7 September–23 October 2011
ARTISTS’ LABORATORY 03
Weston Rooms, Main Galleries
Supported by the Friends of the Royal Academy
Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House
Piccadilly, London W1J OBD
The Royal Academy of Arts Artists’ Laboratory 03 will feature previously unseen drawings and sketches by Nigel Hall RA. Hall is best known for his pure geometric abstract sculptures and drawings, which show a preoccupation with space and volume. This exhibition will contain over one hundred works and will reveal a less familiar side of his work and practice. The display will showcase a selection of landscape sketches, inspired by his global travels including works drawn in Australia, Italy, Japan, Switzerland and the USA.
Gallery 1, the Large Weston Room, will feature his Swiss landscapes: inspired by Hall’s annual visits to the Engadine in Switzerland and made over a period of two decades. The mountains, local architecture and landscape provide a platform to explore the understanding of space and distance. Other works on display will include sculptural drawings, preparatory sculpture sketches, new gouache and charcoal drawings and a new sculpture.
Gallery 2, the Small Weston Room, will comprise of drawings and sketches inspired by nature. This will include various subject matters including a study of a single oak tree and its cycle of growth, an Italian manhole cover, storm damage and ice lakes. In addition broader sketch book material will be displayed featuring works made during Hall’s travels, including early American desert works from the beginning of his career, Australian desert drawings and sketches made in Japan.
Hall says: My work has always been about place. I am fascinated by the way geometry can be discerned in landscape, and my preferred landscapes are mountains or the desert.
Works in the exhibition will be for sale.
BIOGRAPHY
Nigel Hall RA was born in Bristol in 1943. He studied at the West of England College of Art, Bristol and at the Royal College of Art, London. A Harkness Fellowship took him to the United States from 1967 to 1969. Hall’s work has featured in many exhibitions around the world; recent exhibitions include Annely Juda Fine Art, London, City Arts Centre, Oklahoma, USA, Park Ryu Sook Gallery, Seoul and retrospective at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. His work is also held in public and private collections including Tate Gallery, London, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia and Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan. His first tubular aluminum sculpture was made in 1970. In subsequent years Hall has developed spatial sculptures in various materials including wood, bronze and Corten steel and has explored scale from the intimate to the grand. Nigel Hall was elected Sculptor RA in March 2003.
ARTISTS’ LABORATORY
The Artists’ Laboratory is a programme of exhibitions which commenced in 2010. The exhibition underpins the Royal Academy’s unique position in having artists at its core. They give Royal Academicians the opportunity to take risks and explore new ideas within their artistic practice and are a chance for the public to experience less familiar aspects of their work. Artists’ Laboratory 04 will take place in November 2011 and will feature the work of sculptor John Maine RA.
For further press information, please contact Simone Sagi on tel: 020 7300 5615, fax: 020 7300 8032, or email [email protected]
For public information, please print 020 7300 8000 or www.royalacademy.org.uk
Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J OBD