Alison Wilding: Acanthus, asymmetrically

Acanthus Asymmetrically, at Offer Waterman London is an exhibition of sculpture and drawing by British artist Alison Wilding. The exhibition at the Mayfair gallery includes new and recent sculptures, alongside a selection of smaller editioned works and a new wall work that has been made in response to the building and it’s history in the Arts and Crafts movement.

Wilding’s work is held in numerous public collections worldwide and she is recognised as one of the most important sculptors of her generation. Her work has been shown at the Serpentine Gallery and MoMA, NY, and in three survey exhibitions at the Tate, including the Duveen Galleries in 2013 and a retrospective at Tate Liverpool in 1991. Richard Cork, in his book, New Spirit, New Sculpture, New Money; Art in the 1980s, neatly encapsulates the enduring appeal of this understated but mercurial artist; ‘a wealth of complex relationships can be uncovered in Wilding’s deceptively muted work by anyone patient enough to look’.

Whilst she is known for the broad range of materials she has used in her sculpture, apparently delighting in the tension between hard and soft, transparent and opaque etc. Wilding pragmatically refutes that materiality is a significant driver in her work, stating, ‘I’m not obsessed with materials and if I have used a huge variety over the years it’s because there’s lots of it freely available in the world. I don’t believe in a hierarchy of materials. All materials, however mundane, can be transformed’. 

Offer Waterman

17 St Georges Street

Mayfair

London

W1S 1FJ

Monday-Friday from 10am to 6pm