 and again in 1992. In 2008 she won the Paul Hamlyn award.
